Bears in Küstendorf ! Indeed, Emir Kusturica has recently created a bear shelter to heal the circus bears in Küstendorf.

In Küstendorf also : the crew of Alice au pays s'émerveille has just arrived to start the shooting. Thanks to the “smallest producers in the world”, they could manage to gather enough money to pay the shipments and the material. But they still don't have enough money for the whole budget. You can help them on alice-film.fr. Many new videos of the preparation and the reharsals can be watched on the dedicated Youtube channel.

After this shooting, Emir Kusturica will fly to Mexico. His agenda is busy : between concerts with the No Smoking Orchestra, and the spotting for “Pancho Villa”, he will also receive an honorary award for his career in Guadalajara. Indeed, for its 24th edition, the International Film Festival of Guadalajara (FICG), will give him the International Guadalajara Prize. This prize awards the work of cinema personalities who don't belong to latino-american country, but whose work has transcended the frontiers of their countries. More information on the festival : guadalajaracinemafest09.com

Here are the next concert dates announced by the No Smoking Orchestra :

Other concerts will take place also in Middle East. Dates will be added when available. After this tour, Nele has declared to Serbian magazine Alo that in autumn, the band will get back in studios for a new album recording. In parallel, the band also works on an opera project, based on Giuseppe Verdi's “Rigoletto” in the “Unza Unza” way.

Pancho Villa : it's launched ! French producers Fidélité have announced the launching of the work for the next film of Emir Kusturica on Mexicain revolutionary. The title of the film would be “The Seven friends of Pancho Villa and the woman with six fingers”. Gordan Mihić and Emir Kusturica are currently working on the script, based on a novel of James Carlos Blake. The book explores the life of Pancho Villa from the point of view of his lieutenant Rodolfo Fierro, between fiction and real events. It tells the big facts of the Mexican revolution, while taking some distance with his engagement sometimes cruel. Javier Bardem is still candidate number one for the lead role. The shooting should start by the end of 2009, or beginning of 2010, but Emir will soon fly to Mexico to make some previews.

As soon as this project was announced, Emir Kusturica has also held a press conference in Küstendorf with Serbian minister of Culture Nebojsa Bradic, to announce his intention to realize an adaptation as a “film-opéra” of the monument of Yugoslav literature : “A bridge on the Drina” (Na Drini cuprija), by Literature Nobel Prize Ivo Andrić. We remember that Emir wants to make the adaptation of this classic since a long time. For this project, he wants to use a mix technique with real shootings in Višegrad (Bosnia, a few kilometers from Küstendorf) and live show. But first things first, the libretto and the music have to be written by a whole team, including Emir Kusturica, Nele Karajlic and the No Smoking Orchestra. International coproduction, the projet wishes also the collaboration of Turkey, due to the cultural legacy of Ottoman Empire in the Balkans. Emir Kusturica hopes this project can be achieved in 2011 for the 50th jubilee Ivo Andrić's Nobel Prize attribution. About this project, the minister declares ”this novel encloses our present, past and, I am afraid, future. That is our Old Testament. I know that Ivo Andric opposed ideas of putting his works into other genres due to some bad experiences, but he was not quite exclusive. With good preparation we can overcome potential obstacles”

The No Smoking Orchestra is busy : there are rumours of a new album in a near future. A previously unreleased title was already played on stage recently in Belgrade : Arnold Schwarznegger…

Online : a new interview of Emir Kusturica, to Serbian magazine Story in January 2009, in which Emir makes confidences on his family.

The second Küstendorf Film and Music Festival ended with the victory for young Japanese director Kohki Hasei for his film “Godog”. All the details on the other winners, the speeches, the photos, the anecdotes and a video of the tremendous opening ceremony on this page. Indeed, if there has been no burial this year, there was a … resurrection ! Finally, after Jim Jarmusch this year, Emir Kusturica promised inviting Johnny Depp for next year…

See the first teaser of Alice au pays s'émerveille.

Maradona will be in competition during the FEST, the 37th film festival of Belgrade, from 20th February to 1st March.

Срећна нова година ! Happy new year 2009 and best wishes…

A dedicated page for the Küstendorf Film and Music Festival has been created on the site. The second edition of this festival will take place from 8 to 14 January, in Küstendorf. Ask for the program !

Marie-Eve Signeyrolle, who was the direction assistant of Emir Kusturica for the Opera "Time of the Gypsies" in Paris, and who made the captation of the opera on DVD, will soon shoot a short film in Küstendorf : ”Alice au pays s'émerveille”. Emir himself will play in the film.

The No Smoking Orchestra continues touring in 2009. Here are the next concerts scheduled :

Technical information : a problem on the RSS streams was fixed, and now it works properly. You can be easily notified of the kustu.com updates thanks to this link : http://www.kustu.com/w2/feed.php

The Statistics on 2008 have been updated. Thanks to all the 200.000 visitors, coming from 165 different countries !