When the Opera "Time of the Gypsies" is being played once again, starting today, in Paris, the No Smoking Orchestra prepares also the 2008 tour. Here are the next scheduled concerts :

Emir Kusturica is going to open a cinema multiplex in Kragujevac (centre of Serbia). For this matter, he recently met Veroljub Stevanović, city's mayor. He will buy an old weapon factory called 'Zastava', to build also a restaurant, a bookshop and concert hall.

The San Marinese Vladimir Gruska has recently announced to Italian press that he was going to produce an animation film on the history of his small republic. Emir Kusturica is said to have agreed for supervising the film direction. The other collaborators of this project would be Anders Thomas Jensen, oscarized Danish scenarist, Zoran Janjetov (Serbian cartoon author who has already collaborated with Alejandro Jodorowsky) and Rajko Milošević-Gera (drawer and animator at Warners Bross). It will be the first film produced by the republic of San-Marin.

Emir Kusturica has just spent a few time in Russia in order to prepare his (probable) new film : Mexico…

Three new trailers have been added on the site : the one of Promise me this, When father was away on business, and Time of the Gypsies.

Following the recent unilateral independence declaration of Kosovo, a new interview of Emir Kusturica was added to the site, in which we can read his ideas on this particular subject…

The DVD of the Opera "Time of the Gypsies", which is scheduled for release in France on 17 March will contain a one-hour making-of.

The release of the DVD of the Opera "Time of the Gypsies" is announced for 17 March. The DVD is already available for pre-order on amazon.fr. More news soon.

The long version of Underground is finally available on the website, with commented images ! Some 400 photograms have been extracted from this rare version, as well as the transcription of the dialogues.

The No Smoking Orchestra has finished the winter tour 2007-2008 at the top : indeed, it's Diego Maradona himself who joined the band on stage during their concert in Madrid… All the pictures are on the No Smoking Orchestra website. The concert will start again in June in Korea, Japan and Australia !

Let's mention the release in the USA of a new book (only in English) : My first movie : take 2, by Stephen Lowenstein. Ten directors are interviewed about their first film, their youth, the “magic” of the first film, the difficulties, and the influence on their other films… Beside the very interesting part with Emir Kusturica and Do you remember Dolly Bell ?, we have many other great cinema names, such as Takeshi Kitano, Sam Mendes or even Terry Gilliam.

The 36th Belgrade Film Festival will run from 22 February to 2 March. Promise me this will be screened in the “Horizons” sections, and all the crew will be there… More information on the festival : www.fest.org.yu (in Serbian and in English).

The authors of the crazy film Mister K have put the video on dailymotion. A bunch of mad guys cross the Balkans and arrive right in the middle of the shooting of Life is a miracle…

Finally, let me recommend you the excellent new album of Shantel : Disko Partizani ! An explosive mix of Balkan sounds and electro music !

Emir Kusturica - in battle-dress - came this Monday in Paris, at the Grand Rex cinema, to present a preview of his last film Promise me this. In a French more than honnorable, he recalled his intentions of making only a pure comedy… He also said that it would be “the evening of the Kusturicas”, with the concert of the band of his son. And if the film is indeed very funny - the public was conquered - it is also very acid on the Serbs of today, and draws up a despairing human report… even if the film ends in a happy end. The public of Monday evening was completely enchanted, since the film was followed by a 2 hours concert led by Stribor and about fifteen musicians who accompanied him - the poisonners - to play back for us fabulous pieces of the soundtrack, with even more decibels ! The public didn't take a long time before leaving the comfortable leather armchairs of the Grand Rex to come and dance in front of the stage.

Now that the film Promise me this is released today in France, you'll find two new interviews (in English) of Emir : one in French newspaper Le Figaro (published yesterday), and another one in French newspaper Le Monde (published last year, before the Opera "Time of the Gypsies").

Speaking of the opera, let's mention that, when the huge machines of the opéra Bastille are on their way to the Palais des Congrés, the crew realized with all these sets, these lights, these characters, and these sounds, they would need one more evening for the rehearsals : the 22 march show is thus cancelled in order to make a last complete rehearsal. There won't be any other cancellation. Already ordered tickets are, of course, refundable. After Paris, the opera will go, as already announced, for a tour. First two cities will be Athens in april, then Belgrade for 12 show, from 15 to 30 may, on the Sava Center's main stage.

Finally, let's mention that on the website thenosmokingorchestra.com there is a “Miss Julia 2007” contest. Let's recall that the Julia are chosen in the public by the band in a pure subjective way, just before playing them a serenade for the song Was Romeo really a Jerk…

The First Küstendorf film festival is now over. The winner is the film “In Between”, a 17-minute existential take on love, solitude and the fear of commitment by Spanish director Jose Iglesias, a student at Poland's national film school. He took the golden egg, first prize of the festival. The silver egg went to British documentary filmmaker Martin Hampton for “Possessed”, his fascinating study of hoarders – people who are unable to thrown things away. The bronze egg was won by Colombian director Franco Lolli, a graduate of French film school La Femis for “Like Everybody Else”, the story of a teenager's relationship with his mother as he struggles to hide his relative poverty from rich school friends. Emir Kusturica has declared he found too many courageous and experimental young directors lose their way once they embark upon the many compromises of commercial or professional filmmaking. Emir Kusturica promised more films from Africa, Asia and Latin America, next year.

The First film festival of Küstendorf opened on January the 14th. In order not to make things like the others, the opening took place in a cemetary. Emir and his guests (among who Serbian prime minister Vojislav Kostunica and Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov) have solemnly proceeded to the burial of the ”worst Hollywood movie ever done” : DIE HARD 4. Emir first apologized not have had the time to send his condoleances to the producer of this film, when Nele and Dejan were acting as priests… Then the music came in and the festival started. Emir then recalled the principles of the festival : it will allow young cinema students coming from all the countries (12 countries are represented) to show their short film, outside any kind of influence. The jury is headed by Austrian writer Peter Handke. Emir has also stated that there would be no commercials during the festival. Pictures of the opening are here.

The website kustu.com has a new page with the extra scenes of the long version of Time of the Gypsies. Almost 200 commented photograms allow to discover the 32 extra scenes of this very rare version…

Finally, let's note that the film Jagoda in the supermarket, produced by Emir and in which he has a small role, will be released in Germany on DVD on February the 22nd. This edition will have English subtitles and some bonuses (interview, making-of). The DVD is available on pre-order on amazon.de.

For the release in France of the film Promise me this, PALASS, FIDELITE and MARS DISTRIBUTION present THE KUSTURICA NIGHT AT THE GRAND REX, on 28th january in Paris.

Bookings for this special event can be done through the fnac website.

Meanwhile, the release of the soundtrack of Promise-me this is announced in France for 13 january. It will be available worldwide through Amazon.com. This album contains 16 tracks, among which original compositions, and serbian traditional songs. This festive music is present all along the film. Stribor Kusturica and the Poisoners is a 9 musicians band.