kustu.com en

13 July

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 15:36:20 +0200

13 July

Director	Radomir Saranović
Release	1982
Original language	Serbo-Croatian
Length	1h50
Music	Borislav Tamindzić
Scenario	Borislav Pekić & Radomir Saranović
Photography	Predrag Popović

Synopsis

After the defeat of the Royal Yugoslav Army in april 1941, the Italians, even though initially defeated, invade Montenegro and set a pupet regime. Proud people from Montenegro don't accept the new regime and on 13 July, led by the Communists, they rise against the Italians.

Casting

Petar Bozovic …. Stevan
Miki Manojlović …. Branko
Petar Banicević …. Maj. Petar Rajević
Rade Serbedzija …. Capt. Mitrović
Velimir 'Bata' Zivojinović …. Stevanov otac
Emir Kusturica …. Italian officer

7 days in Havana

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 10:43:43 +0200

7 days in Havana

Directors	Laurent Cantet, Benicio Del Toro, Julio Medem, Gaspar Noé, Elia Suleiman, Juan Carlos Tabío & Pablo Trapero
Photography	Daniel Aranyó

Synopsis

Seven short films, one for each day of the week, happening in Havana, Cuba.

Casting

Emir Kusturica

Official Mini site (Facebook)

facebook.com

Trailer

Anecdotes

Emir Kusturica plays in the short film of Pablo Trapero. Le tournage a eu lieu au printemps 2011, à La Havane, Cuba.

A Greek Summer

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 11:46:57 +0200

A Greek Summer

Original title	Un été grec
Working title	Nikostratos
Director	Olivier Horlait
Release	23 march 2011
Photography	Michel Amathieu
Script	Eric Boisset

Synopsis

The friendship in life and death of a young Greek fisherman and his pelican … Yannis lives in poverty with his father, a demanding and irascible man since the death of his wife. One day, in exchange for a golden cross, he saves from death a strange bird and brings it back to his room, hiding from his father. Yannis gives him a magical name: Nicostratos. A tender friendship develops between Yannis and the pelican. But Nicostratos grows quickly and becomes difficult to hide. What will be the reaction of his father upon learning the existence of the bird and the gift of the golden cross ?

Casting

Emir Kusturica …. Demosthene
Thibault Le Guellec …. Yannis
François-Xavier Demaison …. Aristote

DVD, VHS

Country	Format	audio languages	subtitles languages	Buy online	Description
France	DVD Z2 PAL	French 5.1		Amazon.fr	Release on 22/02/12

Anecdotes

The scenario is based on the novel by Eric Boisset "Nikostratos".
For the shooting, the director will need the special pelicans from the film “Le peuple migrateur”, a documentary on migrzting birds, by Jacques Perrin. In February, eight white pelicans from the Parc des oiseaux of Villars-les-Dombes (France) were transfered in Greece to prepare for the shooting of the film.

The shooting took place in Greece, in May and June 2010, in Sifnos and Milos (Cyclades Islands), Athens and Pireus.

According to greekreporter.com, Emir Kusturica fell in love with the island of Sifnos, during the shooting, in such extend that he bought a house there. When presenting the film in Greece, he even declared he wanted to live there permanently.

Gallery

Posters

Abdulah Sidran

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 19:40:45 +0200

Abdulah Sidran

Abdulah Sidran was born in 1945 in Bieniesevo, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He quickly became one of the greatest poets of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also of all ex-Yugoslavia. Some of his collections marked the literary life of his country (Chahbase, Ars poetica, Testament of marvellous) and were partially translated into various languages. He is universally known as scenario writer of films of Emir Kusturica (When father was away on business, Do you remember Dolly Bell ?, but also Kuduz of Ademir Kenović).

The works of Abdulah Sidran are close to Sarajevo, multiethnic and multicultural Bosnia, his bosnian and Slavic origins of muslim source.

Anecdotes

Abdulah Sidran was once an actor, in the film Kuduz by Ademir Kenović.

Scripts

1981 - Do you remember Dolly Bell ?
1985 - When father was away on business
1989 - Kuduz, by Ademir Kenović
1991 - Praznik u Sarajevu, by Benjamin Filipović
1997 - Savrseni krug (The perfect circle), by Ademir Kenović
2002 - (A)Torzija ( (A) Torsion), short by Stefan Arsenijević
2006 - Prvi put s ocem na izbore

Engagement

Abdulah Sidran is deeply engaged for the defense of the multiethnic modele of Bosnia. He took his distances several times with Emir Kusturica since their collaboration of the 80's.

About...

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 00:40:46 +0200

About...

For my father, a job is like a hat you put on your head : as long as you got one, you don't have to be ashamed when you walk the street. - Axel (Arizona Dream)

My name is Matthieu Dhennin, I am French, I created this site on Emir Kusturica in 1996. At the begining, this site just had one page, with film pictures I had arranged to show the recurent themes in the films. It is what today is the skeleton of the “symboles” line in the global map of the site. It has, since then, slightly evolved…

But first… why a website on Emir Kusturica ? Like I already told in an interview broadcast in 2004 on CinéCinéma : I discovered Emir Kusturica in 1993 simultaneously with two films : Arizona Dream and Time of the Gypsies. When the first one was released, the second one was broadcast on TV. It was for me double knock-out : I loved both whereas they were completely different. The fact they were from the same director intrigued me, and searching further, I discovered a third : When father was away on business, already crowned of a golden palm. With all these images in head, it was with a great excitement I was expecting his next film : Underground, and most of all, it was with a great frustration that I was seeing at Cannes, the French press and the parisian intellectuals making waves when I, not being a journalist, had to wait six months to see the film in a theatre…

Finally, the day I could see it, I went alone, being sure I was going to see a masterpiece. It was the case, the film was even superior to my hopes. I had the chance, at that time to have an internet access, but unfortunately, nothing, there was nothing, not a single page, not a single site on this great director. I convinced myself I “had to” fill this gap in the web, at the time internet was still considered as a tool for research, students or professionnals…

The site has slowly evolved, when I had time (and support from the visitors) … Little by little, I could thus meet people who were involved closely with Emir's work, then Emir Kusturica himself.

Today, if this site is still independant, it has nevertheless the officious agreement of Emir Kusturica…

Here are the key steps :

1996 : First page on Kusturica at mygale.org
1998 : Site moved to multimania.com, split in different pages
1999 : Site moved to private domain dhennin.com
2000 : New look of the site with white background and color bands. Site registered in search engines
2001 : Begining of regular news updates
2002 : Bought domain name kustu.com
2003 : New look of the site with the metro map and the black background, complete translation in english, new sections
2004 : Added flash objects, collaboration to the official site www.lifeisamiracle-themovie.com
2005 : Added a Forum in English language
2006 : Added video broadcasts. Release of my book in French Le lexique subjectif d'Emir Kusturica
2007 : Transfer of the whole site kustu.com to a dedicated hosting solution. Relooking of the website, based on a wiki engine. Added some music files to listen.

… and the adventure continue !

Emir Kusturica, actor

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 20:44:10 +0200

Emir Kusturica, actor

Except from his short appearances in Underground (the weapon dealer at the end of the film) and in Arizona Dream (a client of the bar where Axel and Paul discuss, who plays with peanuts), Emir Kusturica only started truly his acting career with his first great role : the one of Neel August in The widow of Saint-Pierre by Patrice Leconte.

Filmography

2007? - Hermano, by Giovanni Robbiano : Chomsky
2006 - There is no direction, by Sarah Bertrand : himself
2006 - Viaggio Segreto, by Roberto Ando : Harold
2005 - Mister K, by Augustin Legrand & Ronan Dénécé : himself
2004 - Pas assez de volume (notes sur l'OMC), by Vincent Glenn : himself
2003 - The good thief, by Neil Jordan : Vladimir
2003 - Strawberries at the supermarket (Jagoda u supermarketu), by Dušan Milić : the general
2001 - Super 8 Stories : himself
2000 - The widow of Saint-Pierre, by Patrice Leconte : Neel Auguste

1995 - Underground : weapon dealer
1993 - Arizona Dream : client of a bar in New-York

1989 - Time of the Gypsies : client of a bar in Milan ¹⁾
1982 - 13 july (13. jul), by Radomir Saranović, italian officer

1978 - The brides are coming : the delivery guy
1972 - Valter Brani Sarajevo, by Hajrudin Krvavać

Gallery

¹⁾ scene shot, but removed from the final cut

Ademir Kenović

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 10:47:20 +0200

Ademir Kenović

Ademir Kenović was born in 1950 in Sarajevo. He directed several film or telefilms, among which The perfect Circle which won prestigious prizes (such as the Special Jury Prize at the Paris Film festival, the Grand Prix and Best Director at the Tokyo Film festival, and the Prix François Chalais at the Cannes Film Festival).

Goran Bregović wrote the music for the film Kuduz. Two songs of this soundtrack were put together with the one of Time of the Gypsies.

Filmography

1989 - Kuduz
1991 - Ovo malo duse (a soul more)
1994 - MGM Sarajevo: Covjek, Bog, Monstrum (MGM Sarajevo : Man, God, Monster)
1997 - Savrseni krug (The perfect circle)
2004 - Secret Passage

Aleksandar Berček

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 22:48:07 +0200

Aleksandar Berček

Aleksandar Berček was born on 24 september 1950 in Vrdnik, in Serbia.

With more than hundred films, Aleksandar Berček is a true living legend of the yugoslav cinema. In august 2001, he received the “Pavle Vuisić” prize for his contribution to the yugoslav cinema fame.

Filmography (films of E. Kusturica)

2007 - Promise me this
2004 - Life is a miracle : Veljo (the postman)

Filmography (other directors)

1998 - Bure Baruta (Cabaret Balkan), by Goran Paskaljević
1989 - Sabirni centar, by Goran Marković
1982 - 13. jul, by Radomir Saranović

(selective filmography)

Alfred Hitchcock

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 22:18:21 +0200

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was born in London in 1899 and died in Los Angeles in 1980. Genius of the cinema, Alfred Hitchcock has invented a lot of cinematographic techniques, visual “tricks” that we find today in many films. Perfectionnist without competitor, he is certainly the director who has had the most influence in history of cinema.

Alfred Hitchcock in Emir Kusturica's films

To pay him an homage, Emir Kusturica used in Arizona Dream one of the most well-known scene of North by Northwest, where Cary Grant imposes his presence in the famous ”duel” with the plane. The parallel is complete since real takes from Hitchcock's film were inserted during Paul's performance, and later he experienced it again facing Elaine Stalker's plane.

Alice au pays s'émerveille

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 11:55:47 +0200

Alice au pays s'émerveille

Director	Marie-Eve Signeyrole
Release	2009 ?
Script	Marie-Eve Signeyrole

Synopsis

Sacha, a depressed cop on the verge of a nervous breakdown, holds his pregnant wife Souad, and his mistress/colleague Alice hostage in his car, for a road-trip to which no one knows the destination or the reason. After several days on the road, the car brakes down in a Serbian village in the middle of nowhere. Sacha looses control of the situation. This strange place and its guard (Emir Kusturica) oblige these three lost souls to sort out their differences and get back to where they belong. Only two of them will make it.

Casting

Caroline Frossard …. Alice
Sophie Le Tellier …. Souad
Christian Mulot …. Sacha
Emir Kusturica …. custom officer
Neboysa Lipanović …. Neisha
Kohki Hasei …. Cookie

teaser

Watch all the teasers on the official site http://www.alice-film.fr…

Anecdotes

Marie-Eve Signeyrole was directing assistant of Emir Kusturica for the Opera "Time of the Gypsies" at the opéra Bastille in Paris. She also supervised the captation of the opera on DVD.

Kohki Hasei was the winner of the 2nd Küstendorf Film and Music Festival.

The shooting took place in Küstendorf in april 2009.

official site

http://www.alice-film.fr

http://alicelefilm.over-blog.com

Gallery

en:all_the_invisible_children

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 13:45:03 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is Blue Gypsy.

Ana Marija ne m'aimait pas_FR

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 18:11:00 +0200

Andréï Tarkovski

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 22:37:49 +0200

Andréï Tarkovski

Andreï Arsenievitch Tarkovski was born on April 4, 1932 in Zarraje, small city on the Volga. His father, a poet and translator, leaves his wife when Andreï is three years old and his sister one and half. In spite of the great admiration he will always have for the paternal talent, Andreï will remain filled with the abnegation and tenderness of his mother. These childhood bits, this mysterious universe full of “women secrets”, we'll find them embellished, sublimated, in The mirror.

After the war, when all the family dies of hunger and cold, Andreï continues his studies, follows classes of music and painting. Back from geology training, he registers in 1956 the famous VGIK, the national school of cinema. At the end of these four years of studies, he makes his diploma film : The road roller and the violin.

In 1962, he shoots The childhood of Ivan, the history of a child died at 12, during the war. A child who looks like the future Stalker, since this victim, apparently without defense, appears stronger than those who surround him. The film wins the golden Lion in Venice and it is the beginning for Tarkovski, of his troubles with the authorities.

In 1966, Andreï Roublev is rather well acclaimed by the other directors, which astonishes Tarkovski. But the film is nevertheless not screened. Some even plan to destroy it but an hors-competition screening at the Cannes Film Festival in 1969 allows to save it. In 1971 he makes Solaris, in 1974 The mirror, but the polemic thunders. Tarkovski exiles then in Italy.

Tarkovski is quickly considered as a dangerous individualist and agitator. ”I am for an art which brings to men hope and faith.”

In 1984, he chooses to remain in western Europe, with his wife, but claiming the presence of his son, retained in Russia. ”I am tired of your persecution, your hate, your spite, the misery and, finally, the systematic absence of work to which you condemned me.”

In 1985, in Sweden, he prepares The Sacrifice. But he also realised to be sick. December 15, he is fixed : ”man throughout his life, knows that one day or the other, he will die. But he doesn't know when and this is why he always pushes back this moment in the future. It helps to live. Me, now, I know… and nothing can help me.”. Famous french doctor Professor Leon Schwarzenberg sends a letter to French president François Mitterrand, who sends one to Gorbatchev, who orders that the son of Tarkovski can join his father. It will be him that receives in May 1986 the Special Prize that the jury gives to The Sacrifice.

On december 29, 1986, Andreï Tarkovski dies in Paris.

Andréï Tarkovski in Emir Kusturica's films

The Mirror in particular, but all the films of Tarkovski in general are references for Emir Kusturica. We find the homages in several forms :

Emir Kusturica has used in many films the same water symbols, dropped on the head as a purification. One can also see the scene where Merdzan raises Perhan's house in Time of the Gypsies echoing the end of Solaris where Kris sees his (dead) father standing inside his house, under a surreal (inside) rain.
The daughter of the Stalker is handicaped. She can't walk, but she has telekinetic powers. This exceptional faculty to make moving remote objects compensates a certain physical handicap just like… Perhan in Time of the Gypsies.
The climax sequences in The Sacrifice and The Mirror are marked by a kind of levitation, a force, that of love and sacrifice, which carries the bodies in the air waves. Emir Kusturica will often have levitation sequences in the moments of grace.
Elaine Stalker (Fayne Dunaway) in Arizona Dream has the name of an Andréï Tarkovski's film.
The verticality a very particular way of shooting that has developped Andréï Tarkovski. We can consider that the sequence which shows Perhan down the lime kiln, and simultaneously at top of the oven after a vertical camera movement, then again at the bottom, is an homage.
In Andreï Roublev also, we see a strange pagan celebration on a river, which makes us think of the Saint-George celebration in Time of the Gypsies…

website

A very complete and regularly updated website on the russian master : www.nostalghia.com

Selective filmography

DVD Solaris : Amazon.com, Amazon.fr
DVD Stalker : Amazon.fr
DVD The mirror : Amazon.com, Amazon.fr
DVD Andrei Rublev : Amazon.com, Amazon.fr

en:andric

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 19:10:48 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is Ivo Andrić.

Anecdotes

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 20:15:45 +0200

Anecdotes

les Guignols de l'info

During the Cannes Film Festival in 2005, Emir Kusturica was president of the jury. French channel Canal+ honoured Emir Kusturica by creating a pupet for its satyric show Les guignols de l'info.

The Gypsies

Received from Giovanni Robbiano who was student of Emir at Columbia University : ”Emir is a very good football player. He can make several things, he played in the junior team of Sarajevo and had a real possibility of making a career in Football. In the United States, we set up a team, that we call The Gypsies, because it was made up players of all Europe, with an Iranian goal-keeper. We played against the American teams : they were very fair-play, whereas Emir really played savage. He kicked everyone, so that one guy came to see him at the end of a match to shout him that he did not fair play. Emir looked at him and said : 'You is nervous !'. It then became a very popular expression in Columbia, and all his pupils said 'You is nervous !' to everyone…”

Ciby 2000

Where does the name of the production company of Underground and Black Cat, White Cat (Ciby 2000) come from ? Just read it phonetically in French : ”C. B. de Mille”, mythical director deceased in 1959.

Seven days in the life of a bird

In 1996, Emir Kusturica films a small fiction report. He tells there the true story of a Serb who can reach his house only by passing through the field of his neighbours. Unable to talk together, he happens to have no more access to return or to leave his place, so he soon starts to dream to be a bird… The film is entitled Seven days in the life of a bird and was broadcast in Envoyé Spécial, on French television France 2.

Disputes, bagarres & duels

In 1995, during the International Film Festival of Belgrade, one reports that Kusturica struck Nebojsa Pajkić, the leader of the Serb left movement. Symbolically, Mrs. Pajkić tried to protect her husband by striking Kusturica with a small bag, which was in fact a present of Radovan Karadžić, the leader of thet Serbs of Bosnia.

In 1993, Emir causes Volislav Šešelj, leader of the ultranationalist Serb movement in duel. He suggests that it should be done in the center of Belgrade at midday, with the weapon that Mr. Šešelj will choose. Volislav Šešelj refuses the offer saying that ”he did not want to be accused of the death of an artist”.

In 2005, though the columns of French cinema magazine Brazil, Emir Kusturica and Vincent Gallo had some violent sentences for each others :
Vincent Gallo : Kusturica, is a bloody idiot and an egocentric. (…) What an idiot ! He's the worst director I've ever seen, and I really don't like his work.
Emir Kusturica : This guy is crazy to be so aggressive toward someone he hasn't seen for such a long time. I think that if he knew how to make better films, he would be less nervous.

When two winners meet...

The scene takes place on May 11, 1997 at the airport of Nice, in the waiting room. Emir Kusturica meets by chance Francis Ford Coppola. Both have had two Golden Palms in Cannes. Coppola for Apocalypse Now and Secret Conversation, Kusturica for When father was away on business and Underground. Kusturica is a great admirer of Coppola and seems very shy to meet him. Their conversation was filmed by the cameras of CANAL+:

Where fo you come from ?
Yugoslavia.
Belgrade ?
I come from Belgrade, but I was born in Sarajevo.
I was in Yugoslavia a long time ago. I remember it now, it was in 1962. I went by car from Belgrade to Dubrovnik, of course, it was before this horrible war. It was a superb trip. People were really nice, at the time.
I'm sorry in the United States you could not see my film. I came to Cannes in 1995 with a film on the war and I won the Golden Palm. This film is called Underground. I would be happy to send you a copy. It's a movie about what happened there at that time.

Emir Kusturica moves away, somehow nauseated, without anything more to say…

Four personalities comment on this scene :

Jean-Pierre Jeunet :
- For me, it's the meeting of two geniuses, I have an immense respect for these two directors. They meet for the first time, I believe. The one is standing up, the other sits in an armchair. The one who sits does not stand up, the one who stands up is like a kid. After a short discussion, they realiez they have nothing to say. In this kind of situation, it's very frequent. And then, very quickly, we understand that the one who stands up admires the one who sits, but the one who sits does not know who is the one who stands up. At the end of this discussion, the one who stands up manages to say he also won a Golden Palm, and proposes to send the tape to Coppola. The Americain realizes finally he has in front of him a prize winner of the Golden Palm. We feel Kusturica is nauseated and he moves away. There are in this exchange all the symbols from what occurs between America and Europe. We, European, know and respect the Americans, but they ignore us. They do not know us. Coppola who is unaware of Kusturica : that, is enormous.

Claude Lelouch :
- What suprises me the most in this document, is that Coppola does not stand up. He does not even try to stand up. Remaining sitted translates his ignorance, it is not rudeness, it is just ignorance. I think that, if Orson Welles had met Kusturica, he would have stood up. I was in Cannes this day, I shaked hand with Coppola, Scorsese, Kusturica, etc. We all have the same kind of relationships, we never feel like speaking about cinema, it is more superficial than professional, like this meeting between Kusturica and Coppola. They know there is a camera. And yet I am surprised they went so far with a camera. Until the end of this document, I said to myself : Coppola will stand up and say goodbye to Kusturica, and until the end he just remains sitted.

Francis Veber :
- What strikes me the most in these images, is that Europe is upright and America sits. There is in this exchange a rather astonishing mixture of sling and respect. There are also behind this dialogue much untold. In front of the Yugoslav director, the American autarcy. Kusturica must make an effort towards Coppola, to tell him he won the Golden Palm and to propose him to send the cassette. This exchange, is like America and Europe face to face. If you live in America, you fatally have the eyes and the ears less open than if you live a small country like France or Yugoslavia where you have so many influences. In Europe, you are a witness of your time, whereas the Americans are witness of themselves. To excuse Coppola, the American director has at least the merit to know Dubrovnic and Belgrade. If there was an authentic American in front of Kusturica, he would have confused Dubrovnic with a mustard brand.

Jean-Marc Barr :
- I have discovered Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav cinema fifteen years ago thanks to my wife who comes from this country. When I met her, it was nevertheless necessary to go looking at where was Yugoslavia on the map ! When I arrived to Europe, when I played in Avignon in the Palais des Papes, some journalists asked me what was is like having the shadow of Jean Vilar, I did not know Jean Vilar. Afterwards, one told me who he was and I started to be afraid ! Our ignorance should be accepted ! And perhaps even that of Coppola who hasn't seen Underground. In America, we live on another planet, our ignorance does not come from us, but from our system. The film distribution is controlled by a market, with its rules. In this system, European films do not have million dollars for publicity. We do not have access to European works like those of Kusturica. And yet, when I show these films to my family, they are fulfilled with wonder. They adored Breaking the Waves. Coppola and Kusturica are two different cinemas and two different times. Apocalypse Now was an enormous event in my life. At the time of his release, I didn't know that I was going to be an actor. I was American football player. This film opened my eyes on the Vietnam war and woke up my social conscience. Underground made me the same effect, but then I was an expert and I discovered a masterpiece. When I discovered Coppola, I discovered the cinema. A few years later, I met the director in Los Angeles, he strongly dissuaded me to remain in the United States and encouraged me to discover Europe, a Europe that he knows. But, despite everything… and this document proves it…, his knowledge of the American medium didn't force film to approach a Europe where are still made luminous films like those of Kusturica.

Animals

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 21:29:54 +0200

Animals

They often hold a significant role, in their relationship with the characters. They can also symbolize an idea, a topic, a moral lesson for mankind.

	Time of the Gypsies The turkey of Perhan is the witness of a rough scene of negotiation between the grandmother of Pehran and the mother of her girlfriend. Jealous, Perhan's uncle will kill his turkey… Animals of the film : a turkey, geese, a cat.
	Arizona Dream It is the flying fish which generates the catastrophes. This fish (The Arrowtooth Flounder) comes from Alaska and has an eye which passes on other side of the face when it becomes adult. Axel, in his dream of North Pole, dreams that he fishes this fish. In New York, his work was to count fish, or rather… ”Most people think I count fish, but I don't. I listen to their dreams.“ Animals of the film : The Arrowtooth Flounder, huskies, turtles, a dog, a small black pig.
	Underground Soni, Ivan's monkey accompanies the characters from the beginning to the end of the film. From the bombardment of the zoo where he escapes death, and to the suicide of Blacky, he is the only character to remain alive… The fish Jovan is cooking after having left the underground is a clear reference to Arizona Dream. Animals of the film : a parrot, Soni the monkey, a tiger, an elephant, a fish (dead-alive), a pig, a cat (being used to make Blacky's shoes shining), cows (outgoing of water), a stag (taken for a horse), a horse (white), a turkey, a flying goose.
	Black Cat, White Cat A pig counts time by devouring an abandonned Traban car. Animals of the film : two cats, dogs, ducks, turkeys, geese.
	Life is a miracle The real hero of the film is a depressive donkey. Like Soni in Underground, he can show more feelings and generosity than human beings in some scenes. The cat is particularly funny. Having a strong apetite, he eats whatever comes under his mouth. In order to catch a pigeon on the roof of the house, he is even able to make hypnosis ! This hypnosis scene is maybe an homage to the French medieval poet Montaigne ? We can guess so, since in Essays - book I - chapter XX : “Of the force of the imagination (De la force de l'imagination)”, we can read : We recently saw at my home a cat waiting for a bird at the top of a tree, having put his sight strongly one against the other, after a few time, the bird let himself fall in the cat's arms, as if he was dead, or drunk by its own imagination, or driven by some attractive force of the cat. (On vit dernierement chez moy un chat guestant un oyseau au hault d'un arbre, et s'estans fichez la veuë ferme l'un contre l'autre, quelque espace de temps, l'oyseau s'estre laissé choir comme mort entre les pates du chat, ou enyvré par sa propre imagination, ou attiré par quelque force attractive du chat.) (Montaigne, 1595) - note : translation is very difficult since the text is originally written in old French language and has subtelties impossible to translate in today's languages. The animals of the film : a cat, a dog (arrived very young casually on the set, he was adopted by the crew and became a character in its own !), bears, chicks (ah… life is a miracle !), a mouse, a horse, geese, an eagle.

Anthologie de la nouvelle Serbe_FR

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 18:11:01 +0200

News [Archives - 2001]

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 16:45:09 +0200

News [Archives - 2001]

December 2001

New contract for 3 films !

Emir has signed a new contract with Studio Canal for three films : Hungry Heart will be the first…

June 2001

Baba, one-day star of ”Time of the Gypsies”, is today refugee in France.

AFP news of 18 june 2001, 7h59
LYON, 18 june (AFP) - 12 years ago, Aïcha walked the red carpet of the Palais des festivals in Cannes: she was Baba, the grand mother of Emir Kusturica's film, “Time of the Gypsies”. Today, Aïcha, temporarily living in the Rhône, has made a asilum request after fleeing away from Montenegro where she says being harassed by the maffia.
This Rrom, of 59 years old, show old photos where we see her at an official dinner with the Bosnian director (Golden Palm in 1985 and 1995) and Gilles Jacob, director of the Cannes Film Festival. She was told he was the president, and thus she's sure it was Jacques Chirac.
Without any regret, Aïcha, puts her hand on her heart, to express her greeting toward the “nice” persons she met in Cannes, like this unknown american who gave her his ring.
This mother of nine children sits on a bed, patiently. The face old and burnt by the sun of the Balkans, she wears a scarf on her head, braids, earrings, a teenager tee-shirt and a purple satine skirt.
Slowly, she lights a cigarette, and says with her rocky voice she simply want “water, bread, and a house to be quiet in France”.
10 days ago, this Montenegrin left ex-Yugoslavia, persecuted, she says, by “the maffia” who was asking her money, threatening to kill her, which she describes sliding her hand horizontally close to her neck. This same maffia has destroyed her house she had built with the money of the film, leaving her without any money, explains her son, Alexander, politic refugee, who translates the conversation in French to the AFP journalist.
Carefully, her mother doesn't want her full name to be published no the precise place where she is.

Kusturica, a “man of heart”

She has endured the fate of thousands of ex-Yugoslavia inhabitants who escaped from their country, through Albania and the harbour of Vlora, unhuman conditions of the crossing to join Brindisi in Italy, from where she went to Lyon in a truck.
The actress of onely one director recalls of Emir Kusturica, a “man of heart”. For him, she was Baba, the grand mother who takes care of her grand-son Perhan, before he gets to rob to survivre, in Italy, on the gypsy tunes of Goran Bregović. Later, she was Sujka, in “Black Cat White Cat” (1998).
She hasn't seen Kusturica since three years, but if he proposed her to play in another film, she would accept immediately, yet worrying with humour of his answer, because she lost, since then, some front teeth.
In 1987, collaborators of Kusturica came to her place in Montenegro to propose her a role in “Time of the Gypsies”. She had met him for the first time in Skopje, in Macedonia, th same year.
During one of the last scenes of the film, Baba refuses once more any money to her son turned mad. To take revenge, he pulls with a bulldozer the structure of the prefeb house of his mother, who finds herself in night dress under the rain, protecting her grand daughter…
“With the maffia, it's the contrary of the film, I gave all my money, hoping they would leave me in peace”, she explains.
Aïcha is called on 10 september by the préfecture du Rhône for an official consideration of her asilum request.

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News [Archives - 2002]

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 16:26:44 +0200

News [Archives - 2002]

December 2002

Death of Joe Strummer.

Previous leader of The Clash died at 50 on 23 december 2002 in England. He was seen several times on stage with Emir & the No Smoking Orchestra, we see him also singing, moving, jumping, and playing guitar in the film Super 8 Stories. About their music, he said :”In England, everybody plays the same thing, you see : guitar, drums. We don't have guys like them over there. This music is eclectic, it has really a new taste, an unusual taste. It's certainly the music of the future, and the music of the past. It's why I love Emir !”

October 2002

Exhibition Citoyens Bohèmes at the Printemps Haussmann in Paris : from 19 september to 12 october a clothes, photos, videos, objects, perfumes and sculptures exhibition on the theme “citoyens bohèmes”. Emir Kusturica was honoured with the recreationof the wedding table of the film Underground some video extracts and the broadcast of film Super 8 Stories.

October 2002

Last news from the shooting of Hungry Heart : everything goes well… So well that the shooting should end on time ! (it's not usual with Emir Kusturica…) The shooting should last until end of november, or beginning of december. It's still forseen to present the film in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003.

October 2002

A new interview : Emir Kusturica speaks of his new film, of september 11, the bombs in Afghanistan.

September 2002

Re-release of the soundtrack of Arizona Dream and new album of Goran Bregović. After rights problems, the soundtrack had been removed from the sales a few weeks after its release. For the release of Goran Bregović's new album, it was thus rereleased, with a bonus track (Johnny Depp's monologue on his childhood)… and the credits are now complete for In the Deathcar. The theme of the song was indeed borrowed from a Corsican song Solenzara. The packaging (cover, booklet, CD) remains unchanged.

Goran Bregović's new album is called Tales and Songs from the weddings and the funerals, and is a mix of creations, romanian and yugoslav folklore, and recalls the atmospheres of Underground. It gives a very pleasant album, very well produced, dynamic and nice.

6 august 2002

Inhabitants of Kostunicevo have offered to Emir Kusturica an old house. To thank him for the moments passed on the shooting, Emir Kusturica was given a house older than 200 years, and a huge garden in Kostunicevo by the inhabitants of the village. It's the first “eco-village” of Serbia. Taking a pause during the shooting, Emir went on august 6 in Kostunicevo to visit the house and declared it would be the ideal place to rest after the adventure of the shooting, and even, to stay there after…

1 june 2002

Here are the last anecdotes reported by a journalist in Sarajevo, from the shooting of Hungry Heart :
- Emir had to shoot a scene with bears and wolves. During the shooting, most of the Animals ran away in the forest… and impossible to bring them back on the set !
- Later, they had to shoot a delicate scene where a bear gets into an house, breaks the door, takes a bath, watch TV and drinks beers. The bear did all that without any problem. Nobody understood.
- Always with the animals, a dog had to un after a car. After 5 missed takes, the dogs was completely tired. The dog trainer said the animal was really tired and that he had to rest, but Emir, furious that the car was driving whether too fast whether too slow gets angry and said : ”But how can he be tired, we've only made it five times !”
- A scene was to film a fight between Football suporters. There were on the ground 500 persons : Bosnians, Serbs and Croats, no professional actor. The scene ran perfectly, but at the first shot, there were already 12 wounded persons.

25 May 2002

Release of Super 8 Stories in DVD. With more than a month late, the DVD of Super 8 Stories is fainlly released ! Beside the possibility to add the subtitles (which allows to understand the lyrics of the songs… it's quite interesting !), the publisher gave us in bonus half an hour extract of the great concert at the “vieilles charrues”, as well as 3 video-clips of the band :
- Bubamara
- Pit-Bull
- and an older song, pretty kitsch !

May 2002

Some news of Hungry Heart :

Kusturica is shooting his 7th film in Serbia by Jean-Eudes BARBIER
MOKRA GORA (Yugoslavia), 14 may (AFP) - The yugoslav director Emir Kusturica is, since last february, shooting in Serbia his 7th film, his gorgeous poetic career, on imagination, real and crual, started more than 20 years ago.
Faithful to his fire mood, Kusturica started this new adventure with all his obsessions we've already seen in his films, like absurdity of the borders and ideologies, which are sources of divisions between the minds, the people, and generate devasting conflicts.
His future film, “Hungry heart”, is mainly shot in the region of Zlatibor, close to Bosnia.
This morning, the railway which climbs up Mokra Gora (wet mountain) is the shooting set for the strange dialogue between two men and a female donkey, staying in the middle of the tracks.
Impossible to move her. Why ? Love pain ! The make-up woman puts drops of water under the eye of the animal, in order to simulate the tears.

Why is she crying ? asks one of the men.
Whe wants to die, and waits that a train kills her, answers the owner of the donkey, who seems to be powerless face to this event.

Waiting (for the death) is likely to be long because the track is still being assembled.
“Hungry Heart” tells the story of an engineer, who is building a railway between Serbia and Bosnia. But the war of 1991 –burst of Tito's Yugoslavia– interrumpts the work.
The responsible stays there to ensure the protection of the work, but his son has to do the army, and he's made prisonner. He will be exchanged against a muslim woman on which the father has fallen in love…
Kusturica, long hair, athlet body, always had, at 48, the gaze of passion. Smoking a big cigare, he gives orders, jokes, runs under a tent with the controle screen, talks with the tecnicians, gives advices to the actors.
One of them, Slavo Štimac, is a familiar of the Sarajevo-born director, forhaving played major roles in two of his preceding films, “Do you remember Dolly Bell?” (1981) and the famous “Underground” (1995), respectively primed at the Mostra of Venice and the festival of Cannes (palme d'or).
But Kusturica also loves having non professional actors. For “Hungry heart”, several members of his crew went to find Obrad Djurovic on a desolated place of Republika Srbska (RS), the Serbian entity of Bosnia, where he found refuge after having taught mathematics for forty years in Sarajevo.
Astrakan hat on the head, boots and long coat, Djurovic only wants to get back home, but he has nice words for Kusturica. “I love his way of making the animals speaking, the way men do in life. This film will be a fable. It will be a big success”, he says.
Animals always have a big place in Kusturica's films. In a short film of 1996, he told the story of a Serb who could access his house only by getting through the gardens of his neighbours. Since he had argued with them, he was dreaming of being a bird…
The last scenes of “Hungry heart” should take place in october and the film should be released in 2003. Made partly with foreign money, the film will have a music composed by the “No Smoking Orchestra” whom bass player is no other than Kusturica.

April 2002

Release of the Collector DVD edition of Arizona Dream. Full of bonus, this DVD gives a new look on the cult film, thanks to a previously unreleased 12 minutes scene, cut from the final film by the american producers.

March 2002

Emir Kusturica has been named Ambassador of UNICEF for Yugoslavia

”The look he has on the children and the young people (not only in his films) ; the way the world is seen through his eyes, and mstly the exploited children, or the children from minorities, pleased us.” (Jean-Michel Delmotte, Representing UNICEF in Yugolsavia)

February 2002

Begninng of the shooting of Hungry Heart in Bosnie. Information received from Nina, journalist at Oslobodjenje newspaper in Sarajevo. It's a story on war and love. Luka is Serb and he dreams of building a railway between Serbia and the Adriatic coast, therefore, he must build 19 km in Bosnia. All was going on very well when war burst ! Luka is not a soldier, but his son is. He joins the Serbian army, and the Bosnian army arrests him. The nurse Sabaha, who is Bosnian is also arrested, but by the Serbian army. They give her to Luka, as an hostage and wait for a solution. The drama begins when Luka falls in love with Sabaha and they decide to run away from Bosnia and the war. Actors are : Slavko Štimac, Nataša Solak, Davor Janjic, Mirjana Karanović, Aleksandar Berček, Branka Katić, Vesna Trivalić and Adnanan Omerovic, student at Dramatic academy of Tuzla (Bosnia). The author of the story is Ranko Bozić, and the director of photography should be Thierry Arbogast.

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News [Archives - 1st quarter 2003]

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 03:04:39 +0200

News [Archives - 1st quarter 2003]

20 March 2003

The DVD of Underground is finally released… in Belgium ! It is Cinéart which is at the origin of this edition. The disc contains the “short” version of 170 mn with the Serbo-croatian versions into 2.0 and 5.1 as well as the French version. The subtitles are in French or Dutch. But it is in the bonus where is the good surprise, with a very interesting interview of Emir Kusturica “7 years after”, a making-of, interviews of the actors, as well as chronological slides recalling the history of Yugoslavia
Inauguration of the partnership with the Centre Culturel de Serbie et Monténégro in Paris, with the exhibition SACRES POFANES starting April 3 to May 5, 2003. The program of the events of April 2003 will be published soon.
In spite of the recent tragic events in Serbia & Montenegro, and after the days of national mourning, shooting re-started. Emir Kusturica shoots the last scenes of his new film the life is a miracle !. But to be sure of still being able all to change, Emir films several different ends : he'll choose at the final cut…

11 March 2003

Emir Kusturica will be the next president of the jury of the short films and Cinéfondation of the 56th Festival of Cannes. He will follow thus Martin Scorsese, president in 2002. He will give the Palm of the best short film.
Addition in the books of Titanic by Ivo Andrić, origin of one of the first short films of Emir.
Addition of critics in the pages of films
Work in progress in the underground : two new stations will open soon : one on the photographers in Emir's films (Vilko Filać, Thierry Arbogast, Michel Amathieu), and one on the cities of ex-Yugoslavia.

3 March 2003

When the new parliamentary room must elect its president, the change of identity of Serbia and Montenegro (ex-Yugoslavia) pose unsuspected problems… read further.
Addition of the biography of Gordan Mihić in the page of the Yugoslav writers. This prolix author provided to Emir Kusturica the scenarii of Time of the Gypsies, Black Cat, White Cat and Hungry Heart.
New information in the Gypsies page.

26 february 2003

After a new pause of a few weeks, shooting goes on February 28. As Emir decided to film chronologically, only the last scenes remain. Thus precisely the images that will remain in the memory of the spectators. More than ever, Emir reinvents the history, rewrites the end…
A new interview “stolen” on the filming stage, by serbian newspaper “Politika”, and translated in French.

21 february 2003

It snows in Belgrade. The filming of the Life is a miracle is stopped until February 28. Approximately a month of scenes remain to be filmed. Shooting will have lasted one year…
With the reedition of the works of Charles Chaplin in DVD by MK2, Emir Kusturica recorded an audio commentary for the film Circus, and will appear in the DVD bonus. Release in 2003. One knew the admiration which Emir Kusturica carries for Charles Chaplin since the scene in the Time of the Gypsies. Emir pays here a new homage to him.
The release of Underground in DVD comes : it is in Belgium that the film will undoubtedly be first available. Emir already recorded a commentary for this edition. TF1 Video which owns the rights for France has still announced nothing.

15 february 2003

The title today would be Life is a miracle (with an exclamation point). Nothing being ever sure with Emir Kusturica, we will continue to call the film Hungry Heart on this site, until the film is definitively baptized.
Emir continues to film, probably until the end of March. The film will thus not be presented in Cannes. It snows much in this moment, and Emir changes practically everyday the scenario …
Marcel Hartmann, the author of the photographs published in Studio Magazine is very present on the set. He accumulated many pictures and many stories or anecdotes. He plans to release a book on the “making-of”, accompanied by an exhibition in Paris.
New color pictures of Hungry Heart

13 february 2003

Here it is : the new version of the site is on line. Do not hesitate to send me a mail if you find any error, broken bonds, remarks, criticisms, etc. Thank you!

2 Février 2003

Marcel Hartmann took these nice pictures on the set of Hungry Heart. We learn in Studio magazine that the title could be Life is a miracle (but that is till not sure). Emir describes the war through a true story. Banquets, absurdity, a bride who flies, music… Emir : ”What I hate in modern cinema, is when one says : “it is so real !”. For me, the films have nothing to do with what is real. They are only artifice. But we must make them organic and structured to touch the audience, with emotion first, spirit then.”

Janvier 2003

The production company of Emir Kusturica cofinanced the first film of Dušan Milić (which had been assistant director for Tito and Me). The casting shows great names of Yugoslav cinema (thus from Kusturica's tribe) : Branka Katić (the girl in Black Cat, White Cat), Srđan Todorović (the gangster of Black Cat, White Cat) and Mirjana Karanović (who was already seen in Underground and When father was away on business). The film should be released in 2003 and be presented at the Festival of Berlin. Le film is called : Strawberries at the supermarket (Jagoda u supermarketu), and the No Smoking Orchestra will compose the score, including a version of Joe Strummer's Lost in the supermarket.

January 2003

This site has now a new address : http://www.kustu.com
A complete rebuild is planned for the end of January. New pages, new design, new pictures, new navigation… and later : an english version.
Watch the press stores : in the next edition of the magazine Studio (to be released at the end of January 2003), an illustrated report on the filming of Hungry Heart.
Filming is longer than foreseen, but should last until mid-february 2003.
Emir still believes he can present it at Cannes Festival.

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News [Archives - 2nd quarter 2003]

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 01:51:31 +0200

News [Archives - 2nd quarter 2003]

16 june 2003

New page : the Kitsch according to Emir Kusturica. Politic kitsch or artistic kitsch : a whole program…
Would you like to see Super 8 Stories, Black Cat, White Cat, Underground, or Arizona Dream on a big screen ? It is now at the “Quartier Latin” theatre (9, rue Champollion, 75005 Paris, Métro : Odéon, Cluny), during the Kusturica cycle. This cycle will last as long as people come… For more information, call +33 (0)1.43.26.84.65
You have also the possibility to see (again) Super 8 Stories on TV : on Canal+ Green june 24 at 20.45 et on Canal+ june 25 at 2.55.
Underground DVD is for sale online (from Australia : zone 4) with english subtitles on site ezydvd.com.au. Release in France (TF1 video) is still planned for … “soon” !
Officiel site www.lifeisamiracle-themovie.com is updated with a small piece of new music…
1999-2003, Churches and Monasteries in Kosovo and Metohija : European Cultural Heritage in Danger. Exhibition from june 19 to july 15 at the “Compagnie des Bateaux-mouches”, Pont de l'Alma, rive droite in Paris. For more information, see the link.
Cultural Center of Serbia and Montenegro organises a tribune on thursday june 19 at 19.30 : stabilization of democracy in Serbia and Montenegro with Prof. Vojin Dimitrijević
Two new posters of When father was away on business found on internet…
There was much snow this winter. Emir could rewrite the scenario and took advantage of the magnificent landscapes given to him…

9 june 2003

Rona Hartner (the romanian actress who plays in Gadjo Dilo) will make a concert on june 19 at Opus Café (167, quai de Valmy, Paris Xème) at 21.30, and on june 28 at Olympic Café (20 rue Léon, Paris XVIIIème).
Goran Bregović made the opening of the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music in Morocco : From my soul to your soul : the art of transmission adapting the creation he had made last year for the Saint-Denis basilicum : his Weddings & Funerals orchestra was accompanied by the Belgrade choir, the Bulgarian Voices, the Moscow String Ensemble and the Tetouan arabo-andalou orchestra.
New link to all4yu.com, THE yugoslav community website in France. There, we can see pictures of the Boban Marković concert at the New Morning, on this direct link.
June program of Cultural Centre of Serbia and Montenegro is online, with among other activities, on june 12, a literature evening with Mireille Robin, Velibor Čolić's translator.
A new photo of the film : Emir has his own methods to direct the actors….

31 May 2003

Wednesday June 25th on “Ciné Auteur” channel will be broadcast at 20.30 an Aubry Mennesson documentary on cinema's fans for which I was interviewed. This documentary takes place among a serie of six episodes, each one corresponding to the theme of the channels of the “Ciné Cinéma” TV bouquet (available on cable TV or satellite). It will be composed of portraits of posters collectors, fans of Marylin Monroe, Takeshi Kitano, as well as genre movies…
Reminder : monday evening, there will be at the “New Morning” in Paris, an exceptionnal concert of Boban Marković Orkestar, who will play titles from Arizona Dream, Underground, Black Cat, White Cat, Time of the Gypsies, etc. For more informations…
Enki Bilal's new album comes in France on 4th june. Title is December 32nd. It will be available and translated in august.
A new picture of Life is a miracle : during a footbal scene, Emir, a cigare in his hand did not hesitate to have fun on the playground.
From June 12 to July 10, there will be a Gypsy Festival in Paris, organised by Tzig'Art. This music festival will gather the greates names of gypsy music and will be held in the Trianon (80 boulevard Rochechouart, 75018 Paris, métro Anvers). It takes part from a larer program “A russian summer in Montmartre”, which invites you to a trip in Russia through art (exposition at Montmartre museum), cinema (russian films projection at Studio 28), and music (with the gypsy festival). Program :
- thursday june 12 at 20.00 : Les Yeux Noirs
- thursday june 19 at 20.00 : Bratsch
- friday june 27 at 20.00 : Opus 4 and Arbat
- thursday july 3rd at 20.00 : O'djila and Slonovski Bal
- thursday july 10th at 20.00 : Urs Karpatz

For more information : contact@tzigart.com

23 May 2003

June 2, 2003, Boban Marković Orkestar, the Brass band of films of Emir Kusturica, in Concert at the New Morning in Paris, organized by the Serbia and Montenegro Cultural Centre. Program of May is on line.
New page on cities of ex-Yugoslavia with Belgrade, Sarajevo, Zagreb, Skopje and Ljubljana.
Each newsletter will now be accompanied by an exclusive picture of Life is a miracle
Abdulah Sidran talks about Danis Tanović.

10 May 2003

New pictures : very nice panoramas of Mokra Gora, filming place of Life is a miracle
New page on photography directors : Vilko Filać, Thierry Arbogast and Michel Amathieu.
www.lifeisamiracle-themovie.com : the official site of the film will open on 1st september 2003, but for the moment a nice animation makes us wait…
A russian band Loyko pays hommage to Emir Kusturica with a song called Kusturiza in their last album. The band site : www.loyko.ru.
Painting exposition of Miloš BAJIC at Serbia and Montenegro Cultural Centre
New rumor about a future project : a musical on Eduard Limonov…
TV : Time of the Gypsies will be broadcast on Cinéfaz on thursday 29 may at 20.45 in French and in original language on 3rd june at 22.20, and Black Cat White Cat on TV Breizh thursday 15th may at 19.45.
TV again : France 5 pays homage to Chaplin form 14 may to 25 may with a 10 episodes documentaire where contemporary directors (Kusturica, Costa-Gavras, Bertolucci, Chabrol, etc.) will make us rediscover the inventiveness and the universality of the films. The documentary on The Circus with Emir Kusturica will be broadcast Thursday May 15 at 13.10.
Cannes Film Festival will be during May 14 to May 25. Emir Kusturica will be there as president of Cinéfondation. He will give the Best Short Palm.

21 April 2003

The page on Life is a miracle is online. Still no release date ; a first cut is being done.
The jury of the 2003 Cannes Film Festival has been just announced : President Patrice Chéreau, will be surrounded by actresses Aishwarya Rai (India), Meg Ryan (United States) and Karin Viard (France). Napolitan writer Erri De Luca, French actor Jean Rochefort and directors Steven Soderbergh (American), Danis Tanović (Bosnian) and Jiang Wen (Chinese) will complete the group. The jury will announce the 2003 Prize at the time of the closure festival ceremony on May, 25th.
A new interview of Emir Kusturica from 1999, for the release of the film Black Cat, White Cat. Emir tells his great admiration for writer Ivo Andrić.
Addition of Enki Bilal in the directors page.
A few lines about L'Atalante by Jean Vigo were added in the Keys for Underground.

10 April 2003

Filming is over ! All the staff is exhausted this 13 months marathon… But the work is not over : today, nobody can pretend saying the film Life is a miracle will be released before the end of the year…
New high quality pictures, taken by Piere Langlois, at a No Smoking Orchestra concert in Montréal.
The april program of the Cultural Centre of Serbia & Montenegro in Paris is online.
New links on Babsi Jones, italian writer dedicated to ex-Yugoslavia.

5 April 2003

The english version is available ! English is not my mother language, if you happen to find mistakes, please let me know.
Jean-Luc Godard prepares a new film in Serbia : “Our Music”. His team is already arrived and he should start filming end april.
Goran Marković, author of Tito and Me was added in the directors page.
The Links page shows now the pictures of the sites.

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News [Archives - 3rd quarter 2003]

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 01:03:49 +0200

News [Archives - 3rd quarter 2003]

20 september 2003

Time of the Gypsies's cinematographic rights for France have been purchased by Carlotta Films. A 35mm re-release on new copies was scheduled for december, 10th everywhere in France. But, due to a lot of releases at this time, it will probably be postponed to begining 2004. No information regarding a DVD release for the moment (rights can be purchased separately). Since more than ten years was the masterpiece not to be seen on screen : it's worth waiting another few months… See also Carlotta Films website : www.carlottafilms.com
The 1993 interview is now fully translated. Interesting to see how Emir saw Sarajevo at the time…

2 septembre 2003

And why not ”When life was a miracle” as a title for the new film ? This is Emir's last idea…
Two new Interviews : one recent, translated from july 2003 Ekstra Magazin, a Republika Srpska magazine, where Emir speaks about Politics, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Goran Bregović and other hot subjects. The older one comes from 1993, just after Arizona Dream was released. Very long and interesting, it shows the evolution of the director since the last 10 years, his choices, his carreer, his ideas.
A new project… already in The drawer ? Emir Kusturica shows interest in Argentine football player Diego Maradona. The men should meet soon to discuss a project… a documentary ? a biopic ? a fiction ? or… nothing at all ?
Two new books to read: Un peuple de promeneur by Alexandre Romanès, a rare and poetic book, and Enterrez-moi debout, l'odyssée des Gitans_FR by Isabel Fonseca, the most complete book to better understand the gypsies : the author spent several years among gypsy families in Albania, Romania, Poland… A great book.
The score of Ederlezi, received from a kustuphile internaute, stands by the lyrics.
Gypsies also have their own place in the people columns. AFP news from august 31st 2003 :

Romanian with gypsy origins, Ilie Stanescu, was entitled “international king of the Gypsies”, during a ceremony in the monastery of Curtea de Arges, 140 km in the north of Bucharest, broadcast on Romanian television.
Mr. Stanescu, who received this title Sunday under a “decree” signed by autoproclamed “emperor of the Roms”, Iulian Radulescu, was given a crown out of gold weighing more than a kilo, in front of several hundreds of moved “subjects”.
“The title of international king of the Gypsies is granted to His majesty Ilie Stanescu”, said during the religious service an orthodoxe priest, while making several times the sign of the cross. “It is a great day not only for me but also for all the orthodoxe ones”, declared the new “sovereign”, while leaving the 16th century monastery, where were crowned several Romanian princes and where in particular rest kings Carol 1st and Ferdinand.
The Church however did not see of a good eye this ceremony, a spokesman of Teoctist patriarch, the supreme head of the Romanian orthodoxe church, criticized the participation of priests in this “crowning”. The Gypsies of Romania, 536.000 officially but more than 1,5 million according to their leaders, also count another autoproclamed “king”, in the person of Florin Cioaba.

6 august 2003

The trailer of Neil Jordan's movie The good thief is available here.
Statistics give an idea of the Newsletter subscribers nationality : after the international extension, .fr are first.
Emir doesn't go to Venice, even not as a VIP : too much to do in Belgrade for editing !

19 july 2003

Release of Life is a miracle being delayed in 2004, the official site will not open in september 2003 as announced. Opening is scheduled for february 2004. The film takes shape… but Emir thinks again of changing the title… Nothing official for the moment.
The menus of the site have been redesigned with flash(TM) 6, for a better compatibility with the different browsers ans screen sizes. You can get a flash player compatible with your system here.
Neil Jordan's The good thief (in which plays Emir Kusturica) will be released in France on august, 13 2003. Being already released in the USA since april 2003, the zone 1 DVD is announced on Amazon for august, 19 2003.

4 july 2003

Stuck in a traffic jam not far from Belgrade, a journalist of Belgrade magazine “Glas javnosti” realised he was just behind Emir Kusturica, the time of some confidences. Emir was going to Zlatibor, city where he founded a cinema school. Editing of Life is a miracle goes on… But for the moment only half of a pre-cut is done. The film will thus not be ready for Venice. Released is now planned for beginning of 2004.
From July 16 to 29, the Cabaret Sauvage in Paris celebrates the gypsy music with funny and festives evenings where we'll be able to dance at the sound of the gysy, flamenco, rumba, Central Europe music… with an extra taste of Cuba. Program is :
- July 16, Kek Lang (gypsy music of Hungary)
- July 17, Gitans of Marseilles by Juan Carlos Principal (flamenco)
- July 18, Kočani Orkestar (brass band of Macedonia)
- July 19, Bratsch (Central Europe music)
- July 20, Gypsy Women around Kostovitza (gypsy music of Romania), with Rona Hartner.
- July 22-25, Tekameli (ballades and Catalan gypsy rumba) with Banda Municipal de Santiago de Cuba (cuban brass band)
- July 28 and 29, Taraf de Haïdouks (Romania)

Extra information :www.cabaretsauvage.com

Not far from there in the Park of La Villette, there will be the Romanès Circus which will settle this summer, from July 22 to August 23. “Father, mary me with a nomad so that breeze of the pines touches my hair”. Come to share the joy and the emotion of a gypsy wedding. Musicians play, the family sings, the children dance and the women cry. As a chef, Alexandre Romanès orchestrates this beautiful spectacle for which enchantement always primes over the exploit. Romanès present their new creation for the first time at La Villette.
New keys in Underground symbolics.

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News [Archives - 4th quarter 2003]

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 00:55:46 +0200

News [Archives - 4th quarter 2003]

23 december 2003

Today is released in the US Underground DVD (zone 1, edited by New Yorker). This is the 167 minutes version with english and serbo-croatian languages, and english subtitles. It is already available on amazon.com. Regarding bonus, this DVD contains only an interview of Emir Kusturica in Cannes this year.
Merry christmas and happy new year 2004 ! Let's hope this year shall we finally be able to see Life is a miracle.

15 december 2003

The MK2 release of Chaplin's The Circus DVD contains the 26 mn documentary of François Ede with Emir Kusturica.
In Zlatibor, where Life is a miracle was shot, work still goes on… In fact, Emir's big project is to build new roads, guest houses, an orthodox church, an internet café, as well as a cinema school. The school should open next spring, for the release of the new film.
Emir arrived in Paris. He is working in the studio for the edition of real film images of Life is a miracle.
Friday february 6th 2004 at Handelsbeurs in Gand (Belgium) concert “night of the gypsies” with : Boban Marković Orkestar, Esma Redzepova, Fulgerica & the mahala gypsies. More info : www.handelsbeurs.be
The website photomusicians.com has an Emir Kusturica section where you can order 3 hi-quality photos of Emir on stage with the No Smoking Orchestra.
Variety has established the list of the “10 masters of european cinema”. Emir Kusturica belongs to the list, next to Pedro Almodovar, Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Michael Haneke, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Nanni Moretti, Aki Kaurismaki, Bela Tarr, Lars Von Trier, and Michael Winterbottom. Indeed…

17 november 2003

Musique des Balkans festival at Paris' Cité de la Musique on saterday 29 and sunday 30.
Momentum and Emotion. A new interview given in 1999 to indieWIRE, an american website, in which Emir speaks of his cinematographic technique.
Release of Claire Devers' movie : The lost sailors, with Miki Manojlović, Audrey Tautou, Marie Trintignant, Bernard Giraudeau…
Concert of Bratsch on november 18 at Trianon 80, boulevard de Rochechouart Paris (18°) - +33 (0)1 42 40 79 90 15 euros, and thursday 20, at Kremlin-Bicêtre (94) - +33 (0)1 49 60 62 16.

10 november 2003

An international Golden Book is open ! Don't hesitate leaving a word in your own language…
I am told the editing of the film Life is a miracle is finished on video. Work starts on real images (film). Sound editing starts in parallel. For the moment, the film seems to go its way to Cannes 2004, but it's too early have certainties…
Already 100 subscriptions at the kustu.com newsletter !
7 new Interviews translated in english. The first one, recent, was given to serbian newspaper Kurir. The others vary from 1999 to 2003. All the interviews are now fully translated.

25 october 2003

Special Emir Kusturica evening on Planète channel (French cable/satellite channel) on thursday 30th of october, with two great documentaries :
- 20.45 : “Emir Kusturica” by Gerald Fox, 50 mn, UK, 2000. Portrait of an exceptionally gifted director, Emir Kusturica, told by himself. Obsessed by the tragedy of his native land, ex-Yugoslavia, this charismatic director talks between a gypsy camp in Rome, a concert with his rock group and a car trip through Normandy…
- 21.35 : “Shooting Days” by Aleksandar Manić, 75 mn, Czech Republic, 1996. Underground's making-of. This documentary shows many previously unreleased scenes and proposes a deep analysis of the movie themes, and its relationships with the events of 1995.
- Time of the Gypsies's release on new copies is postponed to mid-2004. Consequently, the film will not be presented at the Rencontres du Cinéma d'Europe 2003, and Emir will be the special guest only next year.

6 october 2003

An internal search engine has been added to the site. You will be able to explore more deeply the 200 text pages of the site. The search engine allows searching within the pages in the current language, on several key words also differentiating upper/lower case. It is accessible via the search icon in the bottom of all pages. The two others icons allow changing the language and returning to the main page.
Cultural Centre of Serbia and Montenegro's program is online.
2 exceptionnal concerts of Boban Marković ORKESTAR at the “NEW MORNING” (7-9 rue des Petites Ecuries, PARIS 10e), on 10th and 11 october 2003 at 21h00. Tickets : 20 € sold at Cultural Centre of Serbia and Montenegro. In the great tradition of the gypsy brass bands, they are these frantic and tremendous musicians who play in Underground and Arizona Dream. Undoubtly one of the most talented gipsy bands, the ten musicians of Boban Marković Orkestar have been the leaders of the copper brass bands for now 10 years. Crowned as the “better orchestra” each year since 5 years at the contest of Dragacevski Sabor de Guča (Serbia) - the most prestigious festival of coppered music, Boban Marković receives in 2001 the price of the “best trumpet”. They already bewitched more than one halls in the world by the virtuosity of their arrangements and the dynamism of their interpretations. October 10th and 11 2003, they will be in New Morning, for the second time in Paris, in a concert co-organized by Ekspreso association and the Cultural Centre of Serbia and Montenegro, after a great success on June 2 in the same room.

3 october 2003

Emir goes back shooting… 1 week, on october the 13th, for extra scenes of Life is a miracle.
Emir Kusturica will be a guest star at the Rencontres du Cinéma d'Europe 2003 that will take place november 17th-23rd in Aubenas (Ardèche, France). 4 films will be screened : Super 8 Stories, Underground, Arizona Dream and Time of the Gypsies. Conferences animated by Michel Ciment on the films of Emir Kusturica will take place, with the presence of Emir, on november the 21st and 22nd. More information on the (french) site : rencontres.cinema.free.fr.
3 new posters of Black Cat, White Cat (Hungary, Russia, Japan), as well as an anecdote on Alan Ford.

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News [Archives - 1st quarter 2004]

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 00:03:50 +0200

News [Archives - 1st quarter 2004]

16 march 2004

The site kustu.com was unfortunately closed this week end, due to a bandwidth overage. The site was restored on monday, but a transfer to a more powerful server is necessary. There should be no more problem now. Let me take advantage of this event to thank the visitors, more numerous than ever : 4000 pages read per day from the whole world.
Emir Kusturica & the No Smoking Orchestra has offered Lost in the supermarket, a funny song for an ATTAC compilation : Another world is possible. This compilation presents rare or unreleased songs by engaged artists such as Manu Chao, Asian Dub Foundation, Zebda, Idir or Moby. This CD is accompanied by a book with contributions of writers, universitarians, resistants, politicians… among whom commandant Marcos, José Bové, Chico Whitaker, Ignacio Ramonet… The book is illusrated by Altermondialist events witnesses (Georges Bartoli, Shehzad Noorani, Thomas Kern, David Richard…). This disc is released since march 2nd in France and will be available in most countries of Europe during april.
The french distributor Mars Distribution of Life is a miracle announces may 26th 2004 for release in France, that is the week after the closing ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival.
Emir Kusturica keeps an eye on Zlatibor and wishes, like Luka in Life is a miracle, to build a railway there, in order to promote tourism.

11 march 2004

The official synopsis of Life is a miracle is updated.
In France will be sold on march 26th the magazine OPTIMUM with a 4 pages exclusive interview of Emir Kusturica and 8 pages of previously unreleased set photos taken by Marcel Hartmann.
Like for When father was away on business, Time of the Gypsies and Underground, Emir Kusturica will let serbian television editing a long version of Life is a miracle. Broadcast abroad is not planed yet.
Release in France on march 24th of Luc Bondy's Ne fait pas ça !, with Miki Manojlović
57th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will have for president Quentin Tarantino (Palme d'or in 1994 with Pulp fiction). The festival will evolve this year : the results will be known on saterday, and the ceremony will be on sunday. This should allow everybody to be present on the Croisette. Important names are already circulating : Abbas Kiarostami, Pedro Almodovar (who should make the opening of the festival), digital projection of Shrek 2, “The Motorcycle diaries” by Walter Salles (on the life of the Che)…
The (strange) point of view of Vincent Gallo was added in the Homages to Francis Ford Coppola.

2 march 2004

A new file in the Homages paid by Emir Kusturica to his peers : this time, the directors of Hollywood in the 40's : Alfred Hitchcock, Charles Chaplin, Ernst Lubitsch and many others…
Three new books in the Literature page : Ismaïl Kadaré, Ivo Andrić and Ljiljana Habjanović-Durović
Some news of Life is a miracle… not a lot : the film is completely finished, but the producer waits for the french version to present it to the selection committee of Cannes.
French independant cinema magazine “Brazil” presents this month four pages on Life is a miracle, compiling interviews done the last years. “Brazil”, as many other cinema magazines, presents also a big file on Enki Bilal's new film : Immortel (ad vitam), which is due to be released on march the 24th.
Re-release in theatres of Time of the Gypsies in restored copies, previously announced for end 2003 was postponed to june 2004.
News from Goran Bregović… Goran recently said he wanted to make a movie of Bizet's “Carmen”, adding some gypsy culture, and giving it an “happy end”. He has already written the script and the music, but he will first make a show of it and a tour in Italy is already planed in more than 30 cities. Moreover, director Terry Gilliam has asked him to work on the score of his new film “The Brothers Grimm” which should be released end 2004.
1804-2004 : The modern state of Serbia celebrates his bicentenary. Indeed, it's in february 1804 that under Karageorges, the serbs rebelled against the janissaries, the Ottoman militia which terrorized the population. The current state of Serbia & Montenegro chose this date to symbolize its will of existance and independence in respect of personal freedoms.

14 february 2004

Dr. Nele Karajlić and the No Smoking Orchestra are in the studio these days. I've been told they might release an album as well as the new film soundtrack.
Francis Ford Coppola is added in the homages section.
Milorad Pavić's The dictionary of the Khazars is added in the Literature page.
Digging again, I found new stuff in The drawer of the given-up projects.
Working on the new film Life is a miracle is approaching the end : a first version with definitive images will soon be screened for the actors.

14 january 2004

Srecna Nova Godina ! Today starts the New Year, according to orthodox calendar.
New section opening : the Homages paid by Emir Kusturica to the great directors he admires. For the moment, you'll find Jean Vigo and Andréï Tarkovski. Many other names will soon be added to this list within the next weeks.
The americain DVD of Underground is now detailed. Comparative tests are clearly giving advantage to the belgian edition…
The new movie Life is a miracle is getting ready. Here are the latest news :
- English title is definitively Life is a miracle, original title (serbian) is : Kad je Život bio čudo.
- Michel Amathieu still has to work on the special effects and the film image processing until mid february.
- The film will soon be seen by the Cannes festival selection committee. Is it really possible for them to refuse it ?
- The official site www.lifeisamiracle-themovie.com is going to open on march 29.
- Marcel Hartmann's pictures book is ready. It will be sold in bookshops the week before Cannes festival. An exhibition will be held in Paris.
- A 52 mn portrait, directed by Marie-Christine Malbert is also going to be broadcast at the time of the film release. Full of friends interviews and archives films, it will show an unknown Emir Kusturica, like if at once, we entered his family.

5 january 2004

Books chronicles are being reorganised on the site. A new Literature station is opened for better making the difference between fictions close to Emir Kusturica's universe and the books dedicated to himself or his cinema (which remain in the books section). To inaugurate this new section, let me introduce Robert Hasz, an hungarian author, exiled from voïvodina, who wrote a little jewel of absurdity with ex-Yugoslavia's war in background The Fortress.
The “Amazon” links on english pages point now toward the americain Amazon.com website to help people order from any place in the world. This site proposes also references unfindable in some countries (like the VHS of When father was away on business or Time of the Gypsies)
From 14 to 31 january will be played at the Théâtre des Abbesses in Paris Dušan Kovačević's play : The Professional, the well known scenario-writer of Underground. Information : +33(0)1.42.74.22.77. A meeting with the author is organised by the Centre Culturel de Serbie et Monténégro on thursday 15th january at 19.30.

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News [Archives - 2nd quarter 2004]

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 23:52:09 +0200

News [Archives - 2nd quarter 2004]

29 june 2004

Life is a miracle scores now 500.000 entries in France. The film will make the opening of the festival of Jerusalem on july 8, and will be released in Israël on july 9. Remember also that the film is released tomorrow (june 30) in Belgium !
It's the gypsy summer at the Cabaret Sauvage in Paris from july 1st to 24th, with the big names of gypsy music like Taraf de Haïdouks, Zaragraf, Urz Karpatz, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Rona Hartner, Kočani Orkestar, Taraf Borzo, and Goran Bregović with his weddings & funerals orchestra.
Many pictures of the first concerts are available onlinne on the official website of the No Smoking Orchestra.
The building of the village Emir Kusturica has begun in Serbia-Montenegro goes well : ”I lost my city during the war. This is why I wished to build my village. I gave it a German name : Küstendorf. I will organize there seminars for people who want to learn how to make cinema, concerts, ceramics, painting. It is the city where I will live and where certain people will be able to come from time to time. There will be of course other inhabitants who will work there. I dream of an open place open with cultural diversity and set up against globalization.”

17 june 2004

Emir Kusturica is grand-father for the first time ! Janko, son of Stribor, was born on friday 11th of June.

11 juin 2004

No Smoking Orchestra's official website has been completely reworked and now presents up-to-date information. Its address has also changed. It is now www.thenosmokingorchestra.com. The authors say there will be dayly updates, and we can even already see pictures from the first concert in Istanbul.
The 2004 tour has begun ! The group was very happy with the first concert in Istanbul … Today, the plans are to make from 50 to 60 dates through the world.
On july 10th, at Embrun (Hautes-Alpes, France), the concert will take place within a unique and original show : during the concert, films will be screened on huge water walls each side of the stage switching between live pictures and extracts of the director's films. Finally on unza unza time an 8 minutes pyrotechnical choregraphy will explode in the sky…
News from Goran Bregović : he will also tour this summer in France on 07.25 (Saint Malo) and 08.06 (Langres), and in Germany on 07.05 (Stuttgart), 0.706 (Munchen) and 07.31 (Neuhardenberg).
Symbole of the after-war reconstruction, the new bridge of Mostar will be officially inaugurated on july 23rd 2004, more than ten years after its destruction by the croat artillery. Before & After picture were added to the Bosnia & Herzegovina page.
Moscow film museum is in danger… please visit the dedicated website to help them.

1st june 2004

The lyrics page has been redesigned, and it includes now the song When life was a miracle, as well as the translation of Ederlezi.
Informations on this gypsy celebration (the Saint-George day) were added on the Gypsies page.
News on the UNICEF project All the invisible children : 6 directors on the 7 needed are already announced : John Woo (China), Ridley & Jordan Scott (UK), Stefano Veneruso (Italy), Katia Lund (Brazil), Mehdi Charef (Africa) and Emir Kusturica (Serbia-Montenegro) will each make a segment of the whole film.
Life is a miracle goes very well and has already be seen by 300.000 people in France. Here are the confirmed dates for foreign releases :
- Belgium : 30 june 2004
- Russia : 2 september 2004
- Argentina : 9 september 2004
- Netherlands : 7 october 2004

24 may 2004

The complete results of the 57th Cannes Film Festival are :
- Palme d'or : Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
- Grand Prix : Old boy by Chan-Wook Park
- Prix du Jury ex-aequo : Irma P. Hall for Ladykillers by Coen brothers and Tropical malady by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
- Prix de la mise en scène : Tony Gatlif for Exils
- Prix du scénario : Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri for Comme une image
- Prix d'interprétation masculine : Yagira Yuuya for Nobody knows
- Prix d'interprétation féminine : Maggie Cheung for Clean
- Caméra d'or : Or (mon trésor) by Keren Yedaya
- Palme d'or du court métrage : Trafic by Catalin Mitulescu
- Prix du jury du court métrage : Flatlife by Jonas Geirnaert
- Prix de la critique internationale :
  - Official competition : Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
  - Un certain regard : Whisky by Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll
  - Semaine Internationale de la Critique : Atash by Tawfik Abu Wael
  - Prix de l'Education nationale : Life is a miracle by Emir Kusturica
The tour dates are updated : 12 shows are already confirmed.
During recent Interviews or press conferences Emir Kusturica made some confidences :
- About the end of the film : a more philosophical end was first planned, where Luka would be double : he would have appeared simultaneously in Serbia and in Australia. This scene was not shot in order not to add unreal elements in the film.
- About the title of the film : Hungry Heart was dismissed because he was told the french translation was more connected to gastronomy than poetry. Furthermore, this title had no relationship with the Bruce Springsteen's song.
- The Diego Maradona project is not abandonned, but of course, Emir waits Diego to get in a better shape before thinking again to this project.
- Emir has promised one of his next films will be shot in France, in french. He even already has a scenario : the story would take place in the Middle-Age (a time - these are his own words - he's familiar with), and it's about a man and a forest.
- With UNICEF, Emir Kusturica will participate to a short films project : All the invisible children, with other great directors like John Woo and Ridley Scott.
- Emir has confirmed he still had to finish the manuscript of a book “journal d'un idiot politique” for Lattès editions (“otherwise, I have to give the money back…”). The editor expects it for november 2004 for a release scheduled in 2005.
- Emir hasn't got much time to go on internet, but he knows there is a site “kustu… something” and that is pretty good…

21 may 2004

The Prix de l'Education nationale, given for the second year to a film in both official selections is going to Life is a miracle. Headed by director Claude Miller, the 9 members jury of an educational and professionnal community had to choose a film in the official competition of “Un Certain Regard” selection for its “cinematographic and pedagogical interest as well as artistic qualities”. In 2003, the first Prix de l'Education nationale went to “Elephant” by Gus Van Sant, also Palme d'Or and Prix de la mise en scène the day after. This award makes the film a pedagogical reference of the year for cinema schools. A cd-rom will be made to help understanding it and analysing it for the pupils.
The complete results will be given on saterday 22.

15 may 2004

Life is a miracle was screened yesterday in Cannes. Emir Kusturica was present with Slavko Štimac, Nataša Šolac, Vesna Trivalić, Dejan Sparavalo, Dr. Nele Karajlić, Marie-Christine Malbert and Alain Sarde. Much applauded, even ovationed, the film strongly impressed the audience…
Just before had Emir Kusturica participated to a press conference and interview : they can be viewed on the site of the festival de Cannes.
Where does the story of the film comes from ? In octobre 1995, Emir Kusturica comes to Toulouse (France) for avant-première screening of his film Underground. Kusturica sees his friend director Mladen Materic, founder of the Theatre Tattoo, who tells him the strange story he learnt from a bosnian Serb, Srdjan Ivanović, refugee in Toulouse. Kusturica took contact with Srdjan and his famille. He had to leave Sarajevo in 1992, due to the war, and went to France. His brother, prisoner of the muslims was then held in a camp. The father takes contact with the muslim forces who ask a young girl to be freed before the exchange of prisoners which could make his son free. So he searches for a prisoner girl coming from the eastern part of Bosnia, holding an authorization from the serbian authorities letting M. Ivanović give her to the Red Cross. But the girl doesn't want to leave her keepers because she fell in love of one of them. A second attempt allows M. Ivanović to bring her back. Housed a few months in the serbian family while the negociations continued, the young muslim girl became friend of the Ivanović. She doesn't want to get back to Bosnia, what her mother advices her to, because war rages. At the separation in Belgrade the young girl and the serbian family cry while in Bosnia, Muslims, Croats and Serbs kill each other… The case of the young girl disappears in the negociations, but the prisonner exchange still occur. The Ivanović get their son back, and help the young muslim girl to get to Austria where she meets her uncle, and then fly to the United States. Srdjan stayed in Toulouse and still feels in the exile the pain Kusturica expresses on the disasters of the past. “We left, we're somewhere… We're from a country that doesn't exist anymore” he says while he waits to see Life is a miracle…

7 may 2004

6 video extracts of Life is a miracle are available on Allociné website. 3 extracts in original language, 3 in French :
- Extract 1 : the depressive donkey (F)
- Extract 2 : Miloš goes to the army (F)
- Extract 3 : breakfast with Sabaha (F)
- Extract 4 : the opening of the railroad (O), also on the DVD
- Extract 5 : Bombs falling (O)
- Extract 6 : Love… (O)
Press projections were made in april, the first critics ca be read in may magazines. The first critics of Life is a miracle are online : the notes are pretty good !
In the archives of Le Monde, I found a scream Emir Kusturica wrote on april 24th 1992 when Sarajevo was burning.
In the last news, it was meant to be “saterday may 8th” for the broadcast date of the film and documentary on CinéCinéma.

4 may 2004

The original film soundtrack is released today in France. Joyfully delirious, it makes us think of the atmospheres of Black Cat, White Cat, but also of the sad melodies of Time of the Gypsies, as well as the fanfares of Underground… In short, the perfect music ! Moreover, it is accompanied by a bonus DVD including two extracts of the film, the clip Unza Unza Time and a gallery of pictures, which will give us patience to wait until May 14. FNAC musicstores offer a CD with 3 extra titles.
2004 tour dates will be regularly updated on the No Smoking Orchestra page.
Independant cinema French magazine Brazil put Emir Kusturica on cover. After the “5 stars” critic of the film Life is a miracle, the magazine gives a 8 pages interview with the director. Always in the same magazine, after an interview with Vincent Gallo, we witness quite a tough verbal fight between the two men, through their interviews.
Two new Interviews were added : one of july 2000, published in L'Evénement du Jeudi, the other in april 1988, published in Le Monde.
CinéCinéma loves Emir Kusturica ! In may, the satellite television company has an interesting programme :
- Saterday may 8 on CinéCinéma Premier : 22h15, Emir Kusturica Girald Fox documentary, 2000.
- Saterday may 8 on CinéCinéma Premier : 23h00, Black Cat, White Cat
- Monday may 17 on CinéCinéma Auteur : 21h00, Do you remember Dolly Bell ?
- Monday may 17 on CinéCinéma Auteur : 22h50, Emir Kusturica, tender Barbarian, new documentary by Marie-Christine Malbert, 2004.
- Monday may 17 on CinéCinéma Auteur : 23h40, Auteur auteur : Kusturica, light on Emir Kusturica, new, 2004.

Note : Emir Kusturica, tender Barbarian will also be broadcast on friday may 21 at 23.45 on the franco-german channel Arte during a “thema” evening dedicated to Emir Kusturica.

21 april 2004

“Open, original, mixing genres”, such has resumed Thierry Frémaux, artistic director of the 57th festival de Cannes. We now have confimation that Life is a miracle is in official competition for the 57th festival international du film de Cannes. Here are the 18 films in competition :
- 2046 (Wong Kar-Wai)
- Clean (Olivier Assayas)
- Comme une image (Agnès Jaoui)
- Diarios de motocicleta (Walter Salles)
- Edukators (Hans Weingartner)
- Exils (Tony Gatlif)
- Fahrenheit 9/11 (Michael Moore)
- Innocence (Mamoru Oshii)
- Woman is the future of man (Hong Sang-Soo)
- La niña santa (Lucrecia Martel)
- Le conseguenze dell'amore (Paolo Sorrentino)
- Nobody knows (Kore-Eda Hirokazu)
- Old Boy (Park Chan-Wook)
- Shrek 2 (Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, Conrad Vernon)
- The ladykillers (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
- The life and death of Peters Sellers (Stephen Hopkins)
- Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
- Life is a miracle (Emir Kusturica)

With Quentin Tarantino as president, the jury will be composed of Emmanuelle BEART (Actress - France), Edwidge DANTICAT (writer - USA), Tilda SWINTON (Actress - UK), Kathleen TURNER (Actress - USA), Benoît POELVOORDE (Actor, writer - Belgium), Jerry SCHATZBERG (Director - USA), Hark TSUI (Director - Hong-Kong), Peter VON BAGH (Critic - Finland). The festival will run from 12 to 23 may.

Meanwhile, Emir Kusturica can already be seen in Pas assez de volume (notes sur l'OMC), the new film of Vincent Glenn. Director of Davos, Porto Alegre and other battles, released in january 2003, Vincent Glenn signs there a documentary in the continuity of his militant activities. Mainly built on interviews with politicians, economists and artists (former president of OMC, Mike Moore, economy Nobel Prize Joseph Stiglitz, as well as Susan Gorge, José Bové, Harlem Désir or Emir Kusturica), the film also contains archive footage, concerts extracts, photographic works as well as a personnal touch of the director with a sardonic humour.

19 april 2004

Emir Kusturica and the No Smoking Orchestra will tour just after the festival de Cannes ! Here are the first dates of what is going to be a world tour !
- june 5th : Istanbul
- june 17th : Paris, Grand Rex
- july 12th : Istres (France)
- july 13th : Lyon (France)
- july 30th : Saint-Jean de Luz (France)
- juy 31st : Montpellier (France)
- august, 1st : Langon (France)
The film soundtrack will be released on may 4th 2004. The album will contain the music of the film plus 5 extra tracks. The “collector” edition will be accompanied by a DVD (no information on this DVD for the moment). This album can already be pre-ordered on Amazon.fr (who ships worldwide).
Life is a miracle will be released in Belgium on june 2nd 2004.

14 april 2004

The french poster of new movie Life is a miracle is revealed.
New Interviews of Emir Kusturica were added, from 1989 to 2004.
Recently inteviewed about his new film Coffee & cigarettes, Jim Jarmusch said : ”Finally, an extensible family has created. It contains people I put in my movies, and others I consider as my pairs : Aki Kaurismaki, Claire Denis, Emir Kusturica… people of my generation who make cinema by love for this kind of art.”

6 avril 2004

The trailer of Life is a miracle is soon going to be screened in theatres.
Tender Barbarian, the Marie-Christine Malbert documentary on Emir Kusturica will be broadcast on Satellite channel Ciné-Cinéma on may 14th 2004. It will also be included as a bonus in the belgian DVD (Cinéart), scheduled for 2005.
The official international website www.lifeisamiracle-themovie.com is now open.
A new interview, from february 2001 was added. Emir speaks politics, rasons why he gave up some projects, and a new movie… The Nose ! Thank you Jelena for the translation.
The last news on Duran-Duboi was, of course, an april fool…

1st april 2004

Last minute : After having seen compatriot Enki Bilal's new movie, Emir Kusturica felt much impressed by the progress in computer animation and the savoir-faire of French company Duran-Duboi, who is also responsible for the special effects of Life is a miracle !. A graphic designer from Duran-Duboi told me Emir asked them very recently to quickly find the 3D models of the fish used in the dream sequences of Arizona Dream in order to add it as a joke in the new film. This will not be the first time Emir self quotes, neither that he peforms last minute modifications to a film just before its screening at Cannes…
French official site www.lavieestunmiracle.com is open ! The english version www.lifeisamiracle-themovie.com should follow soon.
The transfer of kustu.com website to the new host was done without any problem. Bandwidth is increased by 10 and should be able to greet the new visitors expected for the new film…
Release date in France has been rescheduled to 14th may 2004. This date should match the screening date in Cannes. But nothing is sure yet before the official press conference on april 15th.
French distributor will make 150 copies in France. As a comparison, at the same time, Pedro Almodovar's “La Mala Educacion” will have 300 copies, and “Kill Bill 2” 500.
The site still grows… a new section : Religion which will soon be getting some more information.

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Sat, 24 Mar 2007 23:35:12 +0200

News [Archives - 3rd quarter 2004]

28 september 2004

Life is a miracle was screened on 25th september in Küstendorf, near Mokra Gora, surrounded by many people, among whom Serbia prime-minister Vojislav Koštunica. Despite the rain (but since Mokra Gora means wet mountain, it was a good sign…), everything was perfect. As the film stops the screenings in France at 536.000 entries in 18 weeks, the career of the film is going to start in the other countries.

A new TV commercial Emir Kusturica has directed is online : the one for the French bank Banque Populaire. Result of a 16 days expedition in Mongolia, this film shows once more the fascination of Emir Kusturica for great landscapes and nomad people.
About the DVD releases…
- The DVD of Life is a miracle should not be released before end 2004, or more likely begin 2005. In theory, the film should be released in november 2004, but it won't be ready. Content of the “bonus” is till under negociation : will there be the CD-Rom for French Education Nationale, Marie-Christine Malbert's documentary “Tender Barbarian” ? It is not sure yet. But, for sure, there will be a making-of.
- Underground is scheduled for DVD release in Fance by TF1 video in the first quarter 2005. The DVD was released in Germany this summer, and already exists in Belgium and the USA.
- After the success of the release in theatres of Time of the Gypsies in France, Carlotta films is now thinking (at last !) a DVD release of the masterpiece. It is also scheduled for the first quarter 2005.
Emir has, as always, many projects in head, but he should start working on a new film within the next months.

20 september 2004

Two new sections on the site : the first one, dedicated to the TV Commercials Emir Kusturica has shot. A first film (Ali Baba) is available in streaming, other ones should be soon available.
The other new section… ? You to find it !
A new homage : the one paid to Jean Renoir, mainly through the bear hunt scene in his last film Life is a miracle.
Some information were added on the film Strawberries in the supermarket, by Dušan Milić, in which Emir plays a small part.
Emir Kusturica was decorated honourable citizen of Užice, where he spent a lot of time while shooting Life is a miracle.

2 september 2004

Emir Kusturica received in Belgrade, the King Stephan prize, as a reward for his whole career.
A new page gives now information on Küstendorf, the village Emir is building in Serbia.
Guča festival, the largest de trumpet meeting in the world took place like every year, in this little village of de Serbia, from august 4 to 8. Like the past years, it's one more time the Boban Marković Orkestar that made the best show… A section is now dedicated to this group in the gypsy music page.
Two Concerts in septembre in Italy are now annoucned : on september the 16th the No Smoking Orchestra will be in Lucca di Toscana, and on the 18th in Roma. Let us mention also that the film Life is a miracle will be released on italian screen on december 3rd.

7 august 2004

Emir Kusturica talks about the Palme d'or, given to Michael Moore's Farenheit 9/11 whereas his new film was in competition :

”It's strange to me that a jury that started its work with extensive declarations about the importance and purpose of the film industry ended up by giving the Golden Palm to reportage, the entire importance of which is that it is trying to intervene and influence the election of the next American president. What is the difference between one American president and another ? I wonder. They're all really the same, they're all products of the media and they all declare that they want the same thing - to do well by the people and bring peace to the Middle East.”

Federico Fellini deserved to be in the homages section. It is now done, with photos that leave no doubt on the relevance of Emir's nickname : the Fellini of the Balkans…
Release dates of the film Life is a miracle are not already known in many countries, but here are the confirmed ones :
- Russia, 2 September 2004
- Argentina, 9 September 2004
- Netherlands, 7 October 2004
- Germany, 11 november 2004
- Finland, 25 December 2004
- Czech Republic, april 2005

28 july 2004

4 new dates in France are announced for the 2004 tour of the No Smoking Orchestra :
- 13 october in Saint Martin d'Hères
- 15 october in Toulouse
- 16 october in Nancy (with Rachid Taha)
- 20 october in Lille

Many other concerts (but not yet confirmed) will take place in Italy, Germany, Spain, and then in South America in 2005.

Šaban Bajramović, the gypsy king of Serbia was added in the gypsy music page.
Gypsy music again, but in another kind : Ysa Ferrer has remixed the title Ederlezi in a techno-style. audio extracts can be heard on the official site : www.ysaferrer.com.
Press review : after the recent re-release in France of Time of the Gypsies, famous french magazine Télérama mentioned the site :

The least we can say, is that Matthieu Dhennin loves Kusturica. The site he made on the director overflows of information. From the biography of the director to the files of ex-Yugoslavia, it abounds like in a film of the great Emir. It would be a pity that such a site remains underground…

DVD releases : on july 20th was released in Germany the Underground DVD with a 5.1 german version (where the serbian original version is only in 2.0 !) with the belgian edition bonuses. On august 30th shall be released in Great Britain the Arizona Dream DVD, but with no bonus.

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News [Archives - 4th quarter 2004]

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 23:12:44 +0200

News [Archives - 4th quarter 2004]

8 december 2004

Life is a miracle french DVD content has been announced by Studio Canal. It will be a double disc edition with :
- The film in original language (serbian) 5.1 subtitled in French and in French language 5.1
- deleted scenes
- making-of
- masterclass by Emir Kusturica
- DVD rom from the CD done for the prix de l'éducation nationale received at Cannes 2004

This DVD will be released on 7th february 2005.

French DVD of Underground is still scheduled for 17th march 2005. A new information was received : the DVD is announced as a “double DVD collector”, but no information on the bonus.
Emir Kusturica has finished shooting of the short film for UNESCO. This piece is called ”Blue Gypsy” and tells the story of a gypsy who “tries” to become an honnest guy despite his environment. It's Stribor, Emir's son who wrote the script. Let us remind that the other direcors of this project are Mehdi Charef, Kátia Lund, Jordan & Ridley Scott, Stefano Veneruso et John Woo. The film should be released in 2006.
On 24th november, Emir Kusturica celebrated his 50th birthday on stage in Köln (Germany) with the No Smoking Orchestra

15 november 2004

Tour dates of The No Smoking Orchestra are regularly updated. Feel free to come back on the page from time to time.
“Tender Barbarian”, Marie-Christine Malbert's documentary will be presented at the rencontres du cinéma européen in Aubenas (France), from 15 to 21 november 2004. Emir Kusturica should have also been there, but he had to cancel because he's still shooting the short movie for UNESCO (All the invisible children). All the information on this festival : rencontres.cinema.free.fr.
“Tender Barbarian” will also be screened at Bucharest's festival in Romania, at the end of november.
Emir Kusturica won lawsuit against Andrej Nikolaidis, montenegrin journalist, who had in may published an article describing Emir Kusturica as “a media star of the Milošević war machine”. A Podgorica tribunal has judged that Nikolaidis had slandered Kusturica and damaged his reputation and that he should pay 5000 euros to the director.

20 october 2004

Life is a miracle is released in Quebec on december 3, 2004 and in Spain january 21st, 2005. After one month, the film has alredy been seen by 80.000 people in Serbia-Montenegro.
The “Life is a miracle tour” continues on its success ! Each evening, the concerts are sold-out… Two new dates are announced : people of Moscow and Saint-Petersburg in Russia will have the possibility to see Emir Kusturica and his group have fun on stage, in december.
It's official : TF1 video will release Underground in DVD in France on march 17th, 2005. Precise content of the DVD will be announced here as soon as possible.
Also, the world first DVD release of Time of the Gypsies is confirmed. It is scheduled for march 2005.
A new TV Commercials Emir Kusturica has directed in the 90's is online : the one for Parisienne, swiss cigarette brand. On the theme of the fire and the circus, the film is smooth and aesthetic. We also hear a rearanged version of a well-known tune of Goran Bregović.
A new section on the Kočani Orkestar in the gypsy music page.
On satellite channel Mezzo, on friday october 29th at 22.00 will be broadcast the Christophe Touslain documentary : “Jazz festival - L'été indien : Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra aux Nuits atypiques de Langon 2004”.
Some little changes on the site, among which new film posters.

6 octobre 2004

Emir & Maja Kusturica at the première screening of the film Life is a miracle in Belgrade.
Life is a miracle DVD is scheduled for release in France on 7th febuary 2005.
The concerts list was updated with dates in Zürich, Stockholm, Wien and other. And for his 50th birthday, Emir will be with his group in Köln, on 24th november !
A new TV commercial Emir Kusturica has shot is online : the one for XS perfume, by Paco Rabanne.
Emir shall soon shoot the short film he promised to UNICEF, for the project All the invisible children. It's Stribor Kusturica who has written the script. 6 other directors also work on this project : Mehdi Charef, Kátia Lund, Jordan & Ridley Scott, Stefano Veneruso and John Woo.
The Centre Culturel de Serbie et Monténégro in Paris organises on october, 12 a concert for the reconstruction of Chilandar monastery.
…and many other changes, here or there…

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News [Archives - 1st quarter 2005]

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 23:06:18 +0200

News [Archives - 1st quarter 2005]

7 march 2005

The release of Do you remember Dolly Bell ? and When father was away on business on DVD in the USA (zone 1, NTSC) is announced for 12th april. The DVD are already available for pre-order on Amazon.com with a 30% discount. It's the first time for both films that they are made available on DVD with english subtitles.
Student of Emir Kusturica at the Columbia University in New York, Giovanni Robbiano talks about his unfinished film Hermano, italian cinema, the “Kustu-class” and their friendship. The exclusive - and passionnating - interview he gave to me can be read here.

26 february 2005

Life is a miracle has won the César (French Academy Award) for the best film of the European Union, ex-aequo with Just a kiss by Ken Loach.
A Forum has been added to the website kustu.com. Several sections have been created :
- A “general” section where you can discuss about all or nothing, about Emir Kusturica and the Balkans, or not, and where you can sell, search or swap objects.
- The films : one forum per film in order to give your own impressions or to ask questions …
- The music : one forum on the No Smoking Orchestra, and another on Goran Bregović.

This forum being brand new, it will seem to be quite empty at the begining, but it's up to you to make it living and friendly. I invite you to create an account, and to let it know to your friends. The direct address of the forum is : http://forum.kustu.com. I am the moderator of this forum and I'll keep an eye on the discussions. I count on you ! Only one constraint : please write in english so that a maximum of people can participate. I'll keep listening to your comments : the sections may evolve according to there use.

22 february 2005

Stored a long time in The drawer, Maradona documentary project is now more than ever in Emir's mind. Indeed, after the tour in South America, whenb the rest of the band gets back to Europe, Emir shall stay in Argentina in order to shoot the first pictures at Diego Maradona's daughter's birthday. We know Emir Kusturica's passion for football (since when father was away on business until the memorable scene of Life is a miracle), it's in fact Diego Maradona himself who has chosen Emir Kusturica to take care of his image, and to restore the harmony within his family. Some sequences should then be shot in Napoli (Italy), Barcelona (Spain) and in Cuba, for a shooting length of 5 months (nevertheless the No Smoking Orchestra tour, and the Cannes festival jury presidence). This film isn't included in the StudioCanal contract, we can guess it will be produced by Rasta internationnal, Maja and Emir Kusturica's production company.
The belgian edition of Life is a miracle DVD released in the beginning of february contains Marie-Christine Malbert's documentary Tender Barbarian in place of the DVD-Rom part.

21 february 2005

Complete information on Emir Kusturica's very first movies now are present in the before Dolly Bell page, and mostly on The brides are coming (1978), a film treating of incest, and Titanic (1979), adaptated from an Ivo Andrić novel and which was already announcing Underground.
On 20th april at the Zénith in Paris, the Cabaret des Triplettes (music from the animation film Les Triplettes de Belleville, aka Belleville rendez-vous) will make the opening of the concert of the No Smoking Orchestra.
New dates are announced for the tour :
- 16/06/05 : Tarbes, France
- 17/06/05 : Biarritz, France
- 18/06/05 : Bilbao, Spain
- 20/06/05 : Toulouse, France
- 21/06/05 : Avignon, France
Emir Kusturica will direct a TV commercial for russian ketchup brand Baltimor.
And don't forget to visit the symbols : new pictures were added to them.

11 february 2005

French editor TF1 video will finally release on april 22nd 2005 Underground in a collector 3 DVD edition :
- DVD 1 : the film in French language
- DVD 2 : the film in Serbian language with French subtitles
- DVD 3 :
  - previously unreleased documents
  - interviews & behind-the-stage
  - trailers
  - diaporama
  - filmographies
  - shooting picture book

As encoding for both languages is on two discs, we can expect a high DVD transfer quality. For the moment, we have no information on the exact content of the “previously unreleased documents”. This collector set is already available for pre-order on Amazon.fr for 24.98 euros, shipping worldwide.

DVD again, the one of Life is a miracle is now officially available in 3 countries : Russia, Belgium and France. Quality is gorgeous and reproduces greatly the specific landscapes colours of the film. As for the bonus, the making-of gives an interesting look at the people who are behind this neverending shooting. Content of the bonus and the DVD-Rom will soon be more detailed.
DVD finally, the one of Time of the Gypsies, initially scheduled for march 2005, is delayed Sine die. There are still some copyrights problems to solve…
The No Smoking Orchestra tour goes on. New dates are in bold :
- 02/03/05 - Santiago, Chili
- 03/03/05 - Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 05/03/05 - Cordoba, Argentina
- 06/03/05 - Rosario, Argentina
- 08/03/05 - Neuquén, Argentina
- 10/03/05 - Cordoba, Argentina
- 12/03/05 - Mar del Plata, Argentina
- 15/03/05 - Medellin, Colombia
- 16/03/05 - Bogota, Colombia
- 09/04/05 - Vilnius, Lituania (warning, the date of this concert has changed, and is not definitively confirmed)
- 12/04/05 - Riga, Latvia
- 19/04/05 - Bourges, France
- 20/04/05 - Paris (Zenith), France
- 22/04/05 - Strasbourg, France
- 06/07/05 - Athens, Greece
- 07/07/05 - Athens, Greece
- 19/07/05 - Perpignan, France
- 21/07/05 - Bollene, France
- 23/07/05 - Nice, France
- 04/08/05 - Crozon, France
Regarding the Cannes Film Festival 2005, for which Emir Kusturica will be president of the jury : if you between 18 and 25, you can participate at the young jury :

A call for candidates is launched by ministery of youth for the Prix de la Jeunesse of the next Cannes festival, that will take place from may 11 to 22.
60 young people coming from all regions of France and all member countries of the European Union are invited by the Ministery to participate to the Cannes festival and to express their artistic point of views. Nine will constitute the Jury-jeunes, which will give the 24th Prix de la Jeunesse to a film chosen between the two official selections (Official Compétition and Un Certain Regard).
In order to participate to the Prix de la Jeunesse, the candidates must be between 18 and 25 years old and send before march 15th 2005, the following documents to the Centre régional d'Information Jeunesse (CRIJ) :

a CV
four ID pictures
a motivation letter
A 2 to 4 pages letter explaining their feelings with cinema et with films through the theme of this year : the look.

All the peopl pre-selected will participate at the actions proposed around the Prix de la Jeunesse : workshops, documentaries, projections and debates.
Last year, the jury-jeune, which was composed of seven young cinephiles, gave the Prix de la Jeunesse to the hungarian film KONTROLL by Nimrod Antal, presented in the section Un Certain Regard.

2 february 2005

Life is a miracle is nominated for the French academy awards, the Césars for the best European Union Film. The ceremony will take place on 26th february 2005. The film will be opposed to Just a kiss by Ken Loach, La mala educacion by Pedro Almodovar, Mondovino by Jonathan Nossiter, and Saraband by Ingmar Bergman.
Here are the new dates of the No Smoking Orchestra tour :
- 02/03/05 - Santiago, Chili
- 03/03/05 - Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 05/03/05 - Cordoba, Argentina
- 12/03/05 - Mar del Plata, Argentina
- 15/03/05 - Medellin, Colombia
- 10/04/05 - Vilnius, Lituania
- 12/04/05 - Riga, Latvia
- 19/04/05 - Bourges, France
- 20/04/05 - Paris (Zenith), France
- 22/04/05 - Strasbourg, France
- 19/07/05 - Perpignan, France
- 21/07/05 - Bollene, France
- 23/07/05 - Nice, France

Many other concerts are also being prepared, and can still not be officially announced, but be aware that the tour will continue at least until september 2005…

At Mokra Gora, near Küstendorf, Emir Kusturica is fighting against a british nickel mining company that threathens to spoil the magnificent landscapes seen in Life is a miracle. The mining company has had the necessary authorizations despite the reluctance of the government. That's why local authorities have asked UNESCO to put the site in the Man & Biosphere plan.

21 january 2005

Emir Kusturica will be the president of the 58th Cannes Film Festival, which will take place from may 11 to may 22 ! After having received 2 Palmes d'or for When father was away on business and Underground, as well as the prix de la mise en scène for Time of the Gypsies and last year the prix de l'éducation nationale for Life is a miracle, Emir Kusturica is used to the Croisette : two years ago, he was president of the jury of the shorts films. He just declares : ”I want to thank the Festival de Cannes which, twice, has given to my films the golden palm (…). Now, it's my turn to defend the valeurs of the Festival : my mission as the president of the jury is to place the aesthetic and the artistic at the heart of the event.”. Emir Kusturica will succeed to Quentin Tarantino at the prestigious title of Président du jury, once the world tour with the No Smoking Orchestra is finished. Emir also loves to say “I was born several times, and one of my births took place in Cannes”…
On january 27 2005 will be released in Hungary the DVD of When father was away on business. Those who speak hungarian can order it on http://www.netpiac.hu
Many new posters of the films from all over the world were added in the website. Thanks to Robert B. for his help !

5 january 2005

Best wishes for 2005 !
Life is a miracle DVD is now available for rent in France since january 3rd. No interactivity (for the commercial version, we have to wait for february 7th), but choice between French and Serbian languages.
In 2005, Emir Kusturica continues touring with his band ; they are going to fly to South America in february. This tour is a huge success : all the concerts are sold out weeks in advance, and the group members take a great pleasure every evening. Next dates are :
- 09/01/05 - Logrono, Spain (ACTUAL Film Festival)
- 12/01/05 - Barcelona, Spain
- 14/01/05 - Madrid, Spain
- 15/01/05 - Murcia, Spain
- 17/01/05 - Lisboa, Portugal
- 03/02/05 - Haïfa, Israel
- 05/02/05 - Tel Aviv, Israel
- 25/02/05 - Mexico, Mexico (Film festival)
New Interviews (may 2004 and september 99) were added.
The tour should last a few months more, and then Emir shall return to Küstendorf where some new challenges are waiting for him.

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News [Archives - 2nd quarter 2005]

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 22:52:39 +0200

News [Archives - 2nd quarter 2005]

15 june 2005

Küstendorf school opens this summer ! The programme is called ”Art is (not) in transition” and is oriented on the transition in the Balkans from communism to capitalism. The students shall have one the possibility to apply for one week cinema lessons with Emir Kusturica himself, for music lessons or scenography lessons. The price (650 € for the lessons with Emir Kusturica, and 250 € for the other) include lodging in the village. Be careful, inscriptions are taken into account until 20th june only ! For more information, please contact : medjunar@arts.bg.ac.yu.

Küstendorf again : Emir Kusturica's village just won the prestigious Philippe Rotthier architecture prize for the building of a city. This prize, exists for more than 25 years and is given every three years. 68 different projects were selected from 15 european countries. The jury rewards the director and musician who reproduced the original architecture of his country as a peace and reconciliation factor, and a booster for the touristic ecnomony of the area. All the information on the foundation : www.fondationpourlarchitecture.be.
The Maradona project is going on : Kusturica and Maradona have met Vojislav Koštunica in Belgrade. Kusturica wants to replay the famous goal Maradona scored in 1982 as a player of the spanish club FC Barcelone, by winning 4-2 against Belgrade Red Star.

8 june 2005

The first Serbian Film Festival will take place in Paris from 8 to 13 june at Espace Pierre-Cardin (3, avenue Gabriel, Paris 8e). The festival has Miki Manojlović and Royal Highness Alexandre Karadjordjevic as guests stars. At the programme : Srdjan Koljević, Dušan Kovačević, Rasa Andrić, Miloš Radović. Beside the official selection of six films, we will be able to see the unavoidable Underground, but also a very interesting full screening of the past films of Goran Paskaljević, amon which the famous “Cabaret Balkan” (1999). It is a great occasion to discover all the talents of the Serbian cinema, since they are often hidden by Kusturica. More information on : www.festivaldufilmserbe.com.
Also during the festival, there is a photo exhibition of Marcel Hartmann : “one year with KUSTURICA” (free entrance, open at 2 pm), at espace Pierre Cardin.
We can also admire the superbe work of Marcel Hartmann this month in French cinema magazine Première : he made a great photo reportage behind the scenes of the Cannes festival. The magazine also features pictures taken by Dunja Kusturica, Emir's daughter.
4 new Interviews (translated in english) were added from the very first years of the career of Emir Kusturica. They give a very interesting look at his early work.

21 may 2005

And the winner is … Jean-Pierre et Luc Dardenne, the belgian brothers who receive their second Palme D'or for “L'enfant”. They get into the very close club of the directors who received two Palmes d'Or, next to Emir Kusturica, Bille August, Francis Ford Coppola and Shohei Imamura. The other prizes went to : Jim Jarmusch for Broken flowers (Grand Prix du Jury), Michael Haneke for Caché (Prix de la mise en scène, best director), and Wang Xiaoshuai for Shanghai dreams (prix du Jury). The film of Tomy Lee Jones got two prizes : best actor (himself) and best scenario. Finally, the best actress is the Israeli Hanna Laslo.
In Cannes Emir Kusturica and the No Smoking Orchestra performed a concert for the 30th anniversary of Belgian company CinéArt that released Underground and Life is a miracle both in special editions. We could even see Javier Bardem drumming and Salma Hayek dancing ! This concert will be broadcast on sur Croatia TV sunday at 20.50.
Diego Maradona arrived at Cannes on friday to meet Emir Kusturica. Nothing new was said yet on the documentary project.

10 may 2005

We're at one day before the 58th festival of Cannes, hilighted this year by the great come-back of the auteur cinema and the out-of-competition world première screening of the last episode of “Star Wars”. Note that a 21st film was added to the list of the films in competition : it is “Tales of cinema” by the Korean Hong Sangsoo. Among the other news, this year are two important innovations :
- The “Atelier du Festival” aims at presenting 18 projects of films coming from 18 different countries and to find their necessary fundings when more and more films under development are proposed to the buyers on the market of films.
- The new theatre “Cinéma du monde” should allow to “show the diversity of the world cinema” by making discovering the production in countries where film industry is poorly known. Then beside Morocco, South Africa, Austria, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Mexico and Peru shall contribute to widen the field of propesction in the festival, when the asiatic and latino-american continents already have their entrances.
After a one year inquiry and many interviews, on the complex personnality of Emir Kusturica, Dan Halpern has made an important article for the New York Times. Printed this week end, this very interesting article is available in the Interviews section, in english of course, but also in French language.
A CD and a video DVD of the No Smoking Orchestra tour will soon be released. It will be a concert recorded in Buenos Aires last march.
Emir Kusturica has directed a commercial for a famous fruit juice brand in Serbia : “Next”. Having more film than needed, he might decide to make a short film out ot it.
In a recent interview, Emir Kusturica has announced that the railway station he bought in Herceg Novi (small town in Montenegro on the Adriatic coast) will be transformed in Cultural Center. Opening should be at the autumn.
More than 1000 people came to visit Küstendorf during the only week of Easter. The cinema plays documentaries, and the ”(A)Torzija” by Stefan Arsenijević, based on a script of Abdulah Sidran. New pictures of the site were added in the page.
Goran Bregović will reform this summer his first mythical band : Bijelo Dugme for a few concerts : 15th june in Sarajevo (stadion Kosevo), 22nd june in Zagreb (stadion Dinama) and 28th june in Belgrade (Hipodrom).

19 april 2005

Emir Kusturica finally met Diego Maradona in april in Argentina. Both “geniuses” had a nice time together, and their involvement seem to be important.
Release of Do you remember Dolly Bell ? and When father was away on business on DVD in the USA (zone 1, NTSC) is postponed to 26th april.
An important precision on the 3 DVD collector set of Underground : picture restauration was made by CMC laboratory. There were more than 20 hours of computer graphical process in order to eliminate many imperfections on the picture. A very low compression rate also enabled to keep a maximum of sharpness, and the resultat can't be compared to the other DVD editions.
When the band is ready to put the fire to the Zénith in Paris, a new date is announced for the No Smoking Orchestra tour : 17th july in Montpellier (France).
The official selection of the Cannes Film Festival was announced this morning. Here are the 20 films in competition :
- A History of Violence - David Cronenberg (Canada)
- L'enfant - Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne (Belgium)
- Where the Truth Lies - Atom Egoyan (Canada)
- Free Zone - Amos Gitaï (Israel)
- The Best of our Times - Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Taïwan)
- Broken Flowers - Jim Jarmusch (USA)
- The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada - Tommy Lee Jones (USA)
- Bashing - Masahiro Kobayashi (Japan)
- Sin City - Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez (USA)
- Batalla en el cielo - Carlos Reygadas (Mexico)
- Kilometer zero - Hiner Saleem (Iraq)
- Election - Johnny To (Hong-Kong)
- Quando sei nato non puoi più nasconderti - Marco Tullio Giordana(Italy)
- Last Days - Gus Van Sant (USA)
- Manderlay - Lars von Trier (Danemark)
- Shanghai Dreams - Wang Xiaoshuai (China)
- Don't Come Knockin' - Wim Wenders (Germany)
- Hidden - Michael Haneke (France)
- Peindre ou faire l'amour - Arnaud & Jean-Marie Larrieu (France)
- Lemming - Dominik Moll (France) - opening of the festival
Several remarks :
- no animation films, this year, no documentary either
- Danis Tanović's and Ahmed Imamovic's films were not selected.
- The festival is clearly under the sign of the auteur cinema.
- The films have in common two big themes : paternity and the violence in the world.
- Star Wars III - revenge of the Sith will be screened out of competition.
And finally, along with this list, here is the “word of the president of the jury”, Emir Kusturica :

Being President of the Jury is a great occasion to pay homage to the cinema and to the work of a director. I like to pay attention to all identities and their expression, aprehend reality under different points of views.
I'm feeling the soul of a leader and I'll take care the Jury can express its point of view and expose its vision of cinema. We will watch the films with great attention and discuss them afterwhile the most freely possible. The cinema fives the sense of collaboration, sharing.
Each film if the result of a personal vision of reality. I've always considered my own films as the expression of an art but also of an amusement, because films are basicly a way to connect the people and the things.
On the set of Life is a miracle, in the middle of the mountains, I built a village : Küstendorf. Those who want to make cinema, concerts, painting or keramic shall be able to come there to live for a time. It seems to me the Festival de Cannes is like this, an international village, dedicated to sharings, cinematographic and human meetings. Spectators are always hungry, curious and demanding.
I dream this place being open to cultural diversity, to all the arts and that it connects tight and strong links between cinema and music. Both univers ally perfectly, respond to each other and get richer mutually. I tend to consider creation the same way when I'm shooting and when I'm on stage : the point is to give structure to a material. Moreover, music can be seen before being played. And regarding cinema, it seems to me the the mixed art per excellency. And if I take so much of my time now to cross the world for my concerts, the feeling of this ” one shot ” experience, I'm first of all, a cinema director.

2 april 2005

Yesterday's news was of course an april fool. Nevertheless, the Maradona film is going to become reality tomorrow : on sunday 3rd april will be the 100th anniversary of the Boca Juniors, the famous football culb of Argentina where Maradona started to play. Emir Kusturica has just left Belgrade for Argentina : the first pictures are going to be shot. We know very little what will be this film ; except what Emir Kusturica told the press : ”It will be a totally idealistic vision of the argentine football star” ; ”The structure of the documentary will be very complex, it will re-establish the truth on his life”. Some scenes will be shot in Italy, in Barcelona, and in Cuba where Emir Kusturica wishes to meet Fidel Castro, big friend of Maradona.
Football seems to interest cinema these days, and it's no less than 5 film projects on this subject that are being prepared. Amon those, let's notice another Maradona project by Marco Risi, and a collective of short films for the Germany World Cup 2006 for which Emir Kusturica is committed, as well as Kenneth Branagh, Jean-Jacques Beneix, Werner Herzog, Ulrich Seidl and Abderrahmane Sissako. This film could be présented at the Berlin Film Festival in 2006.
Having seen the DVD of the Underground collector set that is due to be released in France on april 22, I put an article on the film page (article written for the excellent French site Cadrage.net, that made the content of the educational CDRom of Life is a miracle). The result is even better than expected : the picture and sound quality are absolutely incredible : completely remastered for the release, each of both DVD proposes the film with a dts 5.1 soundtrack (in original or in French language). “dts” sound is amazing : the brass bands, the bombs, the animals seem to be in the room : we're in the middle of a zoon, we're in the cave, we're inside the film… On the third DVD, a regret with the missing bonus “interviews and backstage”, but the sole presence of the very good making-of (Shooting Days) by Aleksandar Manić, deserves the investment. Regarding the languages, only French subtitles are availableon the Original version disc, the bonus have a French audio commentary, and the interviews are in original languages, subtitled in French. All in all, it's a great set, truly collector, which really pays homage to the masterpiece.
The South America tout was shortened for family reasons, and the band is sincerly sorry for the argentine and colombian public, which must be very frustrated. Nevertheless, now the tour continues : in Bourges, beside the No Smoking Orchestra the public shall be able to hear the great Rona Hartner (Gadjo Dilo).
New pictures of Küstendorf where we see Emir Kusturica with prime minister Vojislav Koštunica, and the Prince of Serbia.
For the first time ever, Time of the Gypsies has been released on DVD in Slovenia. Nevertheless, this edition only proposes slovenian subtitles. A complete review of this DVD will soon be on the site.

1st april 2005

Emir Kusturica has announced it this morning to the argentine newspaper La Razòn : he will himself play the football player Diego Armando Maradona in the fiction scenes for the new movie. The director justified the idea : “I always thought I was the best director among the football players, and the best football player among the directors. Today, I'm going to show what I can do on a playground. Of course, I don't pretend to have the same level as Diego, but I think I can imitate his play in a serious way.” Only remains the problem of size : “Diego is a little bit smaller than me, concedes Emir Kusturica, but we are going to correct this on the computer.” Filming should take place this summer in Argentina, in Spain and in Italy, as soon as the festival de Cannes, where Emir Kusturica will be president, will be closed.

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News [Archives - 3rd quarter 2005]

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 22:36:54 +0200

News [Archives - 3rd quarter 2005]

21 september 2005

All the invisible children has now a website :
www.alltheinvisiblechildrenmovie.com. We can find information and pictures of each of the 7 short films, including of course Blue Gypsy, the one by Emir Kusturica.
Live is a miracle in Buenos Aires DVD is available for pre-order on Amazon.fr. Even if the audio CD is gorgeous, the DVD really makes the experience more crazy :
- the show is longer (5 tracks more than the CD !)
- Sound is mixed in 5.1
- The DVD has a bonus documentary shot in Küstendorf.
Fashion is in the DVD box sets :
- In France, a double DVD set will be released on 3 october with Life is a miracle and Arizona Dream. No bonus, thus, but the set is sold at the price of a single film.
- In France too, and still for 3 october, it's a Johnny Depp 3 DVD set that will group Arizona Dream, The Man who cried and The Ninth Gate.
- In Belgium, Cinéart made a 7 DVD set with 7 Palmes D'or : Underground, Secret & Lies, Rosetta, Dancer in the Dark, La Chambre du Fils, The Pianist, and Elephant. For the festival lovers !
- And in Russia, Life is a miracle and Black Cat, White Cat are packaged together.

14 september 2005

The end-of-study short film Guernica Emir Kusturica made in Prague will finally be released on DVD, with other first short films of famous authors such as Lars von Trier, Roman Polanski, Ridley Scott, Terry Gilliam… Named “Le court des grands”, this edition is the achievement of a great work by Julien Hossein of Europacorp. Release is scheduled for 30 november 2005.
The Live is a miracle in Buenos Aires CD can now be ordered from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de as well as from Amazon.fr. The track-listing previously mentioned was the one of the live CD. The DVD has more tracks, among which Karakaj, Evergreen and Mornari Plove. The DVD had been filmed by 6 different cameras during the memorable Buenos Aires show, rendering truly the atmosphere of the night. Release is still scheduled for 27 september. A trailer of the DVD can be seen on nosmokingorchestra.com. This twin CD & DVD release is the occasion for the band to switch to the independant label Palass, distributed by Warner.
Moreover, the website of the band was seriously re-designed and has many surprises, such as songs or video-clips to download : thenosmokingorchestra.com
The cinema lessons session in Küstendorf went on very well. The students were coming from Bulgaria, Great-Britain, Greece, Sweden, Belgium and Serbia & Montenegro. Students said Emir was a passionating teacher and he transmitted his experience and knowledge to the students. During the session, a writing exercise allowed Emir to choose 2 scenarii : “THE WEDDING CABBAGE” by Zeljko Mirković (Serbia & Montenegro) and “AURORA” by Isabelle Eklöf (Sweden). Zeljko and Isabelle could then shoot and edit their own film with the help of the other students. Both films were screened on the last evening in the “Underground” cinema in the village. Zeljko Mirković : ”To learn from Emir Kusturica is a big honor and great motivation for the further work. Emir Kusturica proved himself as a great host and a wonderful professor”.
Rumours start to spread on the new film Emir Kusturica will shoot in 2006. (working) title is ”Promise me this”, and it would tell the story of a son promising his dying grandfather to accomplish three wishes before he dies : go in town sell a cow, buy an icon, and come back with a bride… Discovering the city, the boy would also discover life and love. Emir says it will be a smaller film than Life is a miracle, more intimate.
Life is a miracle is now available with english subtitles, and can be ordered from Amazon.co.uk

20 august 2005

Emir Kusturica was expected in Copenhagen to receive a Golden Swan for his work toward european cinema. But his doctor asked him not to go, invoking a cardiac arrhythmia. His last film Life is a miracle opens the 3rd Copenhagen International Film Festival.
The festival of Guča is over. Dušan Milić managed to shoot “Love meeting in Guča”, his second film (after Strawberries at the Supermarket), also produced by Emir Kusturica, via his company Rasta Films.
Festival again : The one of Sarajevo is just open. Until 27 august, the 11th Sarajevo Film Festival will present many new films, coming from European and regional horizons. Indeed, we can see films from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia and UNMI Kosovo. More information on sff.ba.
The DVD ”Live is a miracle in Buenos Aires” is announced for 27 september. Details of DVD :
- PAL, Zone 2
- Tracks :
  1. Intro
  2. Fatal wounds
  3. Drang nach Osten
  4. Boccherini minuet
  5. Upside down
  6. Ja volim te jos
  7. Meine Stadt
  8. Vasja
  9. Wanted man
  10. Introduction for Romeo
  11. Was Romeo really a jerk ?
  12. Pitbull terrier
  13. Devil in the business class
  14. Bubamara
  15. When life was a miracle
  16. Introduction of the orchestra
- Documentary on the No Smoking Orchestra in Küstendorf
- Photos gallery
The CD of the concert, will be released on 13 september.

27 july 2005

”Live is a miracle in Buenos Aires”, the CD of the Buenos Aires concert is announced for 13 september 2005. It can be ordered on Amazon.fr (worldwide shipping available) at a discount price before its release. The release of the DVD has not been confirmed yet.
The band is resting during the month of august (Emir will be giving cinema lessons in Küstendorf), and in september a few concerts will end this tour, with the “fête de l'Huma” (France, 9 september), then 4 dates in Israel, and at last some big cities in Europe (dates and places not yet confirmed). Then, it will be time for Emir to take his camera back to finish Maradona before…
…starting a new full length film in 2006. No official information for the moment, except that (like for Maradona) the film will be produced by French company Fidélité, the producers of author filmmakers like François Ozon, Cédric Kahn or Bertrand Blier.
Meanwhile there is also the release of the last short film of Emir Kusturica in Take 7 (also called All the invisible children) that will be screened at the Mostra of Venice. Let's recall it is a UNESCO project, and that Emir Kusturica's part is called ”Blue Gypsy”. It is about a young gypsy who “tries” to become honnest. The other directors of this project are Mehdi Charef, Kátia Lund, Jordan & Ridley Scott, Stefano Veneruso, John Woo and Spike Lee. The film will be released in theatres in Germany on 29 december 2005. No other date has been announced yet.
Emir Kusturica was recently baptised serbian orthodox in a monastery of Montenegro.

5 july 2005

Life is a miracle has won the Golden Globe of the best european film. This new prize is attributed the same way the american Golden Globe are : by journalists from all Europe. The prize was given on 2nd july in Rome.
The tour continues until september. Check regularly the No Smoking Orchestra page for the last updates. These are certainly the last dates for a while, because Emir will soon be busy with the Maradona film… and maybe another shooting just after…
Russian editor drugoe-kino.ru has just released the 5h long version of Time of the Gypsies in double DVD ! This long version was edited in 5 episodes, by the Sarajevo Television, with the agreement of Emir Kusturica. We have the incredible chance to discover many new episodes of the tragic destiny of Perhan, adding even more humour and emotion, but also digging the personalities of all the characters. This double DVD is unfortunately only available as a “zone 5 DVD” (Russia), in 5.1 audio original language audio or in russian voice-over, with or without russian (only) subtitles.
Guča festival in Serbia, the most famous brass contest, is going to happen from 1st to 7 august. Some travel agencies propose travel and accomodation packages to live this unique event ! More information on www.guca.co.yu (website to visit with volume turned on, of course !)
Goran Bregović is on tour all the year. After the triumph with his old band Bijelo Dugme, it's with his new opera Karmen that he's going to cross Europe. More information on goranbregovic.com.

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News [Archives - 4th quarter 2005]

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 18:49:41 +0200

News [Archives - 4th quarter 2005]

24 december 2005

The shooting of the documentary on Maradona is over. The music score of the film will be arranged by Manu Chao. The film should be ready for the Football World Cup in Germany in june 2006, and maybe… for the Cannes Film Festival ?
With the concert of the No Smoking Orchestra in Brussels, the Life is a miracle tour is now over. There is (a priori) no more concert scheduled for 2006. But you can still enjoy the party with the CD and the DVD recorded Live is a miracle in Buenos Aires.
The film All the invisible children (in which is the last short film Blue Gypsy by Emir Kusturica) will be released in theatres in Italy on march 3, 2006 and in Germany on april 13, 2006.
In Cuba last november, Emir Kusturica met famous writer Gabriel Garcia-Marquez. They discussed together of a possible adaptation of the novel “El otoño del patriarca” (The Autumn of the Patriarch). This is not the first time Emir Kusturica thinks of filming a novel of Garcia-Marquez (in 1990, he was already thinking about it). This project could be attacked after Promise me this, which he should start filming in february 2006.
The DVD of Life is a miracle is announced in Germany for 11 january 2006. The sound of the DVD is in Gerbian and in German in 5.1, but no info on the bonus. It can be ordered on Amazon.de.
The CD of the concerts Goran Bregović and his old friends of Bijelo Dugme given in 2005 in Sarajevo, Zagreb and Belgrade are on sale on the website yu4you.com.
Best wishes for 2006 !

15 december 2005

24 november 2005

Happy birthday, Emir !

22 november 2005

Emir Kusturica is curently touring in Spain (Madrid and Barcelona). He will shoot the last pictures in the stadium of Barcelone, for his film Maradona. A new Football page was added for the occasion. Editing of the film should be started very soon.
Here are the next (and last ?) dates of the tour :
- 25/11/05 : Berlin, Germany (Arena of Berlin)
- 01/12/05 : Kiev, Ukraine (National Palace)
- 03/12/05 : Lviv, Ukraine (Musical comedy theatre)
- 05/12/05 : Odessa, Ukraine (Sports hall)
- 18/12/05 : Paris, France (Olympia)
- 20/12/05 : Brussels, Belgium (L'Ancienne Belgique)
The DVD Le court des Grands (containing - among others - the short end-of-studies film Guernica), will be released in France is still scheduled for 30 november.
One figure : there has been in 2005 more than 150.000 tourists that came to visit Küstendorf.
In a recent interview Emir Kusturica has talked again of his project of making an opera based on Time of the gypsies in 2007. It's the No Smoking Orchestra that will make the music… On this occasion, for the people who speak serbo-croatian, I suggest this site, dedicated to the memory of the great actor Davor Dujmović : www.perhan.com, site made by Davor's brother.

2 november 2005

Emir Kusturica is in Argentina. He was Monday evening a special guest of Diego Maradona, in his argentine TV show “La noche del 10”, for his 45th birthday. During this show an interview of Fidel Castro by Maradona was shown, and we could see the mutual admiration of both personalities. Emir Kusturica should take advantage of his presence in Argentina to go in the protest train “l'expresso del alba”, from Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata with other personalities such as Diego Maradona and Peace Nobel Prize Adolfo Pérez Esquivel to the Conter-Summit, organised as a response to the Summet of the Americas where Georges W. Bush and 34 Leaders will be present, at notable exception of the one of Cuba. Emir Kusturica will continue the shooting of his film Maradona, and will finish it at the Aztec stadium in Mexico where Maradona signed one of his greatest goals, during the World Cup 1986 against the English team.
There is a new page on the website : it is dedicated to the short films of Emir Kusturica.
The Forum allows now the choice of the interface language between French, English and German. The little cookies problems have been corrected and now your computer will remember your login at your next visits.
The forthcoming dates of the No Smoking Orchestra tour :
- 21/11/05 : Lisbon, Portugal
- 22/11/05 : Madrid, Spain
- 23/11/05 : Barcelona, Spain
- 25/11/05 : Berlin, Germany (Arena of Berlin)
- 01/12/05 : Kiev, Ukraine (National Palace)
- 03/12/05 : Odessa, Ukraine (Sports hall)
- 05/12/05 : Lviv, Ukraine (Musical comedy theatre)
- 18/12/05 : Paris, France (Olympia)
- 20/12/05 : Brussels, Belgium (L'Ancienne Belgique)
An interesting initiative in Brussels : the association [YU]films, proposes to organise once a month a projection of films of any format, any style and any time, from Serbia and Montenegro, along with meetings and debates with the directors, exceptionally invited for the occasion. The projections will take place at Espace Delvaux, Place Keym in Brussels. More information : +32 2 663 85 50, yufilm@gmail.com. The programme starts on 15 november with the short film Pan Hrstka by Goran Paskaljević, and the film Serbia Year Zero (Srbija, Godina Nulta) by Goran Marković, with director Goran Marković. And on 19 december with (A)Torzija (short film by Stefan Arsenijević, Golden Bear in Berlin in 2003) and Sjaj U Ocima by Srdjan Karanović, with director Stefan Arsenijević.

23 october 2005

For the village of Küstendorf, Emir Kusturica has received on saterday 22 october the Philippe Rotthier Prize for the reconstruction of the city, a prestigious european architecture prize given every three years by the Foundation of Architecture in Bruxelles to an original project. A photo exhibition presenting Küstendorf was shown to the press, then officially opened, as well as a temporary exhibition on Alter Architecture. A the same time surprised and enthousiastic by the choice of the jury Emir Kusturica has declared : ”the last place I would have imagined myself recieving a prize is here, in a foundation of architecture ; (…) but the jobs of architect and director are finally very close, in the way where reception of the work by the public is the same. Küstendorf was built with no plan, no mathematics ; it's the fantasy of a director…”. Member of the jury that gave the prize to Küstendorf, French architect Rudy Ricciotti says about the winner : ”After architecture as a way of making cinema with the annual Archilab exhibition, here is at last the cinema as a way of making architecture (…). In Küstendorf the village is a miracle, it makes war to mediocrity”. The complete story with images of these days in Bruxelles.

The Alter-Architecture exhibition will be opened until 26 march 2006, and really deserves a visit for those who are in Brussels !

13 october 2005

8 new concerts of the No Smoking Orchestra are announced :
- 21/11/05 : Lisbone, Portugal
- 23/11/05 : Barcelone, Spain
- 25/11/05 : Berlin, Germany (Arena of Berlin)
- 01/12/05 : Kiev, Ukraine (National Palace)
- 03/12/05 : Odessa, Ukraine (Sports hall)
- 05/12/05 : Lviv, Ukraine (Musical comedy theatre)
- 18/12/05 : Paris, France (Olympia)
- 20/12/05 : Bruxelles, Belgium
On the No Smoking Orchestra website, some video sequences from the live DVD are available for download !

[ News ] Archives :

2011 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter
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2008 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2007 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
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2005 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
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2002
2001

News [Archives - 1st quarter 2006]

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 18:28:20 +0200

News [Archives - 1st quarter 2006]

25 february 2006

Emir Kusturica made yesterday, friday 24 february, the opening of the Belgrade Film Festival :

”It's a great honor for me to be here tonight. You see, I have a military costume, but this time, it's a Dior-Military. It can be very dangerous ! (…) I remember the time when Miloš Forman was here, twenty years ago. He had insisted that I was here too, in Belgrade, to open the festival with him. It was a real honor, and I was very happy to be on his side. He was 25 years older than me, and I considered him already as an old man. I'm here tonight, and I'm 51 years old, but I tell to myself that I grew older at the same time than this festival. We created this festival under the communism, and we can thank Tito for that. For us, american movies were so far away ! We're here today to help this festival to find its own path. My wish is that this festival remains on the auteur cinema.”
With the Belgrade festival, there is also a photo exhibition by Wim Wenders at the Belgrade Contemporary Art Museum.

New concerts by the No Smoking Orchestra were announced :
- 7 april : Berlin (Arena)
- 8 april : Munich (Muffathalle)
- 9 april : Zürich (X-tra)
- 11 april : Wien (Wu)
The first shots of the new film Promise me this were done on 20 february… but the shooting stopped after two days. Work should start again in april. During the press conference at the Belgrade Festival, Emir Kusturica promised the film would be ready for Cannes 2007. It would be the first time he ends a film that quickly ! Let's note Ranko Bozić (scenario writer of Life is a miracle) signed the script of this new film.
At the Berlin Film Festival, this year, the golden Bear was given to young Bosnian filmmaker Jasmila Zbanic, for her film Grbavica, in which Mirjana Karanović has a lead role.
Last : for the fun, and for the party, I recommend the excellent CD Balkan Beat Box.

11 february 2006

The website of the French producer Palass confirms the adaptation by Emir Kusturica of an opera based on his film Time of the Gypsies, with a music by the No Smoking Orchestra. Settings are scheduled at the Opéra Bastille in Paris, in july 2007.
Aleksandar Manić, the director of Underground's making-of Shooting Days has made a documentary on the Rroms of Šutka (the largest Rrom “city”, in Makedonia, near Skopje) : Knjiga Rekorda Šutke. We meet again “actors” from previous films of Emir Kusturica (Black Cat, White Cat and Time of the Gypsies).
On 20 february, Emir Kusturica shall start filming in Serbia his new film Promise me this. The casting is not known yet, but rumours speak of Spanish actor Javier Bardem.
On 24 february, Emir Kusturica will open the International Film Festival of Belgrade. His friend Wim Wenders will be at the closing ceremony, on 4 March.
Last, but not least, I can announce you the very soon release of a book I've written on Emir Kusturica. Published in France, it is entitled Le lexique subjectif d'Emir Kusturica (the subjective lexicon of Emir Kusturica). The book deals more about the man than his work, and tries to draw a portrait made of contrasts, little and big stories, oppositions, fights and friendships, in short : a collection of anecdotes and selected interviews extracts that should allow everyone to better understand the man who hides behind his films. Written as an homage to Milorad Pavić's The dictionary of the Khazars the book is made of various entries, alphabetically sorted, allowing a linear or a transversal reading, at your choice. Complementary to the website, the book should still learn many things to anyone who has already read all the pages, and reciprocally. The book is written in French, and no translation is scheduled for the moment. It will be available in French bookshops and on amazon.fr around mid april.

23 january 2006

The first European Film Festival is taking place these days (from 18 to 27 january) in Algiers. Among the 11 selected films, there is Emir Kusturica's last film Life is a miracle.
The No Smoking Orchestra is currently working in the studios to record the soundtrack of Emir Kusturica's next film : Promise me this. The shooting should start in february in Serbia.
Rumours say Maradona could be presented at the next Cannes Film Festival. The film should then be released in theatres, on 23rd may. After Emir Kusturica, the president of the jury this year will be Wong Kar Wai. Last information : it's The Da Vinci Code that will open the festival.
The DVD of Life is a miracle is now available in Italy and in Germany.
The website of the producer of the CD and DVD Live is a miracle in Buenos Aires is brand new : palass.fr.
Emir Kusturica and Monica Bellucci, this is the rather strange casting of Luigi Perelli's next film. This Italian directory shall soon shoot in Serbia the movie Last Lap in Monza - 2 (Poslednji krug u Monci 2), which is the sequel to the film of the same name, released in 1989, telling the story of a Belgrade mafia boss obliged to move to Italy to continue his business. Ennio Morricone shall make the music of this film.

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News [Archives - 2nd quarter 2006]

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 18:21:19 +0200

News [Archives - 2nd quarter 2006]

10 june 2006

The site has been entirely checked to put back correctly the diacritics in the names in Serbo-Croatian. No more confusion for the correct pronounciation of the names, thus : c [ts], ć [tch], č [tch], š [ch], and ž [j]. Don't hesitate to report me mistakes that I would have missed.
A new interview of Emir Kusturica published on june, 2 2006 in French newspaper Libération (translated in English) in which Emir speaks of Football and of Maradona.
The page of Promise me this has some new pictures of the shooting.
Due to an ultimate delay, my book arrived only this week at the distributor, and shall thus arrive only today in the bookshops. Those who ordered it will receive it very soon, now. All my apologizes for the delays and thank you for your patience !
Thank you to Zorica, Babsi Jones, Nataša, Jean-Max and Kouka who liked my book and talked of it around them. A dossier de presse is online, with an interview-conversation (in English) where I speak with Babsi Jones of the Balkans, yugoslav literature and, of course Kusturica.
From 16 to 20 june 2006 at espace Pierre Cardin in Paris will be the 2nd Serbian Film Festival, headed this year by Miki Manojlović. The festival proposes a competitive selection of the best films produced in 2005-06, as well as a retrospective, among others, of Zelimir Zilnik. Complete program on : www.festivaldufilmserbe.com.
French photographer Marcel Hartmann is back from Cannes with a photo exhibition at cinema “MK2 Quai de Seine”, 14 Quai de la Seine, 75019 Paris, from 14/06/2006 to 12/07/2006. We remember the superb black and white pictures he took during the shooting of Life is a miracle (and that we can also admire on his website : www.hartmann-marcel.com). Good news : Marcel was again invited on the shooting of the film Promise me this. We're impatient to see his new work !
Last, it's with a great emotion we learnt the death of Ljubica Adžović, the charismatic grandmother in Time of the Gypsies. Emir Kusturica said : ”She was natural born talent. I worked with professionals and amateurs but she was special,and I enyojed in every scene with her. I'm very sorry because she is not anymore with us.”

19 may 2006

Since the shooting of Emir Kusturica's new film is now officially launched, let's make the point on what we know about the project :
- The working title was “Promise me this”. Emir Kusturica now speaks of it as “The wish”.
- The confirmed actors are : Uroš Milovanović (who plays the gypsy with blue eyes in Blue Gypsy, Marija Petronijević, Miki Manojlović, Aleksandar Berček (who played Veljo in Life is a miracle), Ljiljana Blagojević (who played the pretty Dolly Bell in Do you remember Dolly Bell ?), and Stribor Kusturica. The rumours mentionning Juliette Binoche and Mirjana Karanović seem not to be confirmed.
- Miki Manojlović has declared during the press conference : ”I've already made three films with Emir Kusturica, and each time, I have a bigger moustache !”.
- Last february were the first images filmed, but the shooting has really started on 16th may 2006 in Užice, in Serbia, 200km southwest from Belgrade. Emir Kusturica should be filming until october 2006 in the region of Küstendorf, the wooden town, that will be enlarged for the film. For the first shots, a carnival was reconstituted in the city of Užice.
- The music will be composed by the No Smoking Orchestra (Emir Kusturica was even more precise : ”by my son, Stribor”).
- The story is the one of an old man, who, close to his death, asks his grandson to accomplish three wishes : to go in town to sell a cow and an icon, and to come back with a bride. The quest will turn into an initiatic journey for the young boy that had never left his village… The script is signed by Ranko Bozić, who had already written the one of Life is a miracle, but Emir Kusturica has already deeply modified it.
- Emir Kusturica says the film will be ready for the Cannes Film Festival of 2007, but not for competition (”what is important, he says, is not to be ridiculous !”).
- The director of photography will be Radovan Marković, who has, says the director, ”found the good colours for the film”.
- The assistant director will be the leader of the No Smoking Orchestra : Dr. Nele Karajlić. He says : ”for the moment, everything goes right, I haven't been fired on the first day of shooting !”.
- At last, let's mention that the film is co-produced by Cabiria, Emir and Maja Kusturica's production company.

17 may 2006

Congratulations to Frédérique, the 1000th subscriber to the Newsletter. She wins a CD of the No Smoking Orchestra : Live is a miracle in Buenos Aires.
Today opens the Cannes Film Festival. Let's remember that if Emir Kusturica is not present this year, his two new films will be actively promoted during the marché du film : Maradona and Promise me this. The first one is under post production (some rumours announce a theatre release for July). As for the second one, a comedy shot in the region of Küstendorf, the filming should start (again) by the end of May.
For the release of my book, I've been interviewed by Babsi Jones, Italian journalist passionated by the Balkans.
Let's mention the release a few months ago of the album “God is dead in Good Luck City” by the franco-american punk band Spontane. One of the songs is called “Kusturica”. Some brass sounds let us imagine in the middle of a chaos of sound and words an homage paid to the director and musician in a very … punk way.

21 april 2006

Due to technical delays, my book Le lexique subjectif d'Emir Kusturica will be available in bookshops and on internet only on 9th June. Meanwhile, it can already be bought directly in two bookshops in Paris : “librairie de l'Age d'homme”, 5 rue Férou and at “l'écume des pages”, 174 boulevard Saint-Germain.
After the announcement of the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival, it is now sure that Maradona won't be presented. Let's note that Patrice Leconte, the director of The widow of Saint-Pierre will be member of the jury, headed by Wong Kar-Wai.
In its update for 2006-2007, the website of the Opéra de Paris announces the prices and the dates of the punk Opera "Time of the Gypsies", directed by Emir Kusturica. The play will take place from 26 june to 15 july 2007, and prices vary from 5€ to 75€. Bookings will open in february 2007.

8 april 2006

With the release next week of my book Le lexique subjectif d'Emir Kusturica, here are the cover and the fourth of cover :

Blue book - French sources
Kusturica, Emir - Director, actor and musician of bosnian origins, known mostly for his exuberant films on Gypsies or on the Yugoslavian war, with music by Goran Bregović.

Red book - Balkan sources
Kusturica, Emir - Serbian director and producer, known mostly for his intellectual commitment and the radical political ideas in his films.

White book - various sources
Kusturica, Emir - Yugoslav director, known mostly for having won twice the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

The subjective lexicon of Emir Kusturica is a portrait of the director from Sarajevo with multiple entries. If his films are often well known and appreciated, the man remains an enigma, quickly juged, badly understood because of long silences or out of their context quotes, amalgams or systematic attacks from various personalities. The idea of this book is precisely to put the declarations back into their context, and to draw, thanks to anecdotes, small or big stories, a portrait in several dimensions, to offer on Emir Kusturica a multiple glance, even contradictory, but finally coherent.

The book should be available in bookstores in France, Switzerland and Belgium on 15 april. It can already be ordered on Amazon.fr. The book is in French, and no translation is scheduled for the moment. For people in Paris, I'll be signing the book at my editor's bookstore L'Age d'Homme, 5 rue Férou, Paris 6th, on thursday 20 april from 3pm to 8pm.

The last saterday information on Bernard-Henry Lévi was, of course, an april fool ;)

1st april 2006

** All The Invisible Children, compilation of short films (including Blue Gypsy by Emir Kusturica) has won the “Grolla d'Oro” to celebrate the huge sales abroad : the film was sold in 120 counties ! The “Grolle d'Oro” are among the oldest prizes of the Italian Cinema. Still about this film, the musical theme “Teach me again”, composed by Elisa and Tina Turner is presently number one of the singles in Italy.
Some news about Promise me this : now that Emir Kusturica is ready to start the shooting these next days, the casting gets clearer. We shall see Juliette Binoche, Mirjana Karanović and Miki Manojlović.
An information on the Opera "Time of the Gypsies" that will direct Emir Kusturica in Paris in 2007 : the No Smoking Orchestra will play together with the “Garbage serbian Philharmonia”. Gerard Mortier, director of Opéra National de Paris declares about it : ”It is no sacrifice to a joyfull and pleasant mood, a seducing music that takes you away, but more a reflection that follows the heritage of Wolf or the Temptation of Saint Antoine, a sort of border-line game.”
Let's mention the release of two DVD editions : Underground in a collector 2 DVD set in Italy, and Life is a miracle in Japan on 5 april.
The rumeurs of the Cannes Film Festival unfortunately let us understand that Maradona won't be ready in time for the festival.
Reality reaches fiction ? Ljubica Adžović, the unforgetable grand-mother of Perhan in Time of the Gypsies has been arrested in Podgorica (Montenegro) for children traffic.
Since Emir Kusturica and Arielle Dombasle, the wife of Bernard-Henri Lévy, share the same producer (Palass), the relationships between the director and the philosopher have turned considerably better : Emir Kusturica has recently declared he wanted to direct a short movie based on BHL's new book (American Vertigo) to celebrate their new friendship. Titled The fish believes everything, the film should be about the american clichés¹⁾.

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¹⁾ 2 april update : this last information was, of course, an april fool

News [Archives - 3rd quarter 2006]

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 19:10:22 +0200

News [Archives - 3rd quarter 2006]

23 september 2006

Manu Chao has spent the week-end in Küstendorf to record a song with the No Smoking Orchestra for Emir Kusturica's new film : Promise me this.
Gordan Mihić has recently declared in Blic (Serbian magazine) that he was currently working on the script of the Opera "Time of the Gypsies", scheduled for june-july 2007 in Paris, and directed by Emir Kusturica himself. He is also under discussion with Emir Kusturica to start the adaptation of the novel “The Autumn of the Patriarch” by Gabriel Garcia-Marques.

3 new trailers are available in Real Video on the pages of the films : Life is a miracle, The good thief, and The widow of Saint-Pierre.
The release of All the invisible children (short film compilation including Blue Gypsy) is scheduled on 18 October 2006 in Belgium, 23 november 2006 in the Netherlands, and february 2007 in France.
The ex-Yugoslavia page was reviewed to take into account the last events (separation of Serbia and Montenegro).

18 august 2006

For the first time in DVD region 2 : two films of Emir Kusturica are released in Great-Brittain on 21 august : Do you remember Dolly Bell ? and When father was away on business. Both editions have English subtitles as well as an interview where Emir Kusturica speaks of each film.
A new page on Herceg Novi, this beautiful town of Montenegro where, in affiliation with UNICEF, Emir Kusturica transformed and old railway station into a cultural center. After the september opening there should be regularly masterclasses.
The Sarajevo Film Festival begins on 18 august. Nick Nolte, the main character of The good thief, Abell Ferrara and Dany Houston are expected, as well as the Boban Marković orkestar which will give a concert.
The 29th festival of Douarnenez will take place from 19 to 26 august 2006 in Brittany. This year, the festival has for theme the “Peoples of the Balkans”. Many classics of yugoslav cinema will be shown (Dušan Makavejev, Goran Paskaljević, Goran Marković, Zelimir Zilnik, Ademir Kenović, and of course Emir Kusturica).
Emir Kusturica has recently refused the presidency of the 2nd International Muslim Film Festival of Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia, which will take place from 10 to 17 september, due to his overscheduled agenda this year. Is that a good news for Zavet (Promise me this) ?
On 1st september in Italy will be screened Viaggio Segreto, by Roberto Andò, in which Emir Kusturica has a small role. The film is freely inspired by the homonym novel of Josephine Hart. For the moment, the film is not scheduled in other countries.
Finally, let me mention an article on my book in French newspaper Ouest-France of 20 july.

12 july 2006

The shooting of Zavet (Promise me this) is going on very well. Emir is very happy with the young couple of actors. If the shooting ends in time (end 2006), it would be the first time … since When father was away on business !
At the European Film Festival in Flagey (Belgium), the Interpretation prize went to Emir Kusturica's favourite Serbian actress : Mirjana Karanović. The best film award went to two Hungarian films : Fresh Air by Agnes Kocsis, and Taxidermia by Györgi Pàlfi.
Some news on the site :
- In the pages of Arizona Dream, Underground and Black Cat, White Cat, a link allows to watch the trailer of the movie in real video.
- 2 new Commercials are available in real video : Maxwell and Gypsy Ketchup.
- Several new Interviews of Emir Kusturica, translated in English, have been added : L'Humanité (9 september 2005), Le Monde (11 may 2005), Optimum (march 2004), L'Evénement du Jeudi (july 2000), Le Point (21 ocober 1995), Le Monde (6 january 1993).

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News [Archives - 4th quarter 2006]

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 13:45:53 +0200

News [Archives - 4th quarter 2006]

20 december 2006

Some news from the punk Opera "Time of the Gypsies" :
- The libretto is being completed, with the help of specialists of rrom language : it will be the first opera in the world entirely in rrom (gypsy) language. The opera will not contain recitativo (all the lyrics will be sung), but a subtitle display will allow the audience to have the translation in real time.
- The music is composed by Dr. Nele Karajlić, Dejan Sparavalo and Stribor Kusturica, from the No Smoking Orchestra, and will be interpreted on stage by the band, with a full 37 musicians symphonic orchestra. It will consist of new compositions between traditionnal and classical music. A new version of the traditionnal song Edelerzi will also be in the opera. Since I have the chance to have heard some parts of the music, I can already say it's very exciting !
- Emir Kusturica will direct the mise en scène himself. Dr. Nele Karajlić will play the part of Ahmed.
- A CD with the opera music will be released one month before the première in Paris, and will be distributed by Palass. Later in the year, a DVD will also be released, containing the whole opera.
- After the shows in Paris, at the opéra Bastille, in june and july, the opera will tour, notably in Valencia, Spain.
Studiocanal announces the release of Arizona Dream in HD DVD format on 5 march 2007. The film is announced as “long version”, certainly to indicate it will include the famous final deleted scene of Axel's wedding.
First dates - not yet confirmed for the moment - are circulating indicating the release of Maradona in may 2007.
Year 2007 will be pretty intense, since the new film Promise me this is also expected (for the festival de Cannes ?). Anyway, the soundtrack of the film will also be distributed by Palass.
A new article from the Courrier des Balkans on my book was put online on 6 december.
To French-speaking Canadian people : my book is now sold online on Amazon.ca
Last, this winter Emir has much worked in his village, to build … a ski domain !
With a few days in advance… merry christmas and happy new year !

24 november 2006

Happy birthday, Emir !
The DVD of All the invisible children (including the short film Blue Gypsy is released in Germany on 30 november. It can be ordered on Amazon.de.
Since the end of the shooting of Promise me this, Emir Kusturica has little spoken to the press. Yet, we have learnt he chose an old song of Halid Bešlić, that he much worked in village, to prepare it to winter sports, and that he reworked some scenes of Maradona. Both films should still be released in 2007.
They are not yet ready, but in 2007, two books are going to be released on Emir Kusturica : a French one, written by Jean-Max Méjean which will give a passionate analysis of the films, and an English one, written by Stephen Lowenstein, compilation of interviews of many great direcors about their first film. Emir Kusturica speaks of Dolly Bell.

26 october 2006

During the Cannes Film Festival, in 2005, Emir Kusturica was president of the jury. French channel Canal+ honoured him by creating a puppet for its satyric show Les guignols de l'info. 4 episodes with Emir Kusturica can be seen on this page.
Spotlights on … Mister K. This film by Ronan Dénécé and Augustin Legrand is a deliciously mad film searching for Master Emir Kusturica, in a literal way as well as a physical way. On the roads of Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia, this road movie puzzles onirism, meetings, Animals, and strange adventures… to finish triumphally on the shooting set of the film Life is a miracle. And there, the miracle of improvisation happened : Emir Kusturica, surprised by the apparition of these crazy Frenchmen, liked the idea, and gently played with them…
Some news of Promise me this : the shooting is likely to be finished, and a working version of the film has been shown to Russian filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov (who came to visit Küstendorf) and who said impressed by the film.
A new article on my book was printed recently in French newspaper L'Hebdo de Charente-Maritime.
European network NISI MASA (supported by filmakers Emir Kusturica, Dominik Moll, Dani Levy and Fernando Trueba) organises a short films contest called “Survive Style”, open to all european filmmakers from 18 to 30 years, living in the UE, Southeast of Europe, Turkey and Caucasus countries. Filmmakers have until 15 december 2006 to send 10 minutes maximum short films (fiction, documentary, animation or experimental films) exploring the theme of survival of young people in a fastly transforming Europe under the impact of the globalization and the people migrations felt as oportunities or constraints. All the information : nisimasa.imingo.net.

14 october 2006

Emir Kusturica's village, Küstendorf has now its official website : www.kustendorf.com. You'll find there pictures galleries, pratical information, artistic exhibitions in the village, with the comments of Emir Kusturica. Of course… with music ! The site is available in English and in Serbian.
A new interview is online : a conversation between Emir Kusturica and Diego Maradona, published in january 2006.
A new article on my book was printed today in French newspaper La Voix du Nord.
Some news from Stribor Kusturica : after having acted and composed the musique for the new film of his father (Promise me this), Stribor will starts his own band. Yet, he will still continue to tour with the No Smoking Orchestra.

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News [Archives - 1st quarter 2007]

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 23:47:56 +0200

News [Archives - 1st quarter 2007]

25 march 2007

The new version of the website is online !

The previous site was completely transfered in both languages (French and English) on the new server. Now there are more than 300 articles online in both languages, more than 1000 pictures, 35 music files to listen, and 17 videos to watch… More than a clean-up and new articles, new functionalities are also installed, such as RSS streams, a powerful internal search engine, or subdomains (http://fr.kustu.com arrives directly on the French part of the website, or http://forum.kustu.com for the Forum). This new website is built on a wiki engine for more reactivity, and later, new languages.

Programme :

more images, more photos, more videos, more information, and now : music ! Some chosen extracts of different albums can be listened to online. I'll try to change them from time to time, and to add new ones.
Navigation changed : beside the Site map which remains close to the previous one (the metro map), the navigation bar on the right allows to access directly to most of the different sections of the site. Moreover, in some pages, an index of the connected pages appear at the bottom.
In no particular order, here are some of the novelties of the site : the trailer of Super 8 Stories ; new books : the Photomonography of the No Smoking Orchestra and Emir Kusturica by Jean-Max Méjean ; new Interviews ; new files on the actors ; more complete biographies of the No Smoking Orchestra, Zabranjeno Pušenje and Bijelo Dugme ; more information on the films in which Emir Kusturica has played ; new files on the Directors from the Balkans, on Literature, and on Balkan music ; etc.
Some news about Maradona : after the last trip Emir Kusturica made in Argentina (see the previous news), Emir has declared he had finally finished the shooting. But since there's still lot of work for editing, it won't be ready before 2008. Emir got nervous by the length this project took and he declared : ”Diego is a child. He has no notion of the time. I went three times in Argentina for nothing, but I finally managed to make the interview I needed to finish my film”. Finally, Emir Kusturica has given new details about how he wants to organize the different parts of the film, inserting with special effects, historic characters inside the famous football scenes of Maradona. ”I will replace them by Thatcher, Prince Charles, Georges Bush (Senior and Junior) and pope John-Paul II. A nice brochette, but I still miss the other ones…”.
I'll tell you more about this later, but a collector edition of Time of the Gypsies is being prepared in France : the film will be fully restored and will be packed with many exclusive bonuses… Release scheduled for 6 June 2007.
A big thanks to all the persons who helped (and still help me) by sending information, links or pictures.

9 march 2007

The photomonography of the No Smoking Orchestra has recently been published in Serbia. The book has 182 exclusive pictures taken by Dragan Teodorovic Zeko, who followed the band during the 2004-2006 tour, and contains texts both in English and Serbian language, written by Dr. Nele Karajlić. More information soon.

The two main actors for the punk Opera "Time of the Gypsies" have been found ! They are : Stevan Andjelković (Perhan) and Milica Todorović (Azra). Those two young singers have been found after their appearance in the very popular show on Serbian TV searching for new talents… We will see them in the opéra Bastille in Paris in june.
Emir Kusturica is currently in Argentina to shoot some last pictures for his film Maradona.
In Küstendorf, Emir Kusturica has launched a “biorevolutionary” fruit juice brand. Among the available flavours, we can choose between “Che Guevarra” (redberry), “Fidel Castro” (blackberry) or even “Josip Broz Tito” (bilberry). Emir has reserved his own name for the strawberry flavour… Initially aimed at the village's visitors, Emir Kusturica whishes to distribute his production abroad.
An old project is tunring into reality : Emir Kusturica is said to have finished his book “diary of a political idiot”. The title is not yet definitive… And there's still no release date…
All the invisible children was released on the screens in Belgium on 28/02/07.
There's still some work to do, but the new website should open in a few weeks.

8 february 2007

Emir Kusturica was made knight of arts and literature today in Paris. He received his prize from the hands of the French minister of culture Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres. The Order awards « those who distinguished themselves by their creations in the artistic or literature domains or by the significant propagation of arts or literature in France and in the world». The minister said : ”Kusturica is a giant, an artist who carries inside of him all what Europe represents as positive values, of dramas and tragedies. he's an artist of a very specific strength and genius.”
The new site goes on well, but there is still lot of work… Meanwhile, don't hesitate to send me your ideas or suggestions.

28 january 2007

The website kustu.com will soon be completely rebuilt with new pages, more information, more images, more videos, more musique, and some surprises ! The new site is expected to be opened at the end of february. Please be patient…
Stephen Frears was chosen to be president of the jury of the next festival de Cannes. Some rumours announce already Emir Kusturica's new film Promise me this in official competition… More info soon.
Bookings for the punk Opera "Time of the Gypsies" are already open on the fnac.com website (booking in English available). On the opéra Bastille website, bookings will open on 14 february. Meanwhile, the No Smoking Orchestra is working in the studios…
While he's finishing the editing of his last film, Emir Kusturica took some pleasure by opening himself the new ski domain in Küstendorf.

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News [Archives - 2nd quarter 2007]

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 23:01:21 +0200

News [Archives - 2nd quarter 2007]

30 june 2007

The public and journalists agree, the Opera "Time of the Gypsies" of Emir Kusturica at Paris Bastille Opera is a fantastic success ! The night of the first show, on june 26, a 15 minutes standing-ovation applauded the genius, the sensibility and the madness of the director. A press review was added on the page of the opera.
Some details on the (probable) next film of Emir Kusturica :
- The title would be “Mexico”
- It would be based on the life of the gangster, who became general, Pancho Villa.
- The shooting will take place in Russia
- Emir Kusturica has asked “his friend” Guillermo Arriaga (scenarist of “Babel”, “Amores perros”, “21 grams” and “the three burrials of Melquiades Estrada”) to write the scenario.
Manu Chao's new videoclip, Rainin'in Paradize, directed by Emir Kusturica in Argentina, can be watched on dailymotion.com

17 june 2007

Once again, I have rendez-vous for the rehearsals. This time, it's supposed to be the first complete rehearsal, with accessories and costumes, on the main stage… Read more...
Despite the remaining work on the opera, Emir has announced he would be present at the 29th Moscow Film Festival, which will take place from 21st june to 30th. Promise me this will open the festival. Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov is the festival president. About the film's title, and for the festival web site, Emir Kusturica has declared : ”I brought everything I promised. I did everything that a man should do when he is making a movie. I am like Maradona in football. I do whatever I like and I am privileged to do as much as I like. And still I never forget that I must remain free and autonomous. This is what determines my unique position in cinema. I don’t know how long it’ll take, but I know for sure that for now I am balancing between cinema and life. That is why I am in cinema for 25 years already.”
Emir Kusturica has recently declared being interested in the life of Pancho Villa. Maybe a new project of film ?
After Time of the Gypsies another film will be released in collector edition in France : it's Black Cat, White Cat, with new bonuses, scheduled for the end of the year.

30 may 2007

Promise me this came back with no prize from the Cannes Film Festival. Its screening mixed the critics. Nevertheless, they all agreeed that the film is crazy, funny and colourful… but some journalists found it was too much, while other considered it as a little jewel of mischievousness… But for its release in theatres, we'll have to wait until the end of the year…
Meanwhile, Emir Kusturica works hard for the Opera "Time of the Gypsies". I even had the chance to view tonight's rehearsals at the opéra Bastille. Dont miss the details of this great evening…
Time of the Gypsies again : on june 6th will be (finally !) released the French collector edition of the film in double DVD. All the information on this great edition.

11 may 2007

The 60th Cannes Film Festival will open its doors in 5 days ! With Promise me this, it will be the fifth time Emir Kusturica walks the red carpet with a film in official competition… Stephen Frears's jury is expected to give its choice on 27 may ! Many new pictures were added on the film page.

The No Smoking Orchestra's new album : the soundtrack of the opera "Time of the Gypsies" will be released on 18 june in France. The CD can already be ordered on Amazon.fr.
New pictures of the rehearsals of the Opera "Time of the Gypsies" were received from Küstendorf. We can see the actors trying their scene costumes…

2 may 2007

The Contest is finished : and the winner is … Merlin Nadj-Torma with this superb picture taken in a gypsy settlement in Vojvodina. The choice was hard since most of the contributions were original, funny and sincere. Thanks to all !
The internet website of the No Smoking Orchestra was relooked, and presents new photos of Zeko about the rehearsals for the Opera "Time of the Gypsies".

26 april 2007

The content of the French collector DVD of the film Time of the Gypsies is revealed ! You'll be able to watch the film with a picture and a sound that were digitally remastered, as well as recent & old interviews of Emir Kusturica, thematic analysis of the film, the trailer and much more. The DVD is announced for the 6th june, but can already be ordered on Amazon.fr.
Time of the Gypsies again… News and pictures about the opera were added. Emir Kusturica works hard on the rehearsals of the opera witch will take place in june & july in Paris.

21 april 2007

Promise me this is in the official selection for the 60th Cannes Film Festival !
The No Smoking Orchestra's new album on the Opera "Time of the Gypsies" is announced for mid-june 2007, a few days before the Première at the Opéra Bastille.
Goran Bregović's new album Karmen (with a happy ending), will be released in may in some countries, and in june in France.
After Time of the Gypsies (which will be released in collector DVD edition in France on 6th june), it will be Black Cat, White Cat which will also have a new collector double DVD edition with new bonuses.
Thursday 26 april at 6pm in Paris : discussion between Jean-Max Méjean (author of the new Emir Kusturica book) and Matthieu Dhennin (author of the “Lexique subjectif d’Emir Kusturica”), will be followed by signatures in the new cinema bookstore “Ciné Reflet” (14, rue Monsieur le Prince 75006 Paris - Métro Odéon). With a little glass and some gypsy music…
You still have a few days to participate to the contest…

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News [Archives - 3rd quarter 2007]

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 13:45:31 +0200

News [Archives - 3rd quarter 2007]

10 september 2007

When father was away on business was finally released in France and in Belgium on a very decent DVD edition.
To the dates previously announced of the No Smoking Orchestra 2007/2008 tour, a new date was added :

21/11/07 : Marseille, France (Les Docks)
Waiting for Promise me this to come onto the screens at the end of the year, you can still watch some old Commercials that Emir Kusturica has shot in the 90's : Renault, Sugar, and a German film for an AIDS campaign.
Finally, Emir Kusturica's next project, Mexico, is getting more precise : rumours speak of Guillermo Arriaga for writing the script, and Javier Bardem as main actor. Let's recall that the shooting should start in march 2008 in Russia and will be a biography of Pancho Villa.

24 july 2007

After the triumph in Paris with the Opera "Time of the Gypsies", and before the next staging of the opera in Valencia (Spain) in 2008, the No Smoking Orchestra starts a new tour this autumn. Here are the first dates of the 2007/2008 tour :

05/10/07 : St Petersburg, Russia (Smal Arena - Ubileiniy)
06/10/07 : Moscow, Russia (Hall Drujba - Lujniki)
18/11/07 : Strasbourg, France (Laiterie)
19/11/07 : Paris, France (Bataclan)
22/11/07 : Lyon, France (Transbordeur)
23/11/07 : Lausanne, Switzerland (Dock)
24/11/07 : Lille, France (Aeronef)
27/11/07 : Toulouse, France (Bikini)
28/11/07 : Bordeaux, France (Krakatoa)
30/11/07 : Clermont Ferrand, France (Cooperative de mai)
31/01/08 : Porto, Portugal (Coliseum)
01/02/08 : Lisbon, Portugal (Coliseum)

Most of the dates are already open for booking !

A DVD with the whole Opera "Time of the Gypsies", as well as a making-of will be available at the autumn.
The release in France of the new collector DVD edition of Black Cat, White Cat is confirmed for 26 septembre by mk2. The film will have a second disc full of bonuses, among which the documentary “Kusturica, tendre barbare” by Marie-Christine Malbert (50 minutes), and other films by Jonas Rosales, who had already signed the bonus of the DVD Time of the Gypsies.

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News [Archives - 4th quarter 2007]

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 19:18:05 +0200

News [Archives - 4th quarter 2007]

29 december 2007

Срећна Нова Година… Srećna Nova Godina… and Best wishes for 2008 !
Before the new year, let's recall the events we're expecting, starting beginning of january :
- Release of Promise me this's soundtrack on 7 january, made by ”Stribor Kusturica & the poisonners”.
- Opening of the first edition of the Küstendorf film & music festival, from 14 to 21 january. Don't miss the official website of the festival : http://www.kustendorf-filmfestival.org.
- Release in France and in most of the european countries of Promise me this, on 30 january.
- Concerts of the No Smoking Orchestra in january in Spain & Portugal.
- Presentation at the Berlinale of Maradona (7 to 17 february) ?
- Reprise at the Palais des Congrés in Paris (before a world tour) of the Opera "Time of the Gypsies" from 22 to 30 march.
- Release of the DVD of the Opera "Time of the Gypsies" in march 2008.
- Beginning of the shooting of Mexico in march-april in Russia…
Meanwhile, the DVD of Promise me this is already released in the Balkans and in Russia (but without subtitles).
Finally, let's mention the release of Taraf de Haïdouks's new album (Maskarada) : the romanian band takes “classcal” melodies on their own crazy way, and gives us new compositions too : always so surprising !

15 december 2007

Emir Kusturica has announced during a press conference that he's creating a cinema festival in Küstendorf. The first edition of this festival will take place from 14 to 21 january 2008, in the Underground theatre of the village. He has also announced that it would be a festival without red carpet (even thought some big directors such as Nikita Mikhalkov and Fatih Akin are invited). The winner shall receive a “Golden egg”… (note the “biorevolutionary” juice bottles on the table of the press conference…)
Erratum. Le No Smoking Orchestra concert in Barcelone will take place on 23 january (and not 23 december as said before). Also, the concert in Madrid is rescheduled on 27 january. Here are the dates of the next concerts :
- 17/12/07 - Tel-Aviv - Culture Palace (Israel)
- 19/12/07 - Tel-Aviv - Culture Palace (Israel)
- 21/12/07 - Haifa - Congress Centre (Israel)
- 22/12/07 - Jerusalem - Congress Centre (Israel)
- 23/01/08 - Barcelona / Palau de la Musica (Spain)
- 24/01/08 - Vigo / Auditoro (Spain)
- 25/01/08 - Porto / Coliseum (Portugal)
- 26/01/08 - Lisbon / Coliseum (Portugal)
- 27/01/08 - Madrid / La Riviera (Spain)
- 29/01/08 - Santander / Palacio Festival (Spain)

10 december 2007

Serbia is honoured in Paris during the month of december. Among the different cultural activities, let's notice the exhibition on Küstendorf, from 14 to 17 december
The release of the filmscore of Promise me this is announced for 7 january 2008 in France. Let's note this album is released under the band name of “Stribor Kusturica And The Poisonners”. The album can already be preordered on amazon.fr. More details soon.
The DVD of the Opera "Time of the Gypsies" is rescheduled at march 2008, in order to match the new sessions of the opera at the Palais des congrès in Paris.
Meanwhile, you can already enjoy a video extract of the making-of which will come in the DVD, on the website of the producer palass.fr
The tour of the No Smoking Orchestra continues ! Here are the dates of the next concerts :
- 17/12/07 - Tel-Aviv - Culture Palace (Israel)
- 19/12/07 - Tel-Aviv - Culture Palace (Israel)
- 21/12/07 - Haifa - Congress Centre (Israel)
- 22/12/07 - Jerusalem - Congress Centre (Israel)
- 23/12/07 - Barcelona / Palau de la Musica (Spain)
- 24/01/08 - Vigo / Auditoro (Spain)
- 25/01/08 - Porto / Coliseum (Portugal)
- 26/01/08 - Lisbon / Coliseum (Portugal)
- 29/01/08 - Santander / Palacio Festival (Spain)
- 30/01/08 - Madrid / La Riviera (Spain)

11 november 2007

After a triumph at the Opéra Bastille last summer, Emir Kusturica's punk opera Time of the Gypsies, will be played again at the Palais des Congrès of Paris for 10 extra shows, from 22 to 30 march 2008. The opera will then leave Paris for a world tour ! Bookings : +33 1 40 68 00 05, www.palaisdescongres-paris.com . Prices : 41, 52, 62 and 75 euros
Let's mention also the recent release of a beautiful book in English : Vojo Stanić - Sailing on Dreams, co-written by Emir Kusturica, on the montenegrin painter author of the cover of Unza Unza Time.

21 october 2007

The Serbian government appointed Emir Kusturica on Monday (October 15th) as the chairman of the board of directors of Film Centre Serbia.
Works continue in Küstendorf : after the ski tracks and the sport hall, it's also a bank, an hotel and a … jail that have recently been built. Many new pictures were added onto the site page.
From 26th october to 4th november, Montpellier will be the capital of mediterranean cinema with the 29th edition of the festival international du Cinéma Méditerranéen (“cinemed”). Emir Kusturica will be present with his new film Promise me this, which will make the opening of the festival. The winners will be announced on saterday 3rd november at 18h30. More information on cinemed.tm.fr
Emir Kusturica has recently declared he was confident for the presentation of his film Maradona at the next Berlin film festival (7 to 12 february 2008).
Emir Kusturica and the No Smoking Orchestra are back on tour ! The group is in good shape and, and has already put fire to the theatres of Moscow, saint-Petersbourg and Antalya. Here are the next dates of the tour :
- 18/11/07 : Strasbourg, France (Laiterie)
- 19/11/07 : Paris, France (Bataclan)
- 21/11/07 : Marseille, France (Les Docks)
- 22/11/07 : Lyon, France (Transbordeur)
- 23/11/07 : Lausanne, Switzerland (Dock)
- 24/11/07 : Lille, France (Aeronef)
- 25/11/07 : Paris, France (La Cigale)
- 27/11/07 : Toulouse, France (Bikini)
- 28/11/07 : Bordeaux, France (Krakatoa)
- 30/11/07 : Clermont Ferrand, France (Cooperative de mai)
- 07/12/07 : Varsovie, Poland
- 08/12/07 : Szczecin, Poland
- 17/12/07 : Tel-Aviv, Israel (Culture Palace)
- 19/12/07 : Tel-Aviv, Israel (Culture Palace)
- 21/12/07 : Haifa, Israel (Congress Centre)
- 22/12/07 : Jerusalem, Israel (Congress Centre)
- 31/01/08 : Porto, Portugal (Coliseum)
- 01/02/08 : Lisbone, Portugal (Coliseum)

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News [Archives - 1st quarter 2008]

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 17:18:38 +0200

News [Archives - 1st quarter 2008]

23 March 2008

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 :
- 19/04/08 : Caracas, Venezuela
- 24/04/08 : Moscow, Russia
- 25/04/08 : Riga, Latvia (Arena)
- 26/04/08 : Tallin, Estonia (Tallin Hall)
- 01/05/08 : Vilarobledo, Spain (Vinarock Festival)
- 14/06/08 : Rodez, France (festival Skabazac)
- 24/06/08 : Seoul, Korea (LG Arts Center)
- 26/06/08 : Tokyo, Japan
- 29/06/08 : Sydney, Australia (Opera House)
- 31/07/08 : Perpignan, France (Les Estivales)
- 01/08/08 : Beziers, France (festival)
- 05/08/08 : St Florent, France (Porto Latino)
- 08/08/08 : Crozon, France (festival du Bout du monde)
- 09/08/08 : Crest, France (Crest Jazz Vocal)
- 10/08/08 : Langres, France (Chien a Plumes)
- 14/08/08 : Marciac, France (Jazz in Marciac)
- 15/08/08 : Sagres, Portugal (Superboc Festival)
- 17/08/08 : Vigo, Spain (Superboc Festival)
- Most of these concerts are already open for booking !
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.

6 March 2008

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.

14 February 2008

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 !

30 january 2008

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…

26 january 2008

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.

16 january 2008

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.

5 january 2008

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.
- First part : Screening of Promise me this, by Emir Kusturica, with Uroš Milovanović, Marija Petronijević, Aleksandar Berček, Miki Manojlović, Ljiljana Blagojević, Stribor Kusturica. In presence of Emir Kusturica. Film in Official Sslection in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
- Second part : Concert of Stribor Kusturica and the Poisoners - Guest Emir Kusturica.
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.

[ News ] Archives :

2011 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter
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2008 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
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News [Archives - 2nd quarter 2008]

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:16:16 +0200

News [Archives - 2nd quarter 2008]

26 June 2008

Release of Manu Chao's single ”la vida tombola”, extract from the music of the film Maradona.
The DVD of Promise me this will be released in France on 2nd september. I have no further information on bonus, or on other countries releases…
During the festival Cinéditions in Paris, the film Underground will be screened on 5th July, with Emir Kusturica as guest.
Many new photos have been added to the page of the film Maradona, taken during the photo-call in Cannes.
Emir Kusturica spent some time in Moscow where Maradona will be screened for the closing party of the Moscow Film Festival, on June 28. Emir made in Moscow a concert with the No Smoking Orchestra, before flying to Asia to continue the tour.
Goran Bregović had to cancel the shows for the coming weeks because of an accident that led him to the hopsital. But he's already back in better shape.
Finally, it's with great sadness and emotion that I announce the death of Šaban Bajramović. Šaban was considered by many as the king of gypsy music. During an incredible life, he composed almost a thousand songs, and even went to Tito's goulag-jails… More recently, he participated to the original soundtrack of Black Cat, White Cat.

19 May 2008

The film Maradona will be screened tomorrow at midnight at the Cannes Film Festival. For this special event, Emir Kusturica and Diego Maradona will be invited on the set of the Grand Journal, big TV show on French channel Canal+, at 7.10pm.
Don't miss the teaser which has been added on the page of the film. You can also visit the official internet website : maradona-lefilm.com. The film will be release in France on 28th May.
A new interview of Emir Kusturica has been added. It's an interview from April 2008, published in Serbian magazine Vecernje Novosti.
A new commercial was added too. It is a short film Emir Kusturica has recently shot near Belgrade, for a Turkish brand of jeans, and which makes a clear reference to the ending sequence of Underground. We can even recognize Nele Karajlic and Marija Petronijević !
Incredible show for the last concert of the No Smoking Orchestra in Novi Sad, in Serbia : the groupe played in front of more than 35.000 persons !!!
Finally, a technical improvement for the site kustu.com, “short” addresses are now supported. For example, kustu.com/en:news gives direct access to the news page in English.

23 April 2008

It's now official : Maradona will be screened at the next Cannes Film Festival, out of competition, in the “midnight screenings” section.
Emir Kusturica will return in front of the camera ! He will soon start acting in the film Farewell by French director Christian Carion (Happy Christmas), with French actor Guillaume Canet, American actor Willem Dafoe and Romanian actress Alexandra-Maria Lara (Youth Without Youth, Downfall). The shooting should start this week ! The scenario of the film is based on real events, which happened at the beginning of the 80s, and which have accelerated the fall of the Berlin wall. Emir Kusturica will play the role of a KGB lieutenant-colonel who delivered to French counter-spies crucial information on Soviet spies in western countries, particularly in economical, militaro-industrial and high technology research domains. A treason under the code-name Farewell that the movie will revisit by mixing it with the intervention of a French engineer. Let's mention that the role that Emir Kusturica will play should have been initially done by his friend Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov, but he cancelled for calendar reasons.

19 April 2008

In a few days, during the press conference of the 61st Cannes Film Festival, will finally be officialized the presentation of Emir Kusturica's new film Maradona. For this occasion, on 11th May, Emir Kusturica will be interviewed on French channel Canal+. The famous Argentine footballer should also be present during the festival. The huge delay on this film can be partly explained by the difficulties that Emir Kusturica has had to gather the rights on the numerous archive tapes he wanted to use. The festival will take place from 14 to 25 May.
Emir Kusturica will also be present in Israel at the 6th International Film Festival of the Red Sea, in order to promote his last film Promise me this. 65 films will be shown during this festival, from 13 to 17 May.
Bosnian filmmaker Danis Tanović has launched his political party in Bosnia : “our party”. He wishes to oppose to the nationalists who divide his country. Let's mention also that Danis will start shooting next month his new film “triage” with notamment Colin Farrell and Christopher Lee. Colin Farrel will play the role of a war photographer covering the conflict between Bosnia and Serbia.
Let's mention that the cinémathèque suisse, in Lausanne (Switzerland), has made a homage to Emir Kusturica, during April 2008, by showing almost all his films.

The programme : http://www.cinematheque.ch/F/progr_grille.htm#AVRIL

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News [Archives - 3rd quarter 2008]

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 20:21:10 +0200

News [Archives - 3rd quarter 2008]

21 September 2008

Emir Kusturica has signed the music for Guillaume Durand's new show on French TV ”L'objet du scandale”. The music is a “balkanized” version of the Pink Panther anthem.
About the Pancho Villa project, Emir Kusturica has recently declared that his friend Javier Bardem had read the script, and loved it. If everything goes well, the shooting should start next summer.
British journalist Dina Iordanova (author of several books on cinema, among which an excellent biography of Emir Kusturica) has recently written an article on the film Maradona. You can read the very interesting article on her blog : Dinaview.com
Warning, some concert dates have changed in the No Smoking Orchestra tour. Here are the next shows scheduled this autumn :
- 27/09/08 : Krusevac, Serbia
- 12/10/08 : Santiago du Chili, Chili
- 15/10/08 : Buenos Aires, Argentina (Luna Park)
- 17/10/08 : Montevideo, Uruguay
- 31/10/08 : Saint-Vincent, Italy
- 01/11/08 : Padoue, Italy
- 05/11/08 : Oslo, Norway
- 22/11/08 : Thessalonique, Greece
- 29/11/08 : Belgrade, Serbia (Arena)
Also in tour, Goran Bregović has now totally recovered from the accident he had this summer. He'll be touring the autumn and winter throughout the world to play his forthcoming new album Alkohol.

9 August 2008

Even if the shooting of Farewell changed his calendar, Emir Kusturica didn't forget his new film project (“Mexico”). He even talked once again of it recently. The working title would be “The seven friends of Pancho Villa”, and the shooting should take place next year in Russia, Serbia and Mexico. Let's wait…
About Farewell, don't miss the “anecdotes” section in the page of the film which tells different episodes of a funny and incredible shooting…
A new Statistics page was added to the site : you can find there information on the site kustu.com, but also on the visitors and on the most read pages.
The DVD of Promise me this will be released in France on 02/09/08 and in Germany on 19/09/08. It is already available as pre-order on amazon.fr and amazon.de
Finally, let's mention that on 16 September will be held in Brussels the first European Summit for Gypsies. This summit will consider the increasing discriminations that they suffer throughout Europe.

10 July 2008

Some news of Farewell : the shooting of Christian Carion's film has begun in France and Ukraine. New photos have been added to the page of the film, taken in the streets of Kiev. Near Paris, huge sets have been built : the ovale desk of the White House, a KGB prison or even a Moscow flat… The film for which Emir Kusturica will have the lead role next to Guillaume Canet and William Dafoe will also star Ronald Reagan and François Mitterrand… more real than nature… The shooting will last all summer and the film should be finished by the end of april 2009. The producer, Christophe Rossignon, says : ”In the skin of the famous KGB spy who offered his services to the west, strange and particularly complex character, incredibly mimetic, Emir Kusturica is just exceptional.”
The Opera "Time of the Gypsies" will finally be played in Athens this fall, from 20 to 30 septembre.
Then, the No Smoking Orchestra tour will continue ! The band will go to Latin America, and then come back to Europe… :
- 13/10/08 : Santiago de Chili, Chili
- 15/10/08 : Buenos Aires, Argentina (Luna Park)
- 16/10/08 : Montevideo, Uruguay
- 17/10/08 : Guadalajara, Mexico
- 18/10/08 : Mazatlan, Mexico
- 19/10/08 : Culiacan, Mexico
- 29/10/08 : Padova, Italy
- 30/10/08 : Napoli, Italy
- 05/11/08 : Oslo, Norway
- 22/11/08 : Thessaloniki, Grece
- 29/11/08 : Belgrade, Serbia (Arena)

The website of the No Smoking Orchestra has been redesigned. New concert photos have been added.
Still on internet, have a look at the brand new Stribor Kusturica's website : striborkusturica-thepoisoners.com
Also, regarding kustu.com, it is this month mentioned as the Dokuwiki of the month on dokuwiki's creator website. Dokuwiki is an excellent and powerful wiki engine, on which this site is built. May I take this opportunity to thank Andi and the Dokuwiki community.

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News [Archives - 4th quarter 2008]

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 20:43:52 +0200

News [Archives - 4th quarter 2008]

13 December 2008

Goran Bregović's new album Alkohol was just released in Serbia. It will reach France on 12 January, and other countries will follow. You can already order it on amazon.fr. Also called “Sljivovica”, this album is the first half of an alcoholic dyptic, the other half (“Champagne”) will be released in March 2009. This first part contains 13 new songs which were recorded live, last year in Guča, Belgrade and Skopje ; the second part, Champagne, will also be a live album, but coming from concerts in Milano and Toronto. Goran Bregović : ”Sljivovica, these are sweet melodies for hard alcohol…”

Farewell : the shooting goes on. These last weeks, between two concerts, Emir joined the shooting set in France of this spy movie, which should be released next year.
A new project… maybe already in The drawer ? Anyway, serbian and russian newspaper have recently echoed a project of a documentary on Ossetia by Emir Kusturica. Indeed, during his last stay in Russia, Emir Kusturica showed great interest into the conflict between Georgia and Russia. The film is likely to be based on Fatima Salkazanova's work, a Paris-based journalist. We can read, on this subject, the article of Serbian magazine Blic : blic.rs. Few concrete details have emerged, but Emir insured that even if he liked this idea, he wanted first to make “the Friends of Pancho Villa”.
About this project, we could learn new precisions : Emir declared he has now a lot of scenaristic material. He thinks dividing the film into seven short stories : ”Pancho Villa was a man with his own idea of justice, equality and anti-imperialism. He was a military leader with great moral values.” According to the last news, the film would be mostly shot in Mexico, but also in Spain and Serbia. Finally, Javier Bardem, who accepted the lead role, admitted he had once refused the very same role, that was 6 years ago, for a Tony Scott project : ”He's a too big hero for the mexicans, you must treat him with respect.”
Following the huge concert of the No Smoking Orchestra in Belgrade, in November, many new pictures were added on the band page, as well as a new interview that Emir gave just before the show.

30 November 2008

It is with shock and great sadness that we learn the death of the Slovenian photography director Vilko Filać, Tuesday 25 November 2008. He was 58, and the world of cinema has lost one of its main representatives. He worked with Emir Kusturica (for all his films, from The brides are coming up to Underground), but also Johnny Depp and Diane Kurys. Remy Chevrin, president of AFC, said: ”This operator made the film photography intimately linked to the personality of the directors. AFC and all its members join the grief of his family. ”

22 November 2008

Emir Kusturica was in Greece this week. On 19 November, on stage with the No Smoking Orchestra, a guest joined the band : Oliver Stone. The unexpected duet put the audience on fire, more than usual. The same day, within the 49th festival Thessaloniki, Emir Kusturica animated a master class.
After the sold-out shows in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, the No Smoking Orchestra tour should get its apotheosis with a big concert in Belgrade, on 29 November. This show will have a special taste. It is already announced as the most important for their carreer… And specially for the occasion, the band will play a large selection of songs from the previous period of the band, the Zabranjeno Pušenje.
According to serbian magazine Blic, Javier Bardem would have confirmed his intention to play the first role of Emir Kusturica's next movie : he will be the general Pancho Villa in the huge project which has for working title ”the seven friends of Pancho Villa”. Emir Kusturica hasn't finished yet the casting, and still works on the script with his long-last friend Gordan Mihić. Shooting is scheduled to start in summer 2009, for a duration of one year !
The "diary of a political idiot", auto-biographic essay that Emir Kusturica has started to write some years ago, will maybe come out of his drawer. It is announced to be released in Serbian before the end of the year. No further information on translation in other languages.
Some news on the Küstendorf film festival : announced guests are Jim Jarmush, Oliver Stone, Ingeborg Dapkunaite, Zhang Yimou, Alain Delon and many others. The films in competitions will come from USA, UK, Chile, Venezuela, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Egypt, Germany, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Russia, Poland, Italy and Serbia.

17 October 2008

The DVD of Maradona was released on 15th October in Italy in a simple edition, but will be released in France on 2nd December in a more complete edition (with several bonuses, such as interviews, and behind-the-scenes). The French DVD is already available in pre-order on amazon.fr.
The second edition of the Küstendorf film & music festival will take place from 8 to 14 January 2009… Let's recall that the festival gathers student films from all around the world. If the competition list is not yet known, the mystery remains on … the film which will be burried during the opening ceremony ! (we remember, last year, the burrial of Die Hard 4, with balkanic pumps & circumstances…)
The Opera "Time of the Gypsies" has now its dedicated website : timeofthegypsies.com. You'll find images, videos, informations and soon, the calendar of the next shows. Enjoy it !

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News [Archives - 1st quarter 2009]

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:33:32 +0200

News [Archives - 1st quarter 2009]

14 March 2009

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 :
- 22/03 : festival de Quadalajara, Mexico
- 25/03 : Medellin, Columbia
- 27/03 : Bogota, Columbia
- 29/03 : distrito federal, Mexico
- 17/04 : Oporto, Portugal
- 18/04 : Lisbon, Portugal
- 24/04 : Irkutsk, Russia
- 27/04 : Novosibirsk, Russia
- 02/05 : Festival L'Herbe en Zik, Besançon, France
- 05/05 : Centre Culturel, Six Four, France
- 06/05 : Centre Culturel, Sallanches, France
- 08/05 : Festival JMD, Bulligny, France
- 09/05 : London, United Kindgom
- 16/05 : Morocco
- 23/05 : Festival, Brétignolles, France
- 26/05 : Summum, Grenoble, France
- 30/05 : Festival Paroles & Musiques, Saint Etienne, France
- 01/06 : Central city square, Kavarna, Bulgaria
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.

14 February 2009

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.

16 January 2009

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.

2nd January 2009

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 :
- 13.01.09 : Küstendorf, Serbia
- 22.01.09 : Amsterdam, Netherlands
- 24.01.09 : Munich, Germany
- 25.01.09 : Zurich, Germany
- 09.05.09 : London, Great-Britain
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 !

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News [Archives - 2nd quarter 2009]

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:51:51 +0200

News [Archives - 2nd quarter 2009]

4 May 2009

To celebrate ten years of playing together, Emir Kusturica and the No Smoking Orchestra who are currently touring, release a Best Of with 20 songs from the soundtrack of Black Cat White Cat, Unza Unza Time, the soundtrack of Life is a miracle and the Opera "Time of the Gypsies" ; it is already available on amazon.com. Note : an extra song (“Duj Drama”) is available on the OpenDisc zone of the CD.
In France, after the (now obsolete) HD-DVD version, Arizona Dream is going to be re-released in glorious high-definition, thanks to a blu-ray version, which will be available on 17 June. This article is already available for pre-order on amazon.fr.

26 April 2009

This week-end, Emir Kusturica had a pleasant time in Venice. He was invited to la Fenice, at the party following the wedding of Salma Hayek and François-Henri Pinault. Among the numerous guest stars, we also saw Javier Bardem, who, like the Mexican actress, was member of the Cannes jury that Emir had directed in 2005. We can think that they spoke of the ”Pancho Villa” project… Also about Pancho Villa, rumour says Emir Kusturica wishes Johnny Depp be part of it ! 18 ans after Arizona Dream, it would be something !
In Japan, under the title “Ring a wedding bell !”, the film Promise me this is finally going to be released this week-end ! For the occasion, the distributors have created a dedicated website (in Japanese) : weddingbell.jp.
A new interview is online : Emir speaks of his project to adapt the novel ”The bridge on the Drina”.
New concert dates of the No Smoking Orchestra this summer, including festivals :
- 07/06 : Neuchatel (Festi'Neuch, Neuchatel Open Air festival), Switzerland
- 27/06 : Bruxelles (festival Couleur Café), Belgium
- 28/06 : Paris (festival Solidays), France

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News [Archives - 3nd quarter 2009]

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:41:15 +0200

News [Archives - 3nd quarter 2009]

12 september 2009

Farewell, Christian Carion's film with Emir Kusturica will be released in France and Belgium on 23 septembre.
On 13 novembre, Emir Kusturica will be awarded the prize “8½” at the Torino Film Festival, which 27the edition will be held from 13 to 21 November. Created in homage to italian director Federico Fellini, the “8½” awards directors who have contributed to “renew the cinematographic language and to spread new trends of contemporary cinema”. Emir Kusturica will receive the prize at the opening ceremony of the festival, headed this year by Gianni Amelio, and where will be screened never-seen-before scenes of his films Arizona Dream and Time of the Gypsies, as well as a long version of Underground. It is also funny to note that Francis Ford Coppola will be awarded in this festival too. Knowing the complex relationships of both directors, made of respect and tension we can wonder what they will talk together.
Some news from Pancho Villa : Emir Kusturica has announced that he was going to build a 1000m² cinema studio in Küstendorf to shoot the interior scenes of his next movie. The beginning of the shooting should be end of next year, last six months, and then be continued in the South of Spain. The studio should also be used for the other project on which Emir Kusturica is working on : A bridge on the Drina.
Küstendorf Film and Music Festival : The 3rd edition is approaching. If you want to participate, you have until 1st November to send your film. All the details on the festival website : kustendorf-filmfestival.org. Next edition will take place in January 2010 and the Iranian director Asghar Farhadi (About Elly) will be invited.
Some news from Goran Bregović : the second part of his alcoholic diptych (Champagne) is delayed to next year, for Guča's festival 50th anniversary. Meanwhile, Goran works on an opera “Orpheus” with Slovenian director Tomaz Pandur, and on a creation for the Basilique de Saint-Denis (near Paris, in France) “diary of a sad queen”, about the life of Queen Margot.
No Smoking Orchestra : the tour continues…
- 12/09 : Caen (France)
- 18/09 : Allariz (Spain)
- 19/09 : Namur (Belgium)
- 26/09 : Arad (Roumania)
- 03/10 : Moscow (Russia)
- 05/10 : Krasnodar (Russia)
- 06/10 : Rostov (Russia)
- 24/10 : Quimper (France)
- 19/12 : Paris, Zénith (France)

1st august 2009

Some news of Pancho Villa :
- Exit Javier Bardem : after meeting him in Saint-Tropez (French Riviera), it is now Johnny Deppwho should have the main role of the film. Emir Kusturica explains it in a recent interview given to serbian newspaper Vercenje Novosti.
- But due to the overloaded calendar of Johnny Depp, it becomes very unlikely that the shooting starts at the end of this year, as planned…
- Next to him, are also announced Salma Hayek and Miki Manojlović, but also Stribor Kusturica, who should have a major role.
Emir Kusturica has held a press conference with the serbian minister of culture, in order to officialize his help to the Yugoslav Kinotek : it is no less than 3 theatres that will be equiped with both digital and 35mm film projectors by the end of the year, in order to pay homage to the yugoslav film patrimony back until 1902 : ”We must proove to people here that these films are not “Hollywood hamburgers”, but pictures of life which can create reality. This will be the place for authors who are not on blockbuster lists.”
No Smoking Orchestra : the tour continues !
- 28/08 : Crato (Portugal)
- 29/08 : Faro (Portugal)
- 05/09 : Frascati (Italy)
- 06/09 : Ancona (Italy)
- 12/09 : Caen (France)
- 26/09 : Arad (Romania)
- 03/10 : Moscow (Russia)
- 05/10 : Krasnodar (Russia)
- 06/10 : Rostov (Russia)
- 19/12 : Paris, Zénith (France)
Finally, let's mention that the short film Alice au pays s'émerveille is in the official selection of the Locarno film festival (from 5 to 15 august). Pierre-Emmanuel Le Goff, the producer, explains the positive consequences this selection might have : ”Locarno is a “A category” festival [the best one], the film will be automatically selected to the Oscars, if we win in Locarno.”.

4 July 2009

Here is the poster and the trailer of Farewell. An official photo gallery has also been added to the page of the film. The film will be released in September 2009.
After a show in France, Nele Karajlic declared : ”we are going to present the opera based on «Time of the Gypsies» in all the Zénith of France by the end of 2010. It's a very heavy project for us, because it represents a hundred of persons, and forty on stage. And this opera is five years of work. Then we will tour in Europe, but we want to start in France.”
In July, will be released worldwide the film “Public Enemies”, by Michael Mann, where we can find the delicious Branka Katić (Ida in Black Cat, White Cat) next to Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, but also Lili Taylor (Grace in Arizona Dream). Branka told that Johnny Depp made her laugh with the Serbian that Emir had taught him on the shooting of Arizona Dream…
No Smoking Orchestra : the tour continues !
- 08/07 : Nice - France
- 10/07 : Granada - Spain
- 11/07 : Carthagène - spain
- 12/07 : Targova Film Street - Lodz - Poland
- 18/07 : Beyrouth - Lebanon
- 24/07 : Prato - Italy
- 25/07 : Montalto di Castro - Italy
- 01/08 : Tunisia

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News [Archives - 4th quarter 2009]

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:18:38 +0200

News [Archives - 4th quarter 2009]

20 december 2009

The next Küstendorf Film and Music Festival gets unveiled. For its third year, the festival will be held from 13 to 19 january 2010. This year, more than 300 films by young directors have been submitted. The officiel selection has 28 films, from 18 countries : Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cuba, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland, UK, and USA. The jury will be led by Marjane Satrapi, famous Franco-Iranian cartoonist and filmmaker. A retrospective will be dedicated to Johnny Depp, guest star of the festival. All the details on the official website : kustendorf-filmfestival.org/2010

* On 7 december, Emir Kusturica received the Golden Star at the Marrakech Film Festival, Morocco, as an honour for all his career.

On 10 december, in Courmayeur, Italy, at the “Noir in Festival”, it is for his role of spy-colonel in the Russian army in Farewell, that he received the best actor award.
No Smoking Orchestra : good news, the tour continues in 2010, with a few new concerts planned :
- 30/12/09 : Pecs (Hungary)
- 14/02/10 : Rosario (Argentina)
- 16/02/10 : Neuquén (Argentina)
- 18/02/10 : Luna Park (Argentina)
- 20/02/10 : Santiago (Chili)
Meanwhile, happy New Year, and Merry Christmas to all of you !

28 November 2009

Emir Kusturica was in Turin last week-end, to present the long version of Underground, and to receive the “8 1/2” prize, for his career. Having a look at the different interviews he gave, let's make a status on his projects for the forthcoming years, which seem to be very busy :
- Pancho Villa is more than ever taking shape : the script is finished, but the agenda of Johnny Depp pushes the start of the shooting to 2011. Also, to the great Italian director Gianni Amelio, Emir has proposed a role in his Pancho Villa. The casting continues.
- But surprise, the first project Emir could start should be a road-movie in Palestinian Territory, called Cold Water. Emir would start shooting in April 2010. It is the story of palestinian striptease girl from Berlin, back to Middle East for the funerals of her father and the wedding of her brother. The few kilometers between Gaza and Ramallah will become for her the journey of her life. It looks like a weird and poetic road movie. Unless this project piles into The drawer next to the other abandoned projects ?
- After the big project Pancho Villa, Emir still wants to make his project of film-oeéra on the Bridge on the Drina ; he confirmed it again recently.
- Then, Verdiana ? It is another project on Giuseppe Verdi, on which Emir Kusturica has also talked to Italian press, but not before 2012.
- Last, invited for the first time in years on a Sarajevo TV show, Emir Kusturica reconciled with Abdulah Sidran, the bosnian poet and scenarist. After Do you remember Dolly Bell ? and When father was away on business, both men start thinking again of a new collaboration. Abdulah Sidran has even a scenario he can only think of Emir Kusturica to direct, talking of deportations to Goli Otok, under the regime of Tito.
No Smoking Orchestra : the tour should end with the concerts of decembre. Here are the last dates of the tour :
- 05/12 : Kiev (Ukraine)
- 19/12 : Paris, Zénith (France)

25 October 2009

Emir Kusturica has recently been into Caucasus. In Krasnodar, he was made a “Cossack”, after an initiation ceremony (drink rakia on a sword, kiss a horse and then ride it), which the director passed with success. Then, after a move in Ossetia, it was once more question that Emir Kusturica makes a documentary on the conflict between Georgia and the separatist region. But Emir Kusturica has just made clear into a newspaper that he is bounded, for the next four years, with the contract for the film Pancho Villa, which prevents him to make this documentary. It is thus very likely that this project stays in the drawer.
Emir Kusturica has ordered a life-size statue of Johnny Depp, as in Pirates of the Caribbean. The actor reportedly liked the idea, and then he was asked for his exact body measurements. Emir : ”I laughed yesterday when I got the measurements of his body. If I was a tailor it would probably be normal for me, but I was really surprised when he sent me the dimensions of his head, forehead, shoulders, waist and other body parts. I can imagine how many women would like to know these dimensions.”. The statue shall be unveiled at next Küstendorf Film and Music Festival, next January, where a retrospective of Johnny Depp's films will take place, in his presence. The statue will be set on square Andreï Tarkovski. The sculptor will be Serbian artist Dragan Nikolic Baja.
Emir Kusturica will receive on 21 January 2010 the “Alexis II” prize of the International Fund of Unity of Orthodox Peoples. by Kiril, patriarch of all Russias, in the Christ-Saviour Cathedral of Moscow. Emir Kusturica was granted this prize for “his incredible work in favour of the unity of orthodox peoples and for his promotion of Christian values in Social life”.
For the 10th anniversary of the group, the Cultural Center of Serbia in Paris organises a photo exhibition of Dragan Teodorović “Zeko” on the No Smoking Orchestra. Opening of the exhibition will take place on 07/11, with Dr Dušan T. Bataković, ambassador of Serbia in France. Emir Kusturica : ”Zeko proposes here photos taken from the last ten years spent through the world with the No Smoking Orchestra, in the heart of all the greatest theatres open to rock music and to all sorts of music, including this one, which is very difficult to define… the music played by the “No Smoking Orchestra”. What is special in art and the documentary approach can be found into these photos. When you're in the position of shooting someone who is the source of an event, then the pictures can be great… You can here observe the faces in particular expressions, and, what is very well made under this rock & roll perspective, the capture of the light and the frame which reproduces a unique impression. Zeko is almost the best chronicler or rather the only chronicler of a long and beautiful friendship, as I like to say.”
No Smoking Orchestra : the tour continues. It is also said that the the Zenith show in Paris, the No Smoking will be accompanied by the group “Vrelo”, as well as Milica Todorovic and Stevan Andjelkovic, the protagonists of the Opera "Time of the Gypsies". Here are the new dates of the tour :
- 13/11 : La Havana, Cuba
- 15/11 : Caracas, Venezuela
- 29/11 : Banja Luka, Republika Srpska, Bosnia & Herzegovina
- 15/12 : Toulouse, Le Phare à Tournefeuille (France)
- 16/12 : Bordeaux, Espace Médoquine (France)
- 19/12 : Paris, Zénith (France)

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News [Archives - 1st quarter 2010]

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 11:53:12 +0200

News [Archives - 1st quarter 2010]

28 February 2010

Nicostratos takes off ! The film of Oliver Horlait, adapted from the novel by Eric Boisset, with Emir Kusturica in the role of a Greek Orthodox priest, will start in April. Indeed, last week, eight white pelicans from the Bird Park of Villars-les-Dombes (France) were transferred to Greece for the film.

We learnt a little more on the next film of Emir Kusutirca : Cool Water. It will be a tragi-comedy where two Palestinian brothers who smuggle the dead body of their father from Jerusalem to Ramallah as they are pursued by Israeli police, Russian mobsters and a terrorist gang. The film will be co-produced by Johnny Depp. Shooting this summer.
Already almost 500 fans of kustu.com on facebook, thank you ! A community is taking shape.
The No Smoking Orchestra announces new concerts dates :
- 05/03 : Yerevan, Armenia
- 09/03 : St. Petersburg, Russia
- 07/05 : Coimbra (Student Festival), Portugal
- 08/05 : Carcassone (Festival Chapiteuf), France
- 04/06 : Maubeuge (Les Folies de Maubeuge), France
- 05/06 : Pontoise (Furia Sound Festival), France
- 09/06 : Lisbonne (Coliseum), Portugal
- 11/06 : Sébazac (Skabazac), France

News - 20 January 2010

The third Küstendorf Film and Music Festival closed yesterday with the victory of franco-israelian film “Lost Paradise”, a love story by Mihal Brezis and Oded Binnun. The golden egg was given to them by Marjane Satrapi, president of the jury, as well as an invitation to stay one month in Küstendorf in order to write peacefully a new script. The second prize, granted by the silver egg, went to the czech film “Baba”, directed by Zuzana Kirchnerova-Špidlova. And finally, the bronze egg went to lithuanian film “Lernavan”, directed by Armenian director Marat Sargsyan. To view all the events of the festival, including the opening ceremony with the statue of Johnny Depp, the master classes, the images and the videos : kustendorf-filmfestival.org/2010
New : on facebook, a page allows to subscribe to the news of the site kustu.com. It is also a place of exchanges and sharing on Emir Kusturica, open to everyone.
During the various press conferences that Emir Kusturica and Johnny Depp held during the festival, we learnt more about the future projects :
- Emir Kusturica has signed to play the role of a Greek orthodox priest (one can already imagine it) in the film “Pelican” by Olivier Horlait, based on the French novel "Nicostratos", by Eric Boisset. The shooting will take place in Greece in April-May. As a photographer, we notice the presence of Michel Amathieu, old friend of Emir Kusturica (Black Cat, White Cat and Life is a miracle). The novel is about a boy who secretly adopts a pelican, hiding from a father who cannot bear the death of his wife.
- Then, Emir Kusturica has confirmed his intention to direct “Cool Water”, the story of a German strip-teaser who goes to Palestine for the burial of his father and the wedding of his brother.
- Finally, it will be the shooting of Pancho Villa, now called “Wild Roses, Tender Roses”, with Johnny Depp and Salma Hayek, starting on 15 February 2011. It was precised that the film would be entirely in Spanish language, and that the No Smoking Orchestra would write the musique. ”It will be my biggest film. I will do it with no compromise”, said Emir.

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News [Archives - 2nd quarter 2010]

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:34:37 +0200

News [Archives - 2nd quarter 2010]

14 June 2010

The 4th edition of the Küstendorf Film and Music Festival is taking shape ! It is now possible to send your film for submission to the jury, and hope to win the Golden Egg. The conditions ? Having directed a short film as a student, or as self-taught non-released filmmakers. All the details on the official site of the festival.
Emir Kusturica will executive produce the Italien film “Mozarella Stories” (a dark comedy), by Edoardo De Angelis. The shooting is scheduled at the end of the summer, near Naples. Edoardo De Angelis had been seen at the last Küstendorf Film and Music Festival where his film “Beach Boy” was in competition. Source : screendaily.com
kustu.com has now more than 1000 fans on facebook ! Thanks to all.

11 May 2010

Between two concerts with the No Smoking Orchestra, Emir Kusturica is now in Greece, for the shooting of the film of Olivier Horlait, A Greek Summer. About this film, Emir has declared it ”speaks in a beautiful and romantic way about people who live today as they did in earlier times, because they are tied to nature and moved by love for animals.”
A new project in The drawer ! Hollywood reporter claims that the producer Johnny Lin, through his production company Filmula, would have hired Emir Kusturica to direct the film “Tweakers Delight”, after ”Wild Roses, Tender Roses”, the film on Pancho Villa which is likely to be shot only in 2011, so needless to say this new project is not for now. Moreover, on this big budget ($35 millions) film, we know very little : it would be about a man who has 24 hours to straighten out his life or he will lose custody of his son.
Emir Kusturica has recently claimed again having (at last) completed his book, which is no longer called “diary of a political idiot”, but “where am I in the story ?”. The information is to be taken at the conditional because this book has been already announced several times in the past. It is now supposed to be released in June, but there is no evidence in the trading websites.
Between 12 to 18 June, will be held the Taormina Festival in Italy. Emir Kusturica will receive the Roma-Mediterranean Award for the Dialogue between Cultures.
And all the summer, the concerts of the No Smoking Orchestra continue.

10 April 2010

Shall we, one day, see the third part of the “Sarajevo trilogy” ? Abdulah Sidran and Emir Kusturica had this project to make a third film together, after Do you remember Dolly Bell ? and When father was away on business. But the Palme d'Or received for the second one gave new possibilities for Emir Kusturica, and their route diverged. Then if the two personalities didn't have good relationships for years, they reconciled last year, and since then, they meet regularly ; last week, they met twice, in Gorazde then in Küstendorf, and have discussed precise projects. Sidran would even have a script and a producer, but all this shall be kept secret for the moment.
In March, a rumour spread on internet, telling that Tahar Rahim (the main actor of the French film “A Prohet”, by Jacques Audiard, nominated at the Oscars) would be begociating to have the main role in the forthcoming Emir Kusutirca film : Cool Water. But Tahar denied : ”I didn't met him, we haven't discussed.” Yet, he adds : ”but it would be a pleasure and an honour to work with this guy”. Let's follow this…
Olivier Horlait's film, Nikostratos, with Emir Kusturica, would now be called A Greek Summer. The shooting will start within a month, in Greece.
Note : many new concert dates of the No Smoking Orchestra for the forthcoming weeks & months :
- 07/05 : Segre (Fest Shake it easy), France
- 08/05 : Carcassone (Festival Chapiteuf), France
- 12/05 : Santiago de Compostela (Campus sur universitario), Spain
- 13/05 : Braga (Axa Stadium), Portugal
- 14/05 : Madrid (Planeta Madrid), Spain
- 30/05 : St Laurent de Cuve (Fest Papillons de Nuit), France
- 03/06 : Luxembourg (L'arelier), Luxembourg
- 04/06 : Maubeuge (Les Folies de Maubeuge), France
- 05/06 : Pontoise (Furia Sound Festival), France
- 09/06 : Lisbonne (Coliseum), Portugal
- 11/06 : Sébazac (Skabazac), France
- 18/06 : Tallin (Maailmakula), Estonia
- 04/07 : Toronto (Jazz Festival), Canada
- 05/07 : Montreal (Le Festival International de Jazz), Canada
- 08/07 : Quebec (Festivel d'été), Canada
- 10/07 : Philadelphia (World Cafe Live), USA
- 14/07 : New York (Lincoln Center Festival), USA
- 17/07 : Lodz (Widzew Lodz Stadium), Poland

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News [Archives - 3rd quarter 2010]

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 22:06:18 +0200

News [Archives - 3rd quarter 2010]

8 September 2010

In a recent interview, Emir Kusturica confirms that his book “Where am I in the story ?” will be released soon (on 15 september) in Serbia and will be published by Vecernje Novosti. No further information yet on availability in other language nor other country.
Even though his agenda already very busy, in an interview to a Mexican newspaper, Emir speaks of a project of making an Unza-Unza version of Verdi's Aïda to celebrate the 110 years of the death of the Italian composer (in 2011, so, which seems to be rather unlikely).
Also, a few weeks before leaving to Russia for the next concerts, a Spanish website tells us that Emir Kusturica would have (yet another) new film project, this time in Russia. The site even mentions the names of the characters : Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė for the feminine lead role (we've seen her in “Burnt by the sun” and Farewell) and Ivan Urgant or Konstantin Khabensky (famous Russian actors), for the masculine role. One problem : the scenario is not written, but is confident : his forthcoming stay in Russia will certainly help him. (Source : espanarusa.com )
From 9 to 14 october will be held the 47th International Golden Orange Film Festival in Antalya, in Turkey. Emir Kusturica will be a member of the jury. For this event, will be screened some films of Emir Kusturica, among which Maradona, with the famous Argentine football player as guest star. (Source : hurriyetdailynews.com )
A new concert is scheduled in ex-Yugoslavia (they are rare) : Emir Kusturica & le No Smoking Orchestra will play in Ljubljana in Slovenia on 19 september, at Krizanke hall.

24 July 2010

On 14th of July (French national holiday), Emir Kusturica was raised Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour).
On 15th July, Emir Kusturica and the No Smoking Orchestra played for the first time in the USA, in New York. As usual, the concert started with the Russian anthem ; Nele reports : ”Seventy percent of the audience stood up while the rest of was completely shocked. However, seconds later they all were standing. Apart from Americans, in the audience there were people from Russia, Poland, Japan, Bulgaria, Germany, France, Mexico…” He greeted all of those nationalities in their mother tongues. (source : blic.rs)
On 20th July, took place in Küstendorf a conference on sustainable development in Serbia ; Emir Kusturica announced he wanted to build a small hydroelectric powerplant near Mokra Gora in order to help contuining the extension of his village This conference marked the 110 years of the powerplant built on the Djetinja, according to the principles established by Nikola Tesla, the famous Serbian scientist. It was the first hydroelectric powerplant in Europe, and it's still in activity. (source : isria.com)
The Opera "Time of the Gypsies" will be re-launched : the first of a new tour is scheduled on 5th november in Belgrade (Sava Center). Then, the group will play in Greece and Russia. (source : blic.rs)
At the same time, beginning of november, Emir Kusturica will start the shooting of his next film : Cool Water, in Israel and Palestine. (source : screendaily.com)
Meanwhile, the tour of the No Smoking Orchestra continues :
- 24/07 : Parma (Italy)
- 26/07 : Toscana (Italy)
- 17/10 : Moscow (Russia)
- 18/10 : Krasnodar (Russia)
- 19/10 : Rostov upon Don (Russia)
- 21/10 : Ekaterinburg (Russia)

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News [Archives - 4th quarter 2010]

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 22:39:55 +0200

News [Archives - 4th quarter 2010]

7 december 2010

The fourth edition of the Küstendorf Film and Music Festival will take place from 5 to 12 January 2011. As we can guess from the poster, the theme will be “the odyssey”…
There is some movement into The drawer :
- On 9 November 2010, Belarus president Alexander Loukachenko gave the presidential prize to Emir Kusturica “for the preservation and the developpement of traditions and spirituality into the cinema” ; he also asked him to direct a “memorable” film in Belarus.
- Playing in Moscow, Emir Kusturica told the local press that he had an idea for making a film in Russia : the story of a man who would like to make a film, searches for a producer, and the one who accepts asks in return that he kills his wife…
- Cool Water is getting closer ? Anyway, Emir Kusturica would have asked the Armenian group Almazian’s Obsession to compose the original musique. Emir has already met this band in 2008, when they came for the opening of the first Küstendorf Film and Music Festival. Then, they also played together with the No Smoking Orchestra in march 2010 in Yerevan. (source : panarmenian.net)
- Concerning Pancho Villa, on the contrary, it looks like this project is sinking into the depths of the drawer. Indeed, during the promotion for “The Tourist”, his last film, Johnny Depp took his distances with this project. He declared to French Press Agency ”that he felt uncomfortable with the idea of playing the role of Pancho Villa, for the Serbian director Emir Kusturica, without being 'Hispanic'”. He also added : ”With Emir Kusturica, we haven't talked of this project for a while. (…) I don't know what happened with this project.” (source : AFP)

27 october 2010

After years of reworking, Emir Kusturica has finally presented his book to the press : ”Smrt je neprovjerena glasina” (Death is unverified rumours), published in Serbia (Novosti edition). Several personalities were present to celebrate the event : writer Dušan Kovačević, actor Slavko Štimac, musician Nele Karajlic, politician Vojislav Kostunica… Composed of seventeen autobiographical novels, this book allow, according to the author, a better understanding of his films. For the event, Emir Kusturica confessed being more happy and more excited than for his first film. The book is, for the moment, only available in Serbian, and can be ordered through the site yu4you.com.

11 october 2010

Following the hostile reception he met in Turkey, Emir Kusturica has decided to leave the Antalya Film Festival where he was invited as a guest, believing that his safety was not assured any longer. The discord was reported by the Anatolia news agency : the director has been accused by the Turkish Minister of Culture Ertuğrul Günay to have minimized the Serbian crimes committed during the Bosnian war (92-95). In a press conference, the filmmaker then recalled his status of “anti-imperialist” and criticized Turkey for its denial of the Armenian genocide. If it is a pity to see this useless controversy take precedence over cultural and artistic considerations, I would nevertheless like to mention the numerous messages I have received from Turkey, from people sorry about the controversy, and wishing fervently to see Emir Kusturica back in their country, one day.

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News [Archives - 1st quarter 2011]

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 13:43:45 +0200

News [Archives - 1st quarter 2011]

26 March 2011

The long love-story between Emir Kusturica and the Cannes Film Festival will continue and a new chapter will be written this year : Emir Kusturica will, indeed, be president of the “un certain regard” jury, during the 64th festival of Cannes, which will take place from 11 to 22 May 2011.

The release in France of Emir Kusturica's autobiography where am I in the story ? is postponed to the 6th of April.
Emir Kusturica has spent these last days in Cuba, where he has played in one of the short films of Seven days in Havana, a franco-spanish projectcomposed of seven short films made by international directors which aim to capture and to transmit the essence of the Cuban capital. Each film will tell a story happening on one day of the week, through the ordainary life of different people. Emir Kusturica played in the film of Argentine director Pablo Trapero (Leonera, Carancho) ; the other directors are Benicio Del Toro, for his first film, the Cuban Juan Carlos Tabio (Strawberries and chocolate), French Laurent Cantet (entre les murs, palme d'or in Cannes), franco-argentine Gaspar Noé (Irréversible), Palestinian Elia Suleiman (Intervention divine) and Spanish Julio Medem (Tierra)
Still in category ”Emir Kusturica, actor”, Emir has also played this winter in the Serbian film “Vir”, by Bojan Vuk Kosovcevic, with Mirjana Karanović. Let's also recall we're still waiting also for the release of the film A Greek Summer, where he plays the role of a Greek orthodox priest.
Musique, now, with the No Smoking Orchestra tour that continues :
- 04/04 Thessaloniki / Greece
- 05/04 Athena / Greece
- 06/04 Athena / Greece
- 13/05 SAA / Faro / Portugal
- 14/05 SAL / Lisbon / Portugal
- 28/05 State Misto Festival / Lviv / Ukraine
- 25/06 La Défense Jazz Festival / Paris / France
- 01/07 Au Foin de la rue / Saint Denis de Gatines / France
- 02/07 Festi Route / Tournon sur Rhône / France
- 22/07 San Letnje Noci / Praha / Czech Republic
- 27/07 Festival Emmaus / Pau - Lespar / France
- 28/07 Nuits du Sud / Vence / France
- 29/07 Svinks Mixed / Boechou / Belgium
- 30/07 Fête du Cognac / Cognac / France

22 February 2011

On 23rd March, will be released in France the French translation of Emir Kusturica's autobiography : Où suis-je dans cette histoire ? (available on amazon.fr). On 31st March, it will then be released in Italy : Dove sono in questa storia (I narratori) (available on amazon.it). There is no sign for translation and availability in other languages nor other countries for the moment.
Literature again, it looks like Emir Kusturica is willing to spend more time writing, because he declared in a interview to the TV of Republika Srpska that he wanted to write a novel about a young director haunted by the character of Dostoevsky.
Book, again : let's mention the re-edition of the magnificent photo album of Dragan Teodorovic “Zeko” : the Photomonography of the no smoking orchestra gets many new pictures to celebrate the 10 years of the band (on yu4you.com)
Still in the drawer, the project to adapt the famous novel of Ivo Andrić The Bridge over the Drina made some noise recently. Indeed, his project getting stuck with local difficulties, Emir Kusturica decided to inform the foreign press. The idea is to build an historical stone villageas a shooting place, near the old bridge of Višegrad, on the same principle as Küstendorf, in order to make of it afterwards a durable tourist place.
Rumours again, about Pancho Villa : according to blic.rs, exit Johnny Depp, it is now very likely to be either Benicio del Toro either Gael Garcia Bernal who would play the famous Mexican hero. We can suppose that the latter has more chance, since he was recently received at the 4th Küstendorf Film and Music Festival. Anyway, Emir should meet them both soon in Cuba, before deciding.

13 January 2011

Yesterday ended the fourth Küstendorf Film and Music Festival, where we could meet big names of the Cinema planet such as Abbas Kiarostami, Nikita Mikhalkov or Gael Garcia Bernal, but also cinema students from all around the world. The prizes are the following :
- The Press award : to the american-lebaneese film “The Fifth Column”, by Vatche Boulghourjian.
- The Vilko Filač award for best cinematography : to the swedish film “Quan”, by Johann Holmquist.
- The bronze egg : to the serbian film “Golden League” by Ognjen Isailovic.
- The silver egg : to the polish film “Tomorrow I’ll be Gone”, by Julia Kolberger.
- Then, the golden egg : to the Russian film “The Chance”, by Sonya Karpunina. Vincent Maraval, jury president, motivated his decision recognizing this film’s original and effective narrative style; and adding that it was a film that's filled with life and energy.

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News [Archives - 2nd quarter 2011]

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 17:48:21 +0200

News [Archives - 2nd quarter 2011]

26 June 2011

Kamengrad is on its way ! The work for the construction of the “stone city”, on the shores of the Visegrad bridge (The bridge on the Drina), should start next week. We can see on this picture the first 3D pictures allowing to have an idea of what will look like the project. Some other views can be seen on the website : visegradturizam.com.

The old adaptation project of Ivo Andrić's novel should finally see the light of day. According to the last news, Emir would now be likely to make a TV serie when the work will be finished (in 3-4 years). He declared : ”This city should be a symbol of pacifism. If its men have suffered and lost their lives because of their ethnicity or religious beliefs, this city should pacify all these conflicts through its cultural function. This city is the heart that has to beat a great idea to encourage eastern Bosnia as a symbol of peace. May it live in terms of culture and development of multiethnic life.” (source : glassrbije.org)

On 18 June 2011, Emir Kusturica received the Golden Camera at Art Film Festival of Trenčianske Teplice (Slovakia) for his “exceptional contribution to cinema”. At this occasion, he gave an new interview.
As an actor, Emir Kusturica has accepted the proposition of French director Jean-Pierre Mocky : we should see him soon in the film “Calomnies”, next to Alain Chabat, Quentin Tarantino, Jean-Luc Godard and Michel Gondry. ”All these independant directors have accepted to be actors, because the subject has catched them.” Mocky, who will shoot from 15 August to 1st October in Paris, also says : ”I didn't want to talk about Dominique Strauss-Kahn, but I wanted to talk of all the people that are destroyed by spreading false news on them. In these cases, we don't kill, like with the Mafia, but we deprecate them to empeach them to talk.” (Source : lefigaro.fr)

14 May 2011

Emir Kusturica is in Cannes, as president of the jury of “Un certain regard” (“A vision apart”); we can see him on this picture, next to his daughter, Dunja. Taking advantage of the presence of the French minister of culture, Frédéric Mitterrand, he was delivered his medal of chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, on Friday the 13th May (this title had already been granted to him on 14th July 2010). Emir Kusturica declared : ”Cannes is the place for the battle of cultural diversity. France represents the idea of cultural diversity. It is here I entered the world of cinema. This medal is very important for me and my family. I will continue to make films !”. For Frédéric Mitterrand, ”Emir Kusturica has created a unique and contrasted touch, a cinema which is a synthetic interpretation of life, where dreams come next to the brutality of reality, where the world fanfare crosses the great wind of history. (…) You are here at home, in Cannes, in France where you know how much we admire you and love you”.
The release of Nicostratos, is finally scheduled on 29 june in France.

[ News ] Archives :

2011 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter
2010 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2009 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2008 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2007 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2006 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2005 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2004 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2003 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2002
2001

News [Archives - 3rd quarter 2011]

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 23:16:52 +0200

News [Archives - 3rd quarter 2011]

3 september 2011

Construction of Kamengrad has barely started when Emir Kusturica announced in the press that he plans to build a third utopian village - this time, on the hills surrounding Sarajevo. The village is to be named “Rusko Selo” (Russian village), and will be situated on the former Olympic site of mount Trebević. The goal is to add a multicultural dimension to Sarajevo, with this orthodox village, composed of traditional houses of the 19th century. This project is launched with a Russian businessman, Alan Glazov, who initially wished to reproduce the idea of Küstendorf in the Caucasus. Emir Kusturica asked in return to build a Russian village nearby his birthplace, Sarajevo. Discussions with the local authorities are well under way and construction is expected to start next spring. The village will be accessible by a cable-car, directly from Sarajevo. (source : novosti.rs)
The autobiography of Emir Kusturica has been translated into German : “Der Tod ist ein unbestätigtes Gerücht: Mein bisheriges Leben” ; it will be released on 5 september by Albrecht Knaus Verlag. We can pre-order it on amazon.de

[ News ] Archives :

2011 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter
2010 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2009 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2008 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2007 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2006 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2005 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2004 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2003 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2002
2001

Arizona Dream - soundtrack

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 15:12:03 +0200

Arizona Dream - soundtrack

Release : 1993 (then removed from the sales)
Re-release : 2002
Publisher : Mercury (Polygram)
Format : CD

In the deathcar
Dreams
Old Home Movie
TV screen
7/8 & 11/8
Get the money
Gunpowder
Gypsy reggae
Death
This is a film
American Dreamers Old Home Movie (Johnny Depp)

Composed, arranged & produced by Goran Bregović.

A few weeks after its release, the soundtrack was removed from the sales. Indeed, a complaint was recorded by Corsican band Régina & Bruno Baccara who said Goran Bregović had reused the theme of their song Solenzara for in the deathcar. Refusing to credit the groupe, the CD was unfindable for a long time, thus becoming a rarity. The conflict was finally resolved in 2002 by adding an extra credit line on the CD sleeve, as well as a bonus song : American Dreamers Old Home Movie (by Johnny Depp).

Note :

the exceptional presence of Iggy Pop on four tracks (In the deathcar, TV screen, Get the money, This is a film). Thanks to the friendship that Johnny Depp already had with him, Emir Kusturica could meet him in the USA, and convinced him to participate to his film.
Emir Kusturica wrote the lyrics of the song this is a film.

Buy online : Amazon.fr, Amazon.com, Amazon.de, ou Amazon.co.uk

Alternative versions

Format : 2 titles maxi-CD (promotional disc, not for sale)

In the death car (radio edit)
Rege (instrumental)

Format : audio tape
(same titles as the original CD version)

Format : LP
Country : Greece
This vynil format was sold in Greece only.

Lyrics

In the deathcar

A bowling wind is whistling in the night
My dog is growling in the dark
Something's pulling me outside
To ride around in circles
I know that you have got the time
Coz anything I want, you do
You'll take a ride through the strangers
Who don't understand how to feel
In the deathcar, we're alive
In the deathcar, we're alive

I'll let some air come in the window
Kind of wakes me up a little
I don't turn on the radio
Coz they play shit, like… You know
When your hand was down on my dick
It felt quite amazing
And now that, that is all over
All we've got is the silence
In the deathcar, we're alive
In the deathcar, we're alive
So come on mandolins, play

When I touched you
I felt that you still had your baby fat
And a little taste of baby's breath
Makes me forget about death
At your age you're still joking
It ain't time yet for the choking
So now we can own the movie and see each other truly
In the deathcar, we're alive
In the deathcar, we're alive
I want to ear some mandolins

lyrics : Iggy Pop
Music : Goran Bregović

  Intro   x 2
  
  Guitare
  e---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  b--12-12-12-------------------------10-10--10-------------------------------------
  g-----------12-12----------------------------11--11-------------------------------
  d-----------------14-12-10-------------------------10--10-9-----------------------
  Basse
  a----------------------0---0---3---2---2------------------------------------------
  e---0---2---3---2---0---------------------------------------0--2--3--2--0--0-0----
  
  Guitare
  e---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  b--12-12--12--------------10-10------------------10-------------------------------
  g-----------12--12-------------12-11-11--11-11-12--12-11--8-9---------------------
  d-----------------14--14----------------------------------------------------------
  Basse
  a----------------------0---0---3---2---2------------------------------------------
  e---0---2---3---2---0-----------------------------------------0--2--3--2--0--0-0--
  
  
  A howling wind is whistling in the night     My dog is growling in the dark
  a-------------------------0----0----3-----2--------2------------------------------
  e-0----2----3----2----0----------------------------------0--2--3--2--0--0-0-------
  
  Something is pulling me outside     To ride around in circles
  a----------------------0---0---3----2------2--------------------------------------
  e-0---2---3---2---0----------------------------------0--2--3--2--0--0-0-----------
  
  I know that you have got the time     'Cause everything I want, you do
  a----------------------0---0---3----2------2--------------------------------------
  e-0---2---3---2---0---------------------------------0--2--3--2--0--0-0------------
  
  You'll take a ride through the strangers     Who don't understand how you feel
  a---------------------------0-----0-----3-----2--------2--------------------------
  e--0----2----3----2----0-----------------------------------0--2--3--2---0---0--0--
  
  In the deathcar, we're alive                   In the deathcar
  a----------------------------0-0-3--2-2-2-2-2-------------------------------------
  e---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  Intro   x 2                         we're alive
  e---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  b--12-12-12-------------------------10-10--10-------------------------------------
  g-----------12-12----------------------------11--11-------------------------------
  d-----------------14-12-10-------------------------10--10-9-----------------------
  
  
  I'll let some air come through the window,     kind of wakes me up a little
  a---------------------------0----0----3-----2------2------------------------------
  e--0----2----3----2----0--------------------------------0--2--3--2--0--0--0-------
  
   I don't turn on the radio     'cause they play shit like... you know
  a--------------------0---0---3----2-2-2-2-2---------------------------------------
  e-0---2---3---2---0------------------------------------0---2---3---2---0--0--0----
  
  When your hand was down on my dick     it felt quite amazing
  a-----------------------0---0---3----2-2-2-2-2------------------------------------
  e--0---2---3---2---0------------------------------0--2--3--2--0--0--0-------------
  
  And now that that is all over     all we've got is the silence
  a-----------------------0---0---3-----2-2-2-2-2-----------------------------------
  e--0---2---3---2---0------------------------------------0--2--3--2--0--0--0-------
  
  In the deathcar, we're alive                   In the deathcar
  a----------------------------0-0-3--2-2-2-2-2-------------------------------------
  e---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  Intro   x 2                         we're alive
  e---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  b--12-12-12-------------------------10-10--10-------------------------------------
  g-----------12-12----------------------------11--11-------------------------------
  d-----------------14-12-10-------------------------10--10-9-----------------------
  
      So come on mandolins                 play
  e---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  b--12-12--12--------------10-10------------------10-------------------------------
  g-----------12--12-------------12-11-11--11-11-12--12-11--8-9---------------------
  d-----------------14--14----------------------------------------------------------
  
  
  When I touched you, I felt that     you still had your baby fat
  a-------------------0----0---3----2-----2-----------------------------------------
  e--0--2--3--2---0-----------------------------0--2--3--2--0--0--0-----------------
  
  And a little taste of baby's breath     makes me forget about death
  a----------------------0----0----3----2-2-2-2-2-----------------------------------
  e--0---2---3---2---0------------------------------0--2--3--2--0--0--0-------------
  
  At your age, you're still joking     It ain't time for the choking
  a-------------------0----0----3----2-2-2-2-2--------------------------------------
  e--0--2--3--2---0-----------------------------0--2--3--2--0--0--0-----------------
  
  So now we can own the movie,     and love each other truly
  a------------------0--0--3-----2-2-2-2-2------------------------------------------
  e--0--2--3--2--0------------------------------------0--2--3--2--0--0--0-----------
  
  In the deathcar, we're alive                   In the deathcar
  a----------------------------0-0-3--2-2-2-2-2-------------------------------------
  e---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  Intro   x 2                         we're alive
  e---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  b--12-12-12-------------------------10-10--10-------------------------------------
  g-----------12-12----------------------------11--11-------------------------------
  d-----------------14-12-10-------------------------10--10-9-----------------------
  
     I want to hear some                mandolins
  e---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  b--12-12--12--------------10-10------------------10-------------------------------
  g-----------12--12-------------12-11-11--11-11-12--12-11--8-9---------------------
  d-----------------14--14----------------------------------------------------------
  
  Outro : fig. intro x 6

Arizona Dream

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 11:46:46 +0200

Arizona Dream

Director	Emir Kusturica
Original title	The Arrowtooth Waltz
Working titles	Arizona Eskimo, American dreamers
Release	1993 (France)
Original language	English
Length	2h20
Music	Goran Bregović, Iggy Pop
Script	David Atkins, Emir Kusturica
Photography	Vilko Filać

Awards

Silver Bear (Special Jury Prize) at the International Film Festival of Berlin, 1993

Synopsis

An Innuit hunter races his sled home with a fresh-caught halibut. This fish pervades the entire film, in real and imaginary form. Meanwhile, Axel tags fish in New York as a naturalist's gofer. He's happy there, but a messenger arrives to bring him to Arizona for his uncle's wedding. It's a ruse to get Axel into the family business. In Arizona, Axel meets two odd women: vivacious, needy, and plagued by neuroses and familial discord. He gets romantically involved with one, while the other, rich but depressed, plays accordion tunes to a gaggle of pet turtles…

Trailer

French trailer

Casting

Johnny Depp …. Axel Blackmar
Jerry Lewis …. Leo Sweetie
Faye Dunaway …. Elaine Stalker
Lili Taylor …. Grace Stalker
Vincent Gallo …. Paul Leger
Paulina Porizkova …. Millie
Michael J. Pollard …. Paul
Emir Kusturica …. client of the bar in New York

Soundtrack

The music of the film was written by Goran Bregović.

Details, titles & lyrics of the soundtrack

Buy online : Amazon.fr, Amazon.com, Amazon.de, or Amazon.co.uk

Note : apart from Goran Bregović's music, in the film there are three songs of Django Reinhardt.

DVD, VHS

Country	Format	audio languages	subtitles languages	buy online	Description
Germany	DVD Z2 PAL	English 2.0, German 2.0, Spanish 2.0	German	Amazon.de
Belgium	DVD Z2 PAL	English 2.0, French 2.0	French, Dutch	Amazon.fr	4 films set¹⁾
France	laserdisc	English, French	French
France	DVD Z2 PAL	English 2.0, French 2.0	French	Amazon.fr	collector double DVD edition : more details
France	DVD Z2 PAL	English 2.0, French 2.0	French	Amazon.fr	simple edition
France	DVD Z2 PAL	English 2.0, French 2.0	French	Amazon.fr	2 films set ²⁾
France	HD DVD	English 4.0, French 4.0, German 2.0	French, English, German, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Dutch	Amazon.fr	release on 21 may 2007
Hungary	DVD Z2 PAL	English 2.0, Magyar 2.0	Magyar
Italy	DVD Z2 PAL	English 2.0, Italian 2.0	Italian		collector edition (includes the final sequence-shot)
United Kingdom	DVD Z2 PAL	English 2.0	-	Amazon.co.uk
Serbia	VHS PAL	English	Serbian	yu4you.com
USA	DVD Z1 PAL	English	-	Amazon.com
USA	video download³⁾	English	-	Amazon.com

Anecdotes

In 1988, Emir was invited to the USA by Miloš Forman to teach at the Columbia University in New York. Among his students, there was David Atkins who gave him in 1991 the scenario of a strange film, which name often changed, American dreamers, Arizona Eskimo, the Arrowtooth waltz then Arizona Dream, depending on the numerous rewritings of the script by Emir Kusturica. But meanwhile, the events go dramatically faster and the civil war bursts in Yugoslavia. In Sarajevo, bosniak forces get into the family flat of the Kusturicas and take the Prizes Emir has won. He must stop the shooting to go and help his parents to find refuge in Montenegro ; his father will die a few months later of a heart attack. For Emir, the death of his father matched with the death of Yugoslavia. This death will deeply affect him, and the shooting of Arizona Dream will also be strongly affected.

The film was shot in the United States, produced by UGC and should have been distributed by Warner, but the film was not entitled to a single theatre in the United States ! … This is quite understandable, considering the violent local critics the film received, such as : ”All of it is has odd and badly acted boron, guaranteed to clear theatres in record time.” - Boxoffice Magazine

An incredible 12 minutes sequence-shot was supposed to finish the film, but judged too dark by the producers, it was removed from the final cut.

Paul Leger is a great fan of cinema: his favorite films are : North by Northwest (1959) by Alfred Hitchcock, The Godfather: Part II (1974) by Francis Ford Coppola and Raging Bull (1980) by Martin Scorcese.

The film was mainly shot in Douglas (Arizona), as well as in New York and in Alaska, reaching thus the three corners of the american territory. The film is, by the way, articulated on triangles : Axel is shared between the love for Grace and for Elaine.

Emir Kusturica : ”Isn't this image of a fish swimming in a deserted architecture, finally (…) the image of what we are ? Dumb fishes, unable to do anything essential for their existence… ”

Emir Kusturica : ”The America I love is like the cinema it does not produce anymore.”

The film was shot in LC Concept digital sound. It is the cinema max Linder in Paris which was the French theatre to show the most films in LC Concept. The cinema preserves the material as well as some discs, and shows regularly, at the annual festival “the max Linder makes its Cineclub”, Arizona Dream in this format now disappeared. Other theatres were also equipped with LC Concept in Paris : Gaumont Grand Ecran Italie, UGC Triumphs, UGC Normandy, Forum Horizon… Unfortunately, a bad marketing policy (the process, according to its inventors, was firstly intended for the “large prestige theatres”), combined with a stealing of the patent by American system DTS in 1993, the whole followed by a long trial which will prohibit for example the exploitation in France of Jurassic Park in DTS (shown in simple Dolby SR), will condemn the process which will be finally sold to the Americans.

”If you want to know one's soul, ask him what are his dreams… And you will have pity of those who are in the shit. ”

Critics

Télérama ”Kusturica revisits the myth of the American dream. A tonic and delirious fable, free like air.”
fnac ”This splendid film, delirious and born in the pain (victim of a nervous breakdown, the director even had to stop shooting), is constantly in balance between dream and reality. Ignored in the United States, Arizona Dream had a great success in France where it acquired, with time, a cult status.”
Studio ”A trip… This film is a trip. A real trip, from Europe to the United States, and from Arizona to the North Pole. An imaginary trip, also, where a fish suddenly start to fly and where most improbable meetings become suddenly possible.”

Gallery

Shooting

Posters

Emir Kusturica's films

Do you remember Dolly Bell ? - When father was away on business - Time of the Gypsies - Arizona Dream - Underground - Black Cat, White Cat - Super 8 Stories - Life is a miracle - Promise me this - Maradona

¹⁾ Arizona Dream, Underground, Black Cat, White Cat, Life is a miracle

²⁾ with Life is a miracle

³⁾ For american citizens only

Arizona Dream - French DVD

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 12:56:03 +0200

Arizona Dream - French DVD

Release : april 2002
Publisher : Studiocanal
Languages : English, French
Subtitles : French

Bonus :

trailer
American teaser
A documentary on the flight crash sequence
An interview with Claudie Ossart (producer) and Johnny Depp made in february 2002
pictures from the film and from the shooting
The (previously unreleased) final sequence-shot of 12 minutes

Arizona Dream final sequence-shot

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 13:01:38 +0200

Arizona Dream final sequence-shot

Bonus on the French DVD of Arizona Dream released in April 2002, this 12 minutes sequence-shot which was not included into the final cut of the film is a pure wonder “à la Kusturica”, but it also brings a new glance on this history and especially reinforces the pessimistic destinies of the characters.

Some figures :

2 weeks for the set construction
2 days preparations for the actors
4 days shooting
1 film warehouse conceived especially by Panavision (none the existing contained a sufficient quantity of film to shoot such a duration in continuity)
8 good shots

The Warner team - American distributor - was shocked by discovering in the rushes the hero drunk the day of his wedding. This 12 minutes one-shot-sequence is a film inside the film which had not found its place in the final cut…

	The sequence begins with a priest who maries Axel and… Millie. In a few seconds, the blessing is pronounced, they kiss each other.
	Two glasses of whisky… Then, comes Paul. Paul is now a star : he has a TV show !
	Paul joins the table of the grooms. The shot of the wedding table is in the purest Kusturica-style. Paul tries to seduce Millie and many things occur at the same time on the screen : the fans of Paul who wants to touch him, the children play and annoy everyone like in Underground, Millie who has fun with its pocket ventilator and Axel who wants to make his speech…
	Once his speech completed (at the glory of Léo, cars and sex), Axel takes another glass and… vomits in the garden while resting on a giant cactus.
	Joined by Millie and her friends (to whom belongs Axel's girlfriend), Axel thinks he's hallucinating when they start to sing him a song…
	Back in his office, Axel talks with Barney a new recruit for the business “Axel Sweetie Automobiles”. On the contrary of his uncle, Axel does not sell Cadillacs, but… Yugo (small Yugoslav cars). With Paul, he recalls the golden rule of the house: ”The 3 'S' of sale : Seduction, Sex, Psychology”… Axel drinks whisky from the bottle. Paul worries : ”It' my wedding, Paul / I love you, Axel/I love you too, Paul, I love your show. I love when you spin this big wheel”. In fact, we understand Paul became a simple television game showman…
	The Mexican guitarists join the couple and play the music heard at the anniversary of Elaine. They follow Axel, as in every good film of Emir Kusturica… Here, Axel comforts Millie, always so sensitive and ready to cry.
	Back to the garden, to vomit again, followed by the Mexican guitarists. But when he raises, Axel sees…
	… a Cadillac coming from the sky…
	…from which Leo gets out. A surrealist conversation follows. Leo is disappointed to see no Cadillac, but small cars without luxury, class… Axel tries to explain him why these cars are sold better today, but Leo must already go back : ”It's a long way to the moon, Axel.“
	Axel seeks Millie to say that he has just spoken to Leo… But the normal set is back. Millie takes pictures against a closed window, Axel breaks down with a bottle in the hand…

The Arrowtooth Flounder

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 21:29:26 +0200

The Arrowtooth Flounder

Family : Pleuronectidae
Specie : Atheresthes stomias
Official name : Arrowtooth Flounder

This fish gave the original title to Arizona Dream : The Arrowtooth Waltz.

It is a flat fish one can find in the seas in the south of Alaska (up to California). Its color is just on only one side, and it has the two eyes on the same side of the head. It has a large mouth, which extends further than its eyes, and very pointed teeth, in the shape of arrows (hence arrow-tooth). The left eye is on the higher peak of the face. It is brown-olive on the side of the eye and white on the side without visibility. It measures approximately 90 cm centimetres. It is an edible fish, but the meat can lose its consistency if badly cooked.

Note : The idea of the flying fish would come from a painting of Yugoslav mannerist painter Ivan Generalic : The Fish out of the water.

Au temps d'Anika_FR

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 17:27:48 +0200

Arizona Dream - trailer

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 10:42:44 +0200

Arizona Dream - trailer

Download the plug-in Real One Player

Black Cat, White Cat - trailer

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 10:47:44 +0200

Black Cat, White Cat - trailer

Download the plugin Real One Player

L'Homme de la Riviera - bande annonce_FR

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 10:46:07 +0200

Life is a miracle - trailer

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 10:48:27 +0200

Life is a miracle - trailer

Download the plugin Real One Player

Maradona - teaser

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:24:57 +0200

Maradona - teaser

Download the plug-in Real One Player

Maradona - trailer

Tue, 20 May 2008 20:12:24 +0200

Maradona - trailer

Download the plug-in Real One Player

When father was away on business - trailer

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:52:45 +0200

When father was away on business - trailer

download the plug-in Real One Player

Promise-me this - trailer

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 14:23:04 +0200

Promise-me this - trailer

Download the plug-in Real One Player

Super 8 Stories - trailer

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 23:04:43 +0200

Super 8 Stories - trailer

Download the plug-in Real One Player

Time of the Gypsies - trailer

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:50:02 +0200

Time of the Gypsies - trailer

Download the plug-in Real One Player

Underground - trailer

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 10:47:05 +0200

Underground - trailer

Download the plugin Real One Player

The widow of Saint-Pierre - bande annonce_FR

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 10:45:59 +0200

Balkan Beat Box

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 15:54:33 +0200

Balkan Beat Box

The Balkan Beat Box is a band coming from the underground musical place of New York, but the musicians haven't forgotten their roots, and frankly ignored any idea of borders in their music. The result if an album absolutely fantastic, a pure product for partying at the sound of the Balkans. The rythms are heavily worked out, fast, and mix electro, traditional instruments, and incredible voices. The foots in Mediterranean sea, the heart in the whole world, and the head in the sky, this is the state of mind of Tamir Muskat, Ori Kaplan and their friends.

Buy online

Their first album is available on Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk

website

balkanbeatbox.com

Balkan music

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 15:46:33 +0200

Balkan music

The good Persian king Bahram Djour was moved by the complaints by his most stripped people. They wanted music, they wanted to make parties like the rich. Bahram Djour obtain from his father-in-law, king Shankal of Kanauj living in the valley of the Gange, to send him twelve thousand musicians. When they arrived, the king gave them everything to live by cultivating the ground : a donkey, an ox and thousand loads of corn each. But after one year, he saw them completely hungry ; because they simply ate their oxen and their corn. Irritated, the king advised them to put slik cords at their instruments, jump on their donkeys and go to live from now on… of their music ! (Al-Firdusi, philosopher and historian)

The gypsy people, inheriting from this population coming from India took the road some thousand years ago… but kept his music !

Šaban Bajramović
Living legend in Serbia, he is called the “king of the Gypsies”, or the “Frank Sinatra of the Rroms”. He is a huge artist who wrote more than 650 songs, among which the famous song Mesecina…

Balkan Beat Box
The Balkan Beat Box is a band coming from the underground New York scene, where the musician didn't forget their roots, and have ignored any notion of border in their music…

Bijelo Dugme
Cult rock band of Yugoslavia in the years 70-80, created by Goran Bregović…

Bratsch
Great group using klezmer, gypsy, or eastern rythms and tunes…

Django Reinhardt
Legend of the gypsy jazz, Django appears in three songs we hear in the film Arizona Dream…

Fanfare Ciocarlia
The Fanfare Ciocarlia groups eleven musicians coming from a small village in Romania and who play faster than anyone else…

Kočani Orkestar
The Kočani Orkestar has participated to some scenes of Underground and Time of the Gypsies…

Boban Marković
We hear the Boban Marković's trumpets in Underground and Arizona Dream…

No Smoking Orchestra
The punk-folk-rock band of Emir Kusturica and Dr. Nele Karajlić…

Slonovski Bal
…

Taraf de Haïdouks
Romanian band constituated by a dozen of Lautari. Their name is an homage to the Haidouks, the legendary honour bandit mentioned in the medieval ballads…

Zabranjeno Pušenje
Yugoslav punk band created in the 80's by Nele Karajlić…

Behind the camera

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 16:56:31 +0200

Behind the camera





		Uzice,24.12.2006: RAndric salje tekst za dopisno/ dati desku/ VREME ZA OPERU I SKIJANJE A sad pravac Iverak.. foto: MCvetkovic
		CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 11: Emir Kusturica (R) attends the Opening Ceremony at the Palais des Festivals during the 64th Cannes Film Festival on May 11, 2011 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 11: President of the Un Certain Regary jury Emir Kusturica (R) attends the Opening Ceremony at the Palais des Festivals during the 64th Cannes Film Festival on May 11, 2011 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)







	Bosnian filmmaker Emir Kusturica shows an anti-U.S. President George W. Bush placard at a Buenos Aires train station November 3, 2005. Kusturica, Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona and other activists will travel by train to Mar del Plata, 400 km (250 miles) south of Buenos Aires, to participate in the Third People's Summit, the alternative to the Summit of the Americas. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci

Belgrade

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 17:26:04 +0200

Belgrade

Geography

Belgrade, the white city, is the capital of Serbia. It is situated where the rivers Save and Danube join. According to a 2002 counting, the city has 1 273 651 inhabitants and, with the suburbs, 1 576 124 inhabitants.

History

Belgrade, was always the most significant crossroads of communication of Balkans. The site of Belgrade has always been occupied since the Roman Empire. Its history long of more than 2000 years, made that the city was several times destroyed by wars, particularly by the Hungarians, the Ottomans, and more recently at the time of the Second world war, and the various insurrections. History repeats itself as Belgrade was strongly bombarded by NATO forces in 1999.

However, the old fortress has still many museums which make its fame. The national Museum exposes artistic and archaeological testimonys, since the first traces of human civilization, until the middle of the XXth century. The prehistoric objects are characterized by famous the small votive tank of Dupljaja, which represents a divinity trailed by ducks. Many vestiges of the Hellenic and Roman Antiquity, among which gold masks, portraits, muds out of bronze or terra cotta deserve the visit. The museum comprises various sections covering all the times going until the modern art and contemporary.

One can visit the strategic citadel of Kalemegdan, built on a rocky outcrop, with the junction of Save and the Danube, where the Celtic, Roman, Slavic, Turkish and Austrians elements mix. One should also see the palate of the Ljubica princess, an authentic palate of Balkan style, characterized by a small tower, intended to keep the house.

Belgrade in Emir Kusturica's films

Emir Kusturica is an adoptive son of Belgrade. He has installed there the offices of his production company.

It is of course in Belgrade that most of the action of Underground is held. Several city scenes were shot in Prague (for its natural decorations and its old houses), others on the spot, in Belgrade. Indeed, the Yugoslav legislation was much more permissive for the use of explosive and smoke-producing than in Prague. It was thus easier there to film the bombarded city…

website

www.beograd.org.yu

Best Of - Emir Kusturica and The No Smoking Orchestra

Tue, 05 May 2009 22:13:47 +0200

Best Of - Emir Kusturica and The No Smoking Orchestra

Release : 4 May 2009
Publisher : Universal
Format : CD

Bubamara (main version)
Kana o delm barvarel
Upside down
Unza unza time
When life was a miracle
O chaveja
Wanted man
Dub sandal
Pit bull
Djind ji rind ji babamara
Daddy, don't ever die on…
Moldavian song
Jek di tharin
San Francisco
Devil in the business…
Railway station
Efta purane ikone
Was Romeo really a jerk
Ovo je muski svet
Daddy's gone

To celebrate ten years of playing together, Emir Kusturica and the No Smoking Orchestra who are currently touring, release a Best Of with 20 songs from the soundtrack of Black Cat White Cat, Unza Unza Time, the soundtrack of Life is a miracle and the Opera "Time of the Gypsies"

Buy online : amazon.fr, Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, or Amazon.de.

Opendisc

This CD is in “OpenDisc” format, and gives access to an exclusive internet page. Once identified, you can download the 21st track of the album : Duj Drama, a nice mixture of different tunes, played live in Japan.

In the OpenDisc zone, we also find various internet links to the Unza Unza Time video clip on youtube, the official site and the myspace page.

The welcome email also promises that : ”you'll be invited to events, to share your opinion, and maybe shall you also receive exclusive invitations…”

Albums of the No Smoking Orchestra

Das ist Walter - Dok cekas sabah sa sejtanom - Pozdrav iz zemlje Safari - Male price o velikoj ljubavi - Ja nisam odavle - Black Cat White Cat - soundtrack - Unza Unza Time - Life is a miracle - soundtrack - Live is a miracle in Buenos Aires - Opera "Time of the Gypsies" - CD - Best Of - Emir Kusturica and The No Smoking Orchestra

Bijelo Dugme

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 15:38:26 +0200

Bijelo Dugme

At 16, after violin studies, Goran Bregović created in Sarajevo a band called Jutro. The band manages to first deal and release a single called ”Kad bi' bio bijelo dugme”. Their manager persuades them to change the name, surfing on this first success : Bijelo Dugme (white button) was born.

With charismatic singer Željko Bebek, as well as Alen Islamović, “Điđi” Jankelić, Milić Vukašinović, Zoran Redžić, Vlado Pravdić and Goran Ivandić, the rock band soon became a standard in Yugoslavia and from 1974 to 1989 became cult, thanks to nine very good albums.

Then, the band split, and Goran Bregović started a solo career, writing films soundtracks for Emir Kusturica or Patrick Chéreau, among many others.

In 2005, Goran Bregović managed to reunite his old friends and the band made a serie of huge concerts to live once more the phenomenon of the years 70-80. We see on the pictures below Goran surrounded by Željko Bebek, Mladen Vojicić Tifa and Alen Islamović.

Discography

1974. Kad bi bio bijelo dugme
1974. Ima neka tajna veza (single)
1975. Sta bi dao da si na mom mjestu
1976. Eto! Bas hocu!
1976. Milovan / Goodbye Amerika (single)
1977. Koncert kod Hajducke Cesme (live)
1979. Bitanga i princeza
1981. Dozivjeti stotu
1982. Singl ploce 1974 - 1975 (compilation)
1982. Singl ploce 1976 - 1980 (compilation)
1983. Uspavanka za Radmilu M.
1984. Kosovka djevojka
1986. Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo
1988. Ciribiribela

Biography

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 11:12:28 +0200

”I was born several times, and I'm sure one of my births took place in Cannes.”

Born on 24 november 1954 in Sarajevo, Emir Kusturica (Емир Кустурица) is a Serbian director, musician and producer. Author of eight movies, several television and short films, he also plays guitar in a rock band. Among his many prizes, he has received two Golden Palms in Cannes for When father was away on business and Underground, and the silver Bear (Special Jury Prize) in Berlin for Arizona Dream.

Biography

Prague

Emir Kusturica was born in Sarajevo, main town of current Bosnia and Herzegovina. Even though bosniak muslim, his family has slavic orthodox roots. His father Murat, as many millions of other yugoslavs, had renounced to his faith to become a communist. Emir, only son, denounced the communism to become… director. Young Emir, certainly more by curiosity than to oppose his “good” family (his father worked in the Ministery of Information of Bosnia and Herzegovina¹⁾), went easily with “bad guys” of Sarajevo. His parents decided to send him abroad at 18 to protect him from such people. Since he was always in the neighborhood cinema of Sarajevo, they sent him to learn cinema. A cousin was then leaving in Prague, Emir was thus sent to the prestigious FAMU, the school of Prague from which Miloš Forman, Jirí Menzel or Goran Paskaljević were graduated.

Sarajevo

At that time, I was like a virgin land. I was very curious, but I didn't like school, and I had no real connections with the cinema. From that point of view, my career in cinema is a coïncidence. But in fact, Hajrudin Krvavać, a friend of my father was directing institutional movies at that time, and he once took me on a set. I was completely seduced by the wide variety of knowledges and experiences we could benefit from cinema. When I came back to Sarajevo after having done a good cinema school, I realized how much my region, my childhood memories, my personal experiences were rich enough to create stories. It was the first time I had fully realized what was the cinema.

Quickly appreciated, his first short movies take this student out of the crowd. His teacher had already noticed it : Guernica, but more again Titanic which denounces the anti-jew racism under the WW2, had already given a favourable impression and he said : ”the only thing you'll leave behind you will be your film ; the end justifies the means”. This sentence marked him and helped him complete his first personal projects, like the very risky When father was away on business, denouncing the politic deportations in the communist Yugoslavia, subject still tabou at that time, shortly after Tito's death. Until then, Emir had always shot in his own language, using even the actor's local accents, to enhance the pluralism of Yugoslavia : in this way Do you remember Dolly Bell ? is the first yugoslav film that was shot bosnian, and not in the official language of th country, serbo-croatian (the equivalent of “BBC english”). Emir makes then an ambitious project with his scenarist : make a trilogy on the cosmopolitan city of Sarajevo. The second episode will be When father was away on business, but the unexpected Golden Palm will drive Emir into another world, and he will leave unfinished this trilogy.

To calm down, Emir Kusturica drops the camera for a while after Cannes' victory. He plays some bass guitar in a punk-rock band of Sarajevo : Zabranjeno Pušenje (smoking forbidden). The band is subversive, lyrics are corosive, style is eclectic. In these years, Emir meets Dr. Nele Karajlić, the leader of the band.

New York

The Golden Palm had opened all the doors of the cinema to him : large budgets are proposed. Emir thinks about different subjects, different places, but finally it's in his own country that he directs Time of the Gypsies, after having read articles about Gypsies dealing with human beings. Emir digs the subject with a journalist, and spends several months in one of the largest gypsy camps in Europe, near Skopje in Macedonia. At the end of the shooting, czech director Miloš Forman calls him in New York to replace him at the Columbia University. Editing of the film Time of the Gypsies will be finished there.

After a long time of thinking, it's in English that he shoots his next film : Arizona Dream. One of his students of the Columbia University gives him a script about the American dream. But meanwhile, war starts in the Balkans, and far from his family, Emir cannot work anymore. The shooting turns into a nightmare, and the film takes a darker colour…

Belgrade

Murat, Emir Kusturica's father, dies of an heart attack soon after the family house in Sarajevo is sacked. The family finds refuge in Montenegro. After this experience, Emir feels he needs to get back to his country to tell to the Westerners what is the story of his country. He starts his most ambitious opus : Underground. Based upon a scenario of Dušan Kovačević, great yugoslav theatre author, he draws the story of 50 years of his country, since WW2 to the recent days. In a burlesque form, taking some tricks from the greatest masters, the film is highly baroque and colourful. Yet the background might seem to be ambiguous to those who make partial readings. Feeling that he made his “duty”, but also that he wasn't understood, Emir Kusturica thinks of retiring from cinema (see the polemics initiated by French intellectuals… His second Golden Palm remains nevertheless as the most significant of his career, and adds his names among the greatest directors of all times.

Quickly enough, Emir Kusturica comes back on his decision and decides to change the tone, by making lighter subjects, finishing with “happy ends” : in Black Cat, White Cat and Super 8 Stories, you feel optimism, even if everyday's life is not always perfect. Optimisme can also be seen on stage because since Black Cat, White Cat, Emir has rejoined his friend Dr. Nele Karajlić and the some of the members of the Zabranjeno Pušenje, rebaptised under their English translation : No Smoking Orchestra. Emir composes, plays and tours with the band. The success of the concerts is impressive, from South America to Japan.

Küstendorf

Emir return behind the camera for a new long shooting : Life is a miracle took one year and a half for shooting, and Emir fell in love with the landscapes of Mokra Gora : the nature has almost the leading role, with gorgeous colours and impressive views. Once finished, Emir built there an ethno-village : Küstendorf, aiming at opening a cinema school, local carfts, guest houses, restaurants…

Back in Cannes in may 2005, Emir Kusturica is chosen to be the président of the jury of the festival. He returns after in Küstendorf to shoot his next film (Promise me this). In 2007, he is raised chevalier des arts et des lettres by French culture minister Renaud Donnedieu de vabre.

Emir Kusturica spends his life between cameras, festivals, concerts with the No Smoking Orchestra and Küstendorf, his village in Serbia.

¹⁾ in an interview, Emir has described the work of his father like the one of Sam Lowry in the film Brazil by Terry Gilliam

Black Cat White Cat - Soundtrack

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 15:02:29 +0200

Black Cat White Cat - Sundtrack

Release : 1998
Publisher : Mercury (Polygram)
Format : CD

Bubamara (main version)
Duj Sandale
Railway station
Jek Di Tharin II (new version)
Daddy, don't ever die on a friday
Bubamara (Vivaldi version)
Daddy's gone
Long vehicle
Pit bull
El Bubamara pasa
Ja volim te jos/Meine Stadt
Bubamara (Tree Stump)
Jek Di Tharin
Lies
Hunting
Dejo dance
Bulgarian dance
Bubamara (Sunflower)
Black cat white cat

Black Cat, White Cat's soundtrack is officially composed by the Black Cat White Cat Orchestra. But it is a pseudonym for the No Smoking Orchestra who was then searching for a new name, since the separation with the old members of the original band was still fresh. Emir Kusturica participated in writing some of the titles, butit's mainly Dejan Sparavalo and Dr. Nele Karajlić who are responsible of this wonder. The mix of genres is complete and more than all : the kind of music changes much from the previous soundtracks of Goran Bregović. At least, there will be no comparison !

Note : the exceptional participation of Šaban Bajramović on Bubamara.

Buy online : Amazon.fr, Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de

Lyrics

Ja volim te još

Ja volim te još
u svojim snovima slušaj te reči
da volim te još
Iduša bez dna i srce već zna
da volim te još

Ja dajem ti sve
Ja dajem ti usne i pogled i telo
ja dajem ti sve i duša bez dna i srce već zna
da dajem ti sve

Ja molim te sad
da ovu iskru što zasja medj nama
ti drugoj ne znaš i duša bez dna i srce veš zna
da molim te sad

Pit Bull

Ja grizem
žderem
režim
derem
njušim
stenjem
jedem
serem

Ja lajem
grebem
sisam
jebem

U licu vošten
u duši pošten

Ja sam mala pit bull

Bubamara

Sa romalen pucela
Bubamara sosi acela
Devla, Devla vacar le
Bubamaru koka pocinel

Ej romalen asunen
Ej cavoren gugle zuralen
Bubamara cajori
Baro Grga vojsi odjili
Djindji rindji Bubamaro
cknije sužije
ajde mori goj romesa

Sa Romalen pucela
ede ori fusujesa cudela
Devla, Devla sacerle
Bubamaru vojte aresle

Ej Romalen asunen
ej cavoren gugle sukaren
životo si ringispil
trade aj ro, aj romni

Djindji rindji Bubamaro….

Daddy dont ever die on a Friday

Daddy dont ever die on a Friday
it can seriously damage your heart
I beg you more than ever
cause death will last forever
Who cares about day you will die

Daddy dont ever die on a Friday
Cause weekend aint no good for funeral
show me some real devotion
Death is an endless ocean
you ve enough time to run jump and dive

Daddy dont ever die on a Friday
dont do that stupid thing to me
I am sure you ll go to Heaven
so please do me a favour
choose another day in the week

Daddy dont ever die on a Friday
on Saturday is my wedding time
everything is ready
my darling s in a taxi
daddy dont ever die on time

Everything is ready
my sugar is in taxi
Daddy don t ever die on time

ALL WE NEED IS LONG VEHICLE

IT S TIME TO TRAVEL
IT S TIME TO GO
IT S TIME FOR PACKING LITTLE DARLING
WE GONNA FIND ANOTHER WORLD

OH CANT YOU SEE
YOU BELONG TO ME
ITS TIME TO TRAVEL
IT S TIME TO GO
ALL WE NEED IS LONG VEHICLE

ITS TIME FOR BOARDING
SO HIT THE ROAD
TAKE YOUR TOOTH BRUSH LITTLE DARLING
TAKE YOUR LANGUAGE AND YOUR HOPE

OH CANT YOU SEE
WE HAVE NO TIME FOR CUP OF TEA

ITS TIME TO TRAVEL
ITS TIME TO GO
ALL WE NEED IS LONG VEHICLE

DAS IST MEINE STAD

zeen zi dize štat
zeen zi dize lojte, di kinder, di šue
zeen zi dize štat
ajn ringšpil iz das
und halten zi fast
vir fligen im naht

zeen zi dize nacht
zeen zi di lihte, di vagen, kravaten
zeen zi dize nacht
ajn fliper iz das
und halten zi fast
das ist majne štat

zeen zi dize štat
zeen zi di augen, di blike, di herce
zeen zi dize štat
ajn flughafen iz das
und halten zi fast
vir landen im naht

zeen zi dize naht
di lojte špaciren durh zajne trojme und zuhen di gehajmnise im naht
ajn ringšpil iz das
und halten zi fast
das ist majne štat

das ist majne štat

Black Cat, White Cat

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 22:28:31 +0200

Black Cat, White Cat

Director	Emir Kusturica
Original title	Crna Macka Beli Makor
Working title	Acrobatic Music
Release	1998 (France)
Original language	Rrom & Serbian
Length	2h10
Music	Black cat white cat orchestra
Script	Gordan Mihić & Emir Kusturica
Photography	Thierry Arbogast, Michel Amathieu
Box office	694.251 (France), 2.695.431 (Europe), 68.633 (USA)

Awards

Silver Lion of the Best Director at the Mostra of Venice, 1998

Synopsis

Matko is a small time hustler, living by the Danube with his 17 year old son Zare. After a failed business deal he owes money to the much more successful gangster Dadan. Dadan has a sister, Afrodita, that he desperately wants to see get married so they strike a deal: Zare is to marry her. But none of the two care much for an arranged marriage: Zare is in love with Ida, Afrodita is waiting for the man of her dreams.

Trailer

French trailer

Casting

Bajram Severdzan …. Matko Destanov
Srđan Todorović …. Dadan Karambolo
Branka Katić …. Ida
Florijan Ajdini …. Zare Destanov
Ljubica Adžović …. Sujka
Zabit Memedov …. Zarije Destanov
Sabri Sulejman …. Grga Pitic
Jasar Destani …. Grga Veliki
Stojan Sotirov …. Bulgarian customs officer
Predrag Laković …. the priest
Miki Manojlović …. the wedding officer

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was written by the No Smoking Orchestra.

Details, titles and lyrics of the soundtrack.

Buy online : Amazon.fr, Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de

DVD, VHS

Country	Format	audio languages	subtitles languages	buy online	Description
Germany	DVD Z2 PAL	Rrom 5.1, German 5.1	German	Amazon.de
Australia	DVD Z4 PAL	Rrom 5.1	English, French, Dutch	Amazon.co.uk
Belgium	DVD Z2 PAL	Rrom 5.1, French 5.1	French, Dutch	Amazon.fr	4 films set¹⁾
France	DVD Z2 PAL	Rrom 5.1, French 5.1	French, Dutch	Amazon.fr	more details
France	VHS SECAM	Rrom	French	Amazon.fr
Hungary	DVD Z2 PAL	Rrom 5.1, Magyar 5.1	Magyar
Japan	DVD Z2 NTSC	Rrom 5.1	Japanese
Poland	DVD Z2 PAL	Rrom 5.1	Polish, English
United Kingdom	DVD Z2 PAL	Rrom 2.0	English	Amazon.co.uk
Serbia	VHS PAL	Rrom		yu4you.com
Slovenia	DVD Z2 PAL	Rrom 5.1	Slovenian
USA	VHS NTSC	Rrom	English	Amazon.com

Anecdotes

Regarding the music, Emir Kusturica says : ”what we obtain at the end is a kind of mixture between the traditional music and the cuban “sound”, a world music impossible to identify precisely, in a word : free. Nothing more normal finally, since the music is the synthesis of all the other.” The gypsy soul is present indeed in this music of a disrespectful freedom.

Working title of the film was Acrobatic Music, and if you look closely at the generic, there is no title ! Just the silhouette of a pair of cats…

”Your parents are watching you from above”
”They can't see anything. It's cloudy”

”I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship…”

The burlesque of the film is partly inspired by the comic strip Alan Ford, of Italian origin, but having had a strong success in Yugoslavia in the Eighties. Alan Ford is a loosy publicity agent who becomes a secret agent ; sort of James Bond parody, his adventures are quite delirious.

See a fan website.

We even see in Dadan's limousine one of his friends who reads an Alan Ford comic book while the other play dices…

There is a restaurant named Black Cat White Cat in St Petersbourg, in Russia. As we can imagine, it is a restaurant specialised in serbian food. A giant screen behind the bar shows russian or yugoslav films, among which of course, Emir Kusturica's film. A local journalist underlines the plates are quite good…

  The Black Cat White Cat (Chyornaya Koshka Bely Kot) 13, Pestelya Ulitsa. Tel: 276 7430.
  For 2 persons, with vin : 1,020 roubles (30 euros).

In the movie Darwin's nightmare by Hubert Sauper, we can see several scenes from the film Black Cat White Cat on a black & white television with the Russians in Tanzania. They stop their conversation and say laughing : ”look : it's our people on TV”.

Critics

Télérama. ”Emir Kusturica comes back to gypsies, for an optimistic and truculent joke… With married and brass band, odds and ends and herd of geese.”
Monsieur Cinéma. ”The comic attitude splashes everything, even the music. It is enough to see how Kusturica definitively ridicules techno music and shows his great tenderness for a gypsy musicians formation. A great director is back, his film is an homage to burlesque, life and love… Cheers !”
Le courrier des Balkans : ”The time of the bear, lions and palms hunting is behind him. Now, he can have fun and shoot films. It possible that this film be the first of a new career (splendid), less turned towards festivals successes and more dedicated to an aesthetic and hedonist manner to make films. ”

Gallery

Shooting

Posters

Emir Kusturica's films

¹⁾ Arizona Dream, Underground, Black Cat, White Cat, Life is a miracle

Blue Gypsy

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 22:25:26 +0200

Blue Gypsy

Director	Emir Kusturica
Original title	Blue Gypsy
Release	2005 (Italy), 2007 (France)
Original language	Serbian
Length	10 mn
Script	Stribor Kusturica
Photography	Milorad Glušica & Michel Amathieu
Music	No Smoking Orchestra

Awards

Grolle d'Oro of the Film Festival of Saint-Vincent, Italy, for the italian film thar made the best sales abroad

Synopsis

Uroš (the gypsy with blue eyes), is about to be released from the juvenile detention center in which he has spent quite a long time.

He is facing the mixed feelings that he has towards his release; dealing again with his Father who forces him to steal yet being supposedly freed into the outside world. Uroš' choice will become clear once he will find himself cornered…

Casting

Uroš Milovanović …. Uroš
Dragan Zurovac …. the guardian
Vladan Milojević …. the conductor
Advokat Goran R. Vracar … the father
Mihona Vasić …. the mother
Mita Belić …. Mita
Dalibor Milenković …. Samir
Miroslav Cvetković …. Sima
Petar Simić …. the one-eyed

Anecdotes

Shot in Küstendorf, based on a script by Stribor, this film is a command of UNICEF and gathers 7 short films by 8 directors coming from different places : Mehdi Charef, Spike Lee, Kátia Lund, Jordan & Ridley Scott, Stefano Veneruso and John Woo. The whole film was released in 2006 under the name All the invisible children.

Emir Kusturica about this short film : ”This film is different especially for its length, because I had to compress my ideas in less than 20 minutes, something which I learned from the commercial films, but it was especially interesting to make a film which, in some way, shows things that people don't know. As in my other projects, I express my observations, my obsessions but it's the first time since the cinema school which I make a film like this one. Somebody gave me a key which I transformed into a script.”

Like in most of his other films, the human being is in the heart of the history: ”do you make a film on the basis of the beat of modernity or on the basis of the beat of your heart?”.

official website

www.alltheinvisiblechildrenmovie.com

DVD, VHS

Country	Format	Zone	audio languages	subtitles languages	buy online	Description
Germany	DVD	Z2 PAL	Serbian 5.1, German 5.1	German	Amazon.de

Gallery

Emir Kusturica's short films

Guernica - Seven days in the life of a bird - Blue Gypsy - Our Life

Boban Marković

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 16:48:04 +0200

Books

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 10:57:48 +0200

Books

Books written by Emir Kusturica

Vojo Stanić - Sailing on Dreams, by Robert Boyers, Valeri S. Turchin, and Emir Kusturica, 2007
A richly illustrated monography on the montenegrin painter who had made the cover for Unza Unza Time.

Books dedicated to Emir Kusturica

The books dedicated to Emir Kusturica aren't numerous, but often of good quality. You'll find here most of the books.

Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra - photomonography by Dragan Teodorović Zeko, by Zeko, 2007
The first official photo-monography of the No Smoking Orchestra with pictures of Zeko, and texts of Dr. Nele Karajlić.

Emir Kusturica, by Jean-Max Méjean, 2007
A biography-filmography which tries, film after film, to decipher what feeds the baroque visuals of Emir Kusturica…

Le lexique subjectif d'Emir Kusturica, by Matthieu Dhennin, 2006
An essay which is not really a biography, but rather a a book with multiple entries allowing to approach the director by successive and concentric touches…

Emir Kusturica by Dina Iordanova, 2002
A complete book on the roots, ideas, evolutions and the path followed by the director. Dina Iordanova, british journalist made a huge work on what makes Emir Kusturica a unique director.

The cinema of Emir Kusturica - notes from the Underground by Goran Gocić, 2001
A book with hundreds of anecdotes and quotes, and leads us to the roots and influences of the director to help understanding his films. Thanks to private conversations with Emir Kusturica, Goran Gocić wrote this essential book.

Cinema of Flames - Balkan Film, Culure and the Media by Dina Iordanova, 2001
A book not only dedicated to Emir Kusturica, but on the cinema of the Balkans in general. Yet, there is a complete chapter dedicated to a deep study of the film Underground.

Emir Kusturica by Paolo Vecchi, 1999
First Italian book dedicated to Emir Kusturica…

Il était une fois ... UNDERGROUND by Emir Kusturica & Serge Grunberg, 1995
Real making-of of the film Underground, this book puts us into the sets of the film, through different interviews, reportages and analysis.

Le petit livre d'Emir Kusturica by Jean-Marc Bouineau, 1993
The first book entirely dedicated to Emir Kusturica, this book gives us a passionating view of Emir Kusturica's cinema at the time of the release of Arizona Dream.

Bora Todorović

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 00:14:50 +0200

Bora Todorović

Bora Todorović was born on 5 november 1930 in Belgrade. He's one the greatest living yugoslav actors. Graduated of the Theatre Academy of Belgrade (today the Dramatic Arts Faculty), he acted in many plays of Dušan Kovačević at the famous Atelier 212.

In Time of the Gypsies, he was the only “professional” actor that Emir Kusturica recruted, because he estimated that the character of Ahmed needed a big actor as Bora Todorović. Indeed, he acts all the film in Rrom, the gypsy language that he didn't know at all ! Bora declared then : ”After having made a film in English, and now a film in Rrom, I think I could very well make a film in Chinese !”

In october 2000, after the Revolution in Belgrade, he cheered the new president Vojislav Koštunica and asked the people to ally the government with these words : ”The cinema works again !” (this sentence comes from one of his most famous films : The Marathon Family, of 1982)

In November 2002, he received the “Pavle Vuisić” prize for his contribution to the yugoslav cinema.

Bora Todorović is the father of Srđan Todorović.

Filmography (films of Emir Kusturica)

1995 : Underground, Golub
1989 : Time of the Gypsies, Ahmed

Filmography (other directors)

2003 : Profesionalac (the professional), by Dušan Kovačević
1976 : Cuvar plaze u zimskom periodu, by Goran Paskaljević

(selective filmography)

Gallery

en:bosnia

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 13:23:22 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 17:59:37 +0200

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Name	Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local name	Bosna i Hercegovina
Capital	Sarajevo
Area	51 233 km²
Religions	Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Muslim, Jew
Population	3 365 727 Bosnians

Today, Bosnia-Herzegovina suffers and has still not yet cured all its wounds. Indeed, more than one third of the historic buildings was destroyed by the Serbs of Bosnia (memoricide) during the 92-95 war, like the National Library of Sarajevo (Austro-Hungarian architecture) or the famous mosque of Foca (XVth centuruy), which was one of the most beautiful in the country. Most of the muslim religious inheritance (2 000 monuments) was methodically destroyed not to leave any trace of this civilization. Today UNESCO tries to index the places which can still be saved.

Bosnia and Herzegovina in Emir Kusturica's films

Do you remember Dolly Bell ? and When father was away on business, of course, occur mostly in Sarajevo, thus in Bosnia. But more recently, Life is a miracle is set in the Serbian part of Bosnia, near the Serbian border, even though if the film was completely shot in Serbia.

Mostar

The best example of Bosnia-Herzegovina's “reconstruction” is certainly the bridge of Mostar (Stari Most), architectural masterpiece, designed by the ottoman architect Mimar Hayruddin, and completed in 1566 after nine years of work, the bridge rose formerly above emerald water of the Neretva. Only half an hour was necessary, on November 9, 1993, so that the Croatian artillery destroys it. In 1997, the UNESCO started a program for its rebuilding. Under the direction of French architect Gilles Pequeux, work lasts from 1998 to 2004. The new bridge will be inaugurated on July 23, 2004, it was rebuilt with the same plans, of course, with to the same techniques, with the stones coming from the same career, and - irony of the history - by a Turkish building entreprise !

Republics of ex-Yugoslavia

Bosnia and Herzegovina - Croatia - Macedonia - Montenegro - Serbia - Slovenia

Bratsch

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 16:09:18 +0200

Bratsch

Bratsch is a French group founded in 1975 by Dan Gharibian and Bruno Girard, joined a few years later by Pierre Jacquet, François Castiello and Nano Peylet. Coming from free jazz, these musicians share the same admiration for the klezmer, gypsy, Eastern Europe rhythms. Often in tour, they composed many superb albums with entertaining sounds and melodies, on serious or merry subjects.

”We are not real traditional musicians, says François Castiello. In France, we do not have a very rich musical tradition, whereas, in the Romanian, Yugoslav, Bulgarian musics, there are extraordinary things to discover on expression and play. We are in front of these musics like white European musicians in front of the jazz in the Fifties.”

Bratsch goes on a journey in gestures, atmospheres, dream. Their music and their spectacle evoke the myth : the myth of the remote village, the myth of the migration, the myth of the “gypsyland”. ”We are dreamers. We have much fantasies on music. People over there do not play it like that. I played recently with a brass band of Macedonia : they play during repetitions, before the repetitions, after the repetitions, they will play in the street as they wake up, they still play after the concert. They do not play only for the people sitting in front of the stage.”

Anecdote

The “bratsche” is a violin with three cords, used by the Gypsies in pizzicato, replacing the percussions in Romania and Hungary.

Discography

1980. J'aime un voyou, Maman (LP album)
1981. Bratsch
1989. Notes de Voyages : Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk
1990. Sans Domicile Fixe : Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk
1991. La vie, la mort, tout ça : Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk
1992. Transports en commun : Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk
1993. Bi Lovengo (CD promo)
1994. Correspondances : Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk
1994. Le Mangeur De Lune (soundtrack of Dai Sijie's film) : Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk
1994. Gypsy Music From The Heart Of Europe / Live at Bochum : Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk
1995. Terre Promises (jewish tales)
1996. Ecoute-ça Chérie : Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk
1998. Rien dans les poches : Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk
1999. On a rendez-vous : Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk
2003. Nomades en vol (2 CD) : Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk

Site internet officiel

www.bratsch.com

en:bregovic

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 21:31:29 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is Goran Bregović.

Enterrez-moi debout, l'odyssée des Gitans_FR

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 16:48:07 +0200

en:cabiria

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 21:00:41 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is Rasta Films.

Calomnies

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 18:15:58 +0200

Calomnies

Director	Jean-Pierre Mocky
Release	2012 ?
Script	André Ruellan

Synopsis

A film about calumny : how we can easily destroy one's life, specially when it's financed by corporations who get money for this.

Casting

Emir Kusturica …. himself
Alain Chabat …. himself
Quentin Tarantino …. himself
Jean-Luc Godard …. himself
Michel Gondry …. himself
Tony Gatlif …. himself

Anecdotes

Initially, the casting would have been : Tahar RAHIM, Daniel AUTEUIL, Claude BRASSEUR, Benoit Poelvoorde and Fanny ARDANT.

Then it has evolved. Jean-Pierre ocky says « all those independent directors have accpeted to be actors because they loved the subject. ». Shooting should have taken place in Paris, during the summer 2011 but it was delayed because of the Dominique Strauss-Kahn trial (source : arte.tv).

en:cannes

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:38:22 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is Cannes Film Festival.

Cannes Film Festival

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:59:57 +0200

Cannes Film Festival

”People think they are only born once. In fact, people are born several times. They are born again each time joy wins over sadness and suffering that men continuously fight against, before falling again into it by the spiritual attraction force and definding once more time. It's inside these bursts of joy, only feeling that I know, that men can be reborn. I was born several times, and I'm sure one of my births took place in Cannes.”

(Emir Kusturica, in Les Visiteurs de Cannes, by Gilles Jacob, Hatier, 1992)

1985

Almost unknown from the public, Emir Kusturica was also unknown from the organizers. Warned of his arrival, it's the Emir of Costa-Rica that was expected with a red carpet at the airport…

Nevertheless, the Emir will win his first Golden Palm for When father was away on business, prize given unanimously (this is quite rare) by the Jury of Miloš Forman.

1989

Emir Kusturica lands with a band of Gypsies and puts colours to the Croisette : Time of the Gypsies wins the Best Director prize. Ljubica Adžović, invited to a restaurant with Gilles Jacob, president of the festival, is convinced she has eaten with president … Chirac !

1992

Arizona Dream isn't finished, but Emir comes to Cannes with Johnny Depp, Vincent Gallo and Lili Taylor. He's already feeling at home.

1993

Emir Kusturica is member of the jury of Louis Malle. They give two Golden Palms : Farewell My Concubine by Chen Kaige, and The piano by Jane Campion.

1995

Still shooting in January, Underground is finished just in time to be selected. Falling right in the news, there are many discussions and tensions between the jury members, but Jeanne Moreau, the president convinces the members and give him his second Golden Palm. This Prize creates some violent The polemic 'Underground' in the French press, initiated by an article of Alain Finkielkraut, even thought he hadn't seen the film.

This year, for the public and for the journalists, Teo Angelopoulos' film (Ulysses' Gaze) was the big favourite, and during the ceremony, when he was called to receive the Grand prix du Jury, he told a shocked and suddenly silent audience ”If this is what you have to give me, I have nothing to say.” But apparently, Angelopoulos didn't blame Kusturica…

1997

For the 50 years of the festival, the past winners are invited to a big party. There, Emir Kusturica meets Francis Ford Coppola, who happened to be particularly arrogant in front of the cameras of Canal+…

2003

Emir Kusturica is president of the jury of the Short films.

2004

Life is a miracle wins the National Education Prize.

2005

Emir Kusturica is president of the jury. He gives the Golden Palm to L'Enfant by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardennes.

French channel Canal+ pays an homage to the president by creating a puppet for its satyrical show ”Les guignols de l'info”.

2007

Promise me this was selected for the official competition, and was the last film to be screened. Even if the film got no prize, it was a cheerful way of ending the festival…

On the picture, we see him surrounded by the film crew and his wife, Maja Kusturica.

2008

This year, Maradona (both the film and the football player) are announced …

Opera "Time of the Gypsies" - CD

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 00:55:09 +0200

Opera "Time of the Gypsies" - CD

Release : 16 june 2007
Format : CD

Efta purane ikone (Seven Old Icons)
Djilaben rromalen (Sing People Sing)
San Francisco (San Francisco)
O chaveja (Oh, My Children)
Hederlezi (St. George Day)
Cik cik pogodi (Guess Guess who is coming)
Crazy about money (Crazy About Money)
Del dija (Lord gave us)
Kana o del barvarel (When Lord Gives)
Evropa (Europe)
Pharismasa va inzares (The Beggars)
Perhan sovel (Perhan is dreaming)
Lorenzzo (Lorenzzo)
Sas jekh len (There was a river once)

Buy online : Amazon.fr

Centre Culturel de Serbia à Paris_FR

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 18:11:07 +0200

en:charles_chaplin

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 00:04:14 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is Charlie Chaplin.

Charlie Chaplin

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 21:54:15 +0200

Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin was born in London in 1889 and went to Hollywood in 1913. His first films were short but very creative sketches based on his little tramp character. After the Circus in 1928, he will direct more and more ambitious projects, still keeping a very important social background in his subjects.

Charlie Chaplin in Emir Kusturica's films

One of the biggest homages Emir Kusturica has paid to Charles Chaplin is certainly the scene of Time of the Gypsies where Merdzan makes a funny imitation of The tramp, and makes laughing Perhan, his sister et most of all his grand mother.

Let's mention we find Emir Kusturica in the “bonus” of the new DVD edition of The Circus, in which he makes very fine and personnal analyses of some key scenes of the film.

Buy online : Amazon.fr

Charnoïevich's diary

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 11:59:39 +0200

Charnoïevich's diary

Author	Miloš Crnjanski (Милош Црњански)
Original title	Дневник о Чарнојевићу
Publisher	L'Age d'Homme
Language	French (translated from Serbo-Croatian by Olga Marković)
Date	1921

1914-1918. The war. When the myths are vanished, what remains for those who had the chance to get out alive ? But first, where was it, the life, in these endless atrocities ? Maybe the knocked out survivors found it in the heart of horror and absurdity ?

Charnoïevich, Serb in the Austro-hungarian army, is engaged against the Serbo-Russian troups in Galicia. Absurd situation since he's forced to fight against those he feels the closest to, and that the army he belongs to, will finally wins this battle, and yet loose the war.

He wanders in the battle fields and the hospitals, in the prisonner camps and his birth place, in the souvenirs of his past life. He writes a diary, a poor compass, an uncertain help for his wanderings in time and space, last possibility to give them a sense. Wounded in his body and in his mind, desperate and resigned, he's unable of any emotion and conscious of the uselessness of any effort.

When the diary was published in 1921, it was a considerable event in the history of Serbian literature. The book, indeed, broke completely with the traditional romanesque production. First, by the form. A chronicle ? A Poem ? A novel ? The diary has all those different genres, without being only one – but mostly by the tone. This tone, te first authenticity of Tsernianski, is made by the succession of short and dry annotations, and lyric developments, subtle and personal images, strange ideas, unfinished reflections.

Buy online : Amazon.fr (French translation)

Cinema of Flames - Balkan Film, Culure and the Media

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 13:50:55 +0200

Cinema of Flames - Balkan Film, Culure and the Media

Title	Cinema of Flames - Balkan Film, Culure and the Media
Author	Dina Iordanova
Publisher	bfi publishing
Language	English
Release	2001

This book speaks of cinema in the Balkans in general, even if it makes a great deal with the work of Emir Kusturica, and in particular a very interesting analysis of the film Underground. The book focuses on difficult subjects like violence on screen, draft of children or political propaganda through cinema.

Buy online : Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, or Amazon.com.

Black Cat, White Cat - The French DVD (TF1 video)

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 16:48:11 +0200

Chat Noir, Chat Blanc - le DVD français_FR

Sortie : septembre 2001 (France)
Langues : Rrom 5.1, Français 5.1
Sous-titres : French, néerlandais

Bonus :

La Bande-annonce de Black Cat, White Cat
La Bande annonce d'Underground
Un petit docu (2 minutes) sur la projection en avant première du film à Belgrade

Achat en ligne : Amazon.fr

en:commercial

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 23:13:18 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is Commercials.

Commercials

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 00:09:59 +0200

Commercials

In the 90s, Emir Kusturica said he earned more with the commercials he directed than with his films…

To change his mind, but also after the The polemic 'Underground' when Emir Kusturica had announced he would retire from cinema, he some several commercial films. Emir Kusturica continued this experince ever after since he seemed to enjoy the exercise.

There is thus a whole filmography of TV commercials relatively unknown which makes part of his work.

Some commercials are broadcast in “realvideo” streaming. To see these films, you need the Real One Player plug-in , available here.

1994 - Parisienne people

Cigarette brand (Switzerland)

The film called “Parisienne People by Emir Kusturica” has a very sophisticated visual and a music of Goran Bregović ; we see jugglers in a fire atmosphere. The camera moves slowly in this strange place, between a circus and an underground bar.

watch the film

1994 - Le sucre

Comité pour le sucre (France)

Two funny films from the serie “If you love the sugar… tell him !”, with actors from Jean-Pierre Jeunet's movie Delicatessen.

watch the films

1995 - L'envol

Banque Populaire (France)

Shot shortly after Underground, we find in this film the Flight theme, a Kusturica's classic. The film takes place in Mongolia. The shooting was a true expedition of 16 days in the land of Genghis Kahn. Scenes were shot in typical mongolian tents, in Ulan Bator, and in the Gobi desert.

Strongly impressed by the landscapes and the mongolian people, with deep nomad roots, Emir Kusturica even told them he would one day come back to make a feature movie there…

watch the film

1996 - XS

Paco Rabanne perfume (France)

In a very “hot” atmosphere, Emir Kusturica's film is pretty well in the mood of the perfume : “virile” et “modern”…

In this film we see a man waiting for a woman ; she appears in television set “walking down” the stairs… The woman starts to dance and explodes the screen.

watch the film

1997 - Maxwell

Shot at the time of Black Cat, White Cat, we recognize in this commercial the actress Branka Katić

watch the film

1997 - Magic Bus

German film, AIDS campaign

Produced by Karl Baumgartner, this film had Thierry Arbogast for director of photography.

Shot just before ”Unza Unza Time”, this film already owned most of its visual elements. People disappear one by one in a bus, each time it passes through a tunnel…

watch the film

1999 - Le coucher de soleil

1999 - L'épi

Renault Occasion (France)

These two ads show persons obsessed by the little details that can spoil the living… In the first film, a girl watches a gorgeous sunset on the sea when a boat passes in front of it ; and in the other one, a man is furious because a rebel hair refuses to get dressed properly.

The message is to say that even for this kind of people, Renault Occasion shall satisfy their customers in every detail…

watch the films

2001 - Ali Baba

IOL (Italia On Line), internet access provider (Italy)

Ali Baba doesn't remember the magic formula to open his cave… Luckily, one of his fellows has a portable computer with a wireless internet connection !

watch the film

2004 - Next

Fruit juice (Serbia)

The shooting of this commercial took 18 days and it was broadcast in Serbia at the moment of the release of Life is a miracle.

2005 - Gypsy Ketchup

Ketchup Baltimor (Russia)

Shooting of this TV ad was made in Küstendorf. We see some funny characters and a laughing horse … of course, with gypsy music.

watch the film

Contest

Wed, 02 May 2007 13:57:57 +0200

Contest

For the opening of the new version of the kustu.com website, I made a contest, open to everyone.

Recall of the rules : the idea was to send a drawing, a photo, or a painting, connected to Emir Kusturica. The winner (the most original) was to receive a not-released promotional version of the soundtrack of Life is a miracle, containing three new titles.

Winner

The winner is Merlin Nadj-Torma, with this superb picture taken in a gypsy settlement in Vojvodina.

Gallery

Here is a selection of the fifteen most original participations to the contest :

Emir - Che
	cantavir, vojvodina, serbia
		Isabella - Painting

Thanks to everyone who participated !

en:coppola

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 22:11:13 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is Francis Ford Coppola.

Croatia

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 18:05:19 +0200

Croatia

Name	Republic of Croatia
Local name	Republika Hrvatska
Capital	Zagreb
Area	56 538 km²
Religions	Roman Catholic, Serbian Orthodox, Muslim
Population	4 671 584 Croate

Croatia, independent since 1991, was throughout its history at the crossroads of four great cultural spaces, which gives to the country an astonishing rich heritage, as well architectural as artistic. In addition to the Slavic character of its inhabitants (from the end of 6th century), Croatia was under the Venetian influences on the Dalmatian coast, and the austro-Hungarian influences in the northern plains of Slavonia and in the Danube regions. This heritage superimposes on the pre-roman - Roman and Byzantine - more complex but to which it owes its Christian tradition, of Roman rite, and its Latin alphabet. The immediate vicinity of the Otoman Empire, from 15th to 19th century, whose expansion was stopped on Croatian ground, also had its importance since Croatia then inherited its current borders in form of a “horseshoe”.

Since 2004, Croatia is officially candidate to the European Union, with hopes to integrate in 2008.

Rich of a better saved cultural inheritance than his neighbours, Croatia makes considerable efforts to develop tourism. Its exceptional coast abounds in islands and pleasant seaside resorts. Dubrovnik is the pearl of the coast ; it is classified by UNESCO.

Republics of ex-Yugoslavia

Bosnia and Herzegovina - Croatia - Macedonia - Montenegro - Serbia - Slovenia

Danis Tanović

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 12:58:40 +0200

Danis Tanović

Danis Tanović is a bosnian director, born on 20 february 1969 in Zenica.

His first film, No Man's Land was highly applauded at his release. Among other prizes, he won The Best Script Palm at the Cannes Film Festival of 2001, then in 2002 he won the Oscar of the Best foreign film. The history is indeed very simple. It shows the nonsense of the war in ex-Yugoslavia in its most tragi-comic consequences. Two men (a Serb and a Bosnian) both mutilated, face to face, in a trench. The flag is not far, the blue helmets and the journalists either. In this film, Danis did everything, the scenario, the cut, the direction and the music. And this is his first film…

Famous poet Abdulah Sidran, made elogious comments about Danis Tanović. In an interview posted by Le courrier des Balkans in april 2002, he says : ”Even if nothing comes after Danis, it is incontestably the eruption of a talent of our people. Danis did not fall from the sky. He is a child of this land, son of Mevludin and Hatidza Tanović. Director Ademir Kenović was his professor at the Academy of Sarajevo. I also made a conference to people of this generation, but I didn't remember their faces. I spoke to them about my cinematographic experiments. Danis remembers it very well : an evening, on federal television, he said to me : “Father Sidran, I always remember the sentence that you pronounced at the time of your conference to the Academy : ' the detail is God' ”. However, nothing comes by chance. We lived a tragedy, but the gift granted to Bosnia could just as easily have been expressed in the mouth of another young person than Tanović. He frequently recognizes it during various talks. I see there a touch of providence and divine justice. It happens sometimes that the rewards are granted to people who reconciled talent and morals. The Oscar given to Tanović moved me, because it is such a long time that I observe the behavior of a number of our fellow-citizens. Most of them forgot the Masters who teached them how to read and write. As my memory is good, especially when there are negative examples, I remember that the bosnian cinema lost the greatest director this area never produced, but such was the will of God. The metaphysical force of these people generated a new talent, equal to the genius. That makes us happy, encourages us to thank Danis Tanović, nature and God, to have organized everything, to make us believe in justice in this world. ”

Filmography

2005 - The hell
2002 - 11'09''01 (short film, segment “Bosnia and Herzegovina”)
2001 - No Man's Land
1996 - The dawn (short)

Das ist Walter

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 15:12:37 +0200

Das ist Walter

Release : 1984

Uvod (music of the film “Valter brani Sarajevo”)
Anarhija all over Bas Carsija
Abid
Put u srediste rudnika Kreka Banovici
Selena, vrati se, Selena
Necu da budem Svabo u dotiranom filmu
Seki is on the road again
Kino “Prvi Maj”
Pamtim to kao da je bilo danas
Zenica blues
Cejeni odlaze

Das ist Walter is the first album of the band Zabranjeno Pušenje.

The title of the album and of the first song is an homage to the film Valter Brani Sarajevo, by Hajrudin Krvavac.

Lyrics

UVOD (TEMA IZ FILMA "VALTER BRANI SARAJEVO")

Onda gledaj lafcino, vidis ga?

A: - Seit ich in SARAJEVO bin, suche ich Walter und finde ihn nicht. Und jetzt, wo ich gehen muss, weiss ich wer er ist.
B: - Sie wissen wer Walter ist!? Sagen Sie mir sofort seinen Namen!
C: - Sehen Sie diese Stadt? Das ist Walter.

ANARHIJA ALL OVER BAS CARSIJA

Sejo se danas super osjeca,
Sinoc je na ulici razbio hipika.
Mali je pokrio lice rukama,
Ali je ostao bez bubrega.

Sejo se malo muci dok razmislja,
Ali sinoc ga nije izradila riba.
Otpucao je odmah dva samara,
Kad ga je za mecu slagala.

Anarhija all over Bas Carsija,
Sejo se danas super osjeca.

Sejo voli Hanku i Sabana,
Nervira ga ono A po zidovima.
Sejo je sinoc razbio hipika,
Sejo je junak s Vratnika.

New Primitives all over Bas Carsija,
Sejo se gnusa zapada.

ABID

Press:
Preskocim kanal,
Pogledam na tle,
I vidim tebe, Abide.
Abide, reci nam, de,
Sta to tvoje ruke rade?

Abid:
Udarnicki rade burazere,
Da bude gasa za sve,
Sve u sklopu akcije
Zastite nase okoline.

Press:
Abide, reci nam, de,
Otkud za to finansije?

Abid:
Dva posto svake plate,
Niko od nas nije rekao “Ne.”

Press:
Abide, reci nam, de,
Jel' jos tvoj mali skuplja stare novine?

Abid:
Jok moj burazere,
Radi u posluzi kod trznice.

Press:
Abide, reci nam, de,
Imal' tu manipulacije?

Abid:
Sarajevo, najmiliji grade,
U tebi me mnogi rade.

Press:
Abide, reci nam, de,
Hocel' biti bolje za godinu-dve?

Abid:
Sarajevo, najmiliji grade,
Popravismo te do Olimpijade.

Kubika…
Kubika…
Kubika…
Kubika…

Covjek hoce nesto da te pita.
Samo da cigaru zapalim.
Covjek hoce nesto da te pita.
Samo da cigaru zapalim.
Ej, covjek hoce nesto da te pita.
Samo da cigaru zapalim, jarane.

KREKA BANOVICI

On pomisli kako bi petak bio lepsi,
Da sutra nije subota radna.
Blagi bozi, on misao nastavi,
Noc je previse hladna.

Al' bog mu tad okrenu ledja,
U pola tri ga je cekala treca smjena.
Treca smjene ide na put,
Na put u srediste od majkata zemlja.

Otkud ti, u pola tri?
Raspotocje gori…
To mu cu zena Vinka,
Panika i vika.
Na stolu dvije zdjele i telegrami sucuti.

Njegov duh sada gleda TV,
Smije se na dobrotvorne koncerte.
Njegov duh obilazi zamkove,
Revolucionare iz pedeset i neke.
Njegov duh plasi njihovu malu djecu,
Al' sta mu vrijedi kad ni ta djeca vise ne vjeruju u duhove.

Otkud ti, u pola tri?
Raspotocje gori,
To mu cu zena Vinka,
Panika i vika.
Na stolu dvije zdjele telegrami sucuti.

I meni je tata govorio nekad,
Da je Zil Vern pusta masta.
I da nikad niko stice nece,
U srediste od majkata zemlja.
I da nikad niko stice nece,
U srediste od majkata zemlja.
Da treca smjena stice nece,
Stici nece to odeljenje…

Otkud ti, u pola tri?
Raspotocje gori,
To mu cu zena Vinka,
Panika i vika.
Na stolu dvije zdjele i telegrami sucuti.

Put u srediste rudnika Kreka Banovici.
Put u srediste rudnika Kreka Banovici.
Put u srediste rudnika Kreka Banovici.
Put u srediste rudnika Kreka Banovici.

SELENA, VRATI SE, SELENA

Selena je danas jako lose spila,
Sva je vlazna u svojim uglovima.
Ona zeli bjezat' nekud,
Zeli crnog Mandinga.

Sa Mandingom ide daleko,
Do Ekvadora.
I tamo mjenja ime u Emanuela.
I tamo gori u vatri tropskog pozara.

Selena!
Selena, vrati se, Selena!
Zar ne cujes urlik tigrova,
Ispod tvoga prozora,
U Fuada Midzica?

Al' dzungla je vec odavno raskrcena,
Broj zvjeri dozivio je osjetan pad.
Mandingo ili je lud ili je pijan.
Mandingo nije vise kao nekada.

Selena!
Selena, vrati se, Selena!
Mandinga je smislila Amerika,
Da te odvede daleko
Iz Fuada Midzica.

Selena!
Selena, vrati se, Selena!
Zar ne cujes urlik tigrova,
Ispod tvoga prozora,
U Fuada Midzica?

Selena!
Selena!
Selena?
Selena…

Selena…

NECU DA BUDEM SVABO U DOTIRANOM FILMU

Slavni reziser je u nasem gradu,
Snima novi film, kazu bice dobar.
Strani glumci, prijemi i lova,
Nema sumnje smjesi mu se Oskar.
Trebace on i mnogo statista
Za masovne i grandiozne scene.
Iako kazu da on dobro placa,
Tamo nece, nece biti mene.

Necu da budem Svabo u dotiranom filmu,
Necu da budem statist, u zivotu i u kinu.
Necu da budem Svabo, Svabo da budem necu.
Nema boga!

Necu da budem okupator,
Ima neki djavo u mojoj psihi.
Necu da budem Svabo,
Kad ne mogu Prle niti Tihi.

Necu da budem Svabo, Svabo da budem necu.

Slavni glumci bi htjeli da su na pravoj strani,
Ja da budem Svabo, a oni partizani?

SEKI IS ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Kada noc prekrije olimpijski grad,
I kad gazde kafica kazu: 'ajmo, raja, fajronat!
Mimo tebe prolazi i poslednji trajvan,
I ti se deres: taksi, 'aj vamo, 'aj vamo, 'ej, hajvan.

Metalik golf staje kad isce raja,
On je gospodar, gospodar nocnog saobracaja.
Sajba mu cista, bez ikakvih fleki,
Prepoznajes njegovo lice,
Dugo te nije bilo, Seki.

Seki is again, Seki is again,
Seki is on the road again.

Ukljucuje taksimetar, opa, cet'ri i sto,
Ne pitaj nista, Seki je to.
Na ramenu mu istetovirana Zenica,
U novcaniku slika, zena mu i djeca.

Seki is again, Seki is again,
Seki is on the road again.
Roll on, Seki, roll on.

Zdravo Seki.

Seki is again, Seki is again,
Seki is on the road again.

KINO "PRVI MAJ"

Da zaboravis poraz i ljubavni neuspjeh,
Zaboravis svu nepravdu i belaj,
Kupi koste i jeftino kartu,
I dodji u kino “Prvi Maj.”

Da se osvetis onim sto te tuku,
Da ne mislis kako nisi bas naj,
Za tebe danas pobjedjuju
Celicni obad il' mali zmaj.

I dok vjetar njise travu, vijore zastave.
I dok vjetar mrsi kosu njegove drage.
On pobjedjuje sam protiv svih,
Ali znaj,
Jos samo na platnu kina “Prvi Maj.”

I dok vjetar njise travu, vijore zastave.
I dok vjetar mrsi kosu njegove drage.

On pobjedjuje sam protiv svih,
Ali znaj,
Jos samo na platnu kina “Prvi Maj.”

S tobom nece biti tvoja djevojka,
Njoj se ne svidja ovakav film.
Ne voli ona jeftine price,
Ne voli pucnjavu i ne voli dim.

Neprijatelj lezi mrtav u prasini,
U barutnom dimu okupan je suton
Ona odlazi s njim,
I sretan je kraj,
Jos samo na platnu kina “Prvi Maj.”

I dok vjetar njise travu, vijore zastave.
I dok vjetar mrsi kosu njegove drage.
On pobjedjuje sam protiv svih,
Ali znaj,
Jos samo na platnu kina “Prvi Maj.”

Mr. Jones?
Oh, good morning.
How are you? But why?
I have some money for you…
Oh, money, how much?
Many, many money, but you got some job to do.
Oh, what?
To kill somebody.
Oh, who?
Mr. Drake.
Oh, I can't do it, he's my friend.
You must do it.

I dok vjetar njise travu, vijore zastave.
I dok vjetar mrsi kosu njegove drage.
On pobjedjuje sam protiv svih,
Ali znaj,
Jos samo na platnu kina “Prvi Maj.”

Sta to igra veceras?
Ne znam, jarane, zivota mi.

PAMTIM TO KAO DA JE BILO DANAS

Pamtim to kao da je bilo danas,
Kad je babo Atif otisao od nas,
U ruci mu piva,
Za reverom znacka FK Sarajeva.
Kaz'o je da mu je dosta i zene i djece i kuce,
I da ga naka nostalgija vuce,
Da ce se vratit' kad mu bude ceif.

Mi smo djeca cucali ispod jorgana,
Komsiluk vikao: Fatima, bona, pustite vana,
Vratit' ce se on, samo da propije sve.
Al' prodje otad trinaest Bajrama,
Ali babo Atif se ne vrati k nama,
Kazu da ga je kod Hadzica satr'o voz.

Ja sam uletio u Facinu raju,
Svercao kafu,
Bunario po tramvaju,
Prodavao farmerke.
Mislio sam da za to imam nekog slifa
I zaboravio rijeci rahmetli babe Atifa
U rijetkim trenucima kad je ovaj bio trijezan:
Sine, veli,
Ko igra za raju i zanemaruje taktiku,
Zavrsice karijeru u nizerazrednom Vratniku.
Fakat.

Kad murija uhvati Omera,
I ovaj propjeva posle dva samara,
I rece o raji sve sto zna.
Zaboravio je bio sve zajednicke akcije,
Zaboravio je bio sve zajednicke derneke,
Zaboravio je bio kako sam njega i onog malog Dragu
Dvaput spasio od belaja.

Sada u miru istraznog zatvora,
Razmisljam o rijecima rahmetli babe Atifa,
U rijetkim trenucima kad je ovaj bio trijezan:

Sine, veli,
Ko igra za raju i zanemaruje taktiku,
Zavrsice karijeru u nizerazrednom Vratniku.
Fakat.

ZENICA BLUES

U Zenicu kada podjem ja,
Prati me pet-sest drotova.
Okruzni sudija rek'o
Dvanaest godina,
Dvanaest godina strogog zatvora.

Okruzni sudija rek'o
Dvanaest godina,
Dvanaest godina strogog zatvora.

Tuzna je moja sudbina,
Zenu mi kreco Hakija.
Kreco Hakija,
Presudila mu cakija,
Ne razumijes ti to druze sudija.

Kreco Hakija,
Presudila mu cakija,
Ne razumijes ti to druze sudija.

Dzabe vam ja sve to pricam.

Zenico, mrzim svaki kamen tvoj.
Zbog tebe ja mrzim zivot svoj.
Ko prezivi dvanaest godina
U KP domu Zenica,
Taj je pravi hadzija.

Ko prezivi dvanaest godina
U KP domu Zenica,
Taj je pravi hadzija.

Raduje me jedna istina,
Iz KP doma vraticu se ja.
Ali Hakija nikad nece sa bara,
Sa bara seniko ne vraca.

Ali Hakija nikad nece sa bara,
Sa bara se niko ne vraca.

CEJENI ODLAZE

Cejeni odlaze,
Bez krvi, bez znoja.
Bez placa udovica,
Osta pusta ledina.

Premalo za dvoje.

Sosoni se zbijaju,
Podmulo zuje
Kopita njihovih
Razjarenih konja.

Cejeni odlaze,
Cejeni odlaze,
Cejeni odlaze…

Gvozdeni jahac
Ide bijelom ocu.
U rukama koltovi,
U srcu ljubav prema domovini.

Gvozden je ljut,
Planine grme.
Otac obecava
Miran rezervat.

Cejeni odlaze,
Cejeni odlaze,
Cejeni odlaze…

Imam prijatelja,
Stanuje kod Napredka.
Ne znam kog je plemena,
Jer ne nosi ratne boje.

S njim idem u lov,
U lov na bivole
I vidim Cejene,
Cejene kako odlaze.

Cejeni odlaze,
Cejeni odlaze,
Cejeni odlaze…

Davor Dujmović

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 14:40:06 +0200

Davor Dujmović

Davor Dujmović was born in 1969 in Sarajevo. Emir met him in the streets of Sarajevo when he was making the casting for When father was away on business. He was 13 and gave him the role of elder brother Mirza. He turned to be a great actor, even being still completely amateur, 4 years later in Time of the Gypsies. Emir was fascinated by his ability to transform his face from an extreme candour to harder feelings.

Between “Father” and “Gypsies”, Davor plays in two episodes of a TV serie, as well as an important role in ”the strategy of the thieving magpie”, a film of Zlatko Levanic, out of a script written by Emir Kusturica. This role allowed him to prepare the character of Perhan.
Davor was born in Sarajevo in 1969, and in 1988, he still hadn't left his home town. The shooting of Time of the Gypsies allowed him to visit his country, as well as Italy. After his studies, he decided to make a music school, and they are his own accordeon talents that Emir records during the shooting.
Emir said of him in 1989 : ”Davor is the most beautiful discover I've made over the last ten years, as an actor and as a human being. I still can't understand how someone can have such a spirituality. He's as beautiful as ugly, which is for me, unvaluable.”

In 1990 and 1991, Davor played several characters in the serie Top lista nadrealista of Dr. Nele Karajlić.

Davor Dujmović committed suicide on 3 june 1999 in Novo Mesto (Slovenia), after a serious depression.

website

Davor's sister made a website (in Serbo-Croatian) dedicated to the memory of the great actor : www.perhan.com

Filmography (films of E. Kusturica)

1985 : When father was away on business, Mirza
1989 : Time of the Gypsies, Perhan
1995 : Underground, Bata

Filmography (other directors)

1987 : Strategija svrake (the strategy of the thieving magpie), by Zlatko Lavanić
1989 : Mjeseceva predstava : Captain Skot
1990 : Aleksa Santic (telefilm)
1990 : Adam ledolomak (Adam the icebreaker), by Zlatko Lavanić
1990 : Belle Epoque : Gavrilo Princip
1990 - Istocno od istoka (east of the east), by Ales Kurt, Marko Marinković & Slobodan Skerlić
1990-1991 : Top lista nadrealista (telefilm)
1991 : Sarajevske price (telefilm) : Boban Kokot
1991 : Praznik u Sarajevu, by Benjamin Filipović
1992 : Prokleta je Amerika (segment “Ruzina osveta”)
1995 : Slozna braca (telefilm), Mustafa 'Mute' Halimic

Gallery

Défaut d'origine_FR

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 16:48:14 +0200

en:dejan

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 12:34:03 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is Dejan Sparavalo.

Dejan Sparavalo

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 16:44:28 +0200

Dejan Sparavalo

Dejan Sparavalo is a violin player born in 1963 in Sarajevo.

Very young musician (Dejan recorded his first album at the age of 5 !), he participated to several jazz bands, before joining the Zabranjeno Pušenje in 1988.

Dejan was offered to enter the Sarajevo philarmonique orchestra but refused, prefering to continue playing in the bars…

Since then, he actively participates to the composition of the albums ofthe No Smoking Orchestra, since the soundtrack of the film Black Cat White Cat.

Anecdotes

Dejan is sometimes called Leopold by Dr. Nele Karajlić during concerts of the No Smoking Orchestra.

Dejan loves magic tricks and to disguise himself : he often makes small jokes on stage.

Filmography

2004 - Life is a miracle, orchestra chef
2001 - Super 8 Stories, himself
1998 - Black Cat, White Cat, the violin player on the russian boat

Gallery

en:diego_maradona

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 01:04:20 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is Maradona.

Directors from the Balkans

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 12:29:30 +0200

Directors from the Balkans

The cinema of the Balkans is richof many talents, and it would be unfair that the huge notoriety of Emir Kusturica hides the other directors, whether new or classic, they built a cinema that is almost unknown out of the borders of ex-Yugoslavia.

Stefan Arsenijević
Director of the short film (A)Torsion, nominated at the Oscars 2004…

Enki Bilal
Great drawer and director franco-yugoslav, Enki Bilal is like no other…

Srđan Dragojević
Director of the impressive filmm Pretty village, pretty flame…

Ademir Kenović
Director of the film Kuduz…

Dušan Kovačević
Playwriter and director, author, among other, of the script of Underground…

Goran Marković
Director of the film Tito and me…

Dušan Milić
Director of the film strawberries at the supermarket…

Goran Paskaljević
Director of many films, among which Cabaret Balkan and Guardian Angel…

Danis Tanović
Bosnian director, winner of the Oscar in 2002 for No man's land…

Django Reinhardt

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 16:13:12 +0200

Django Reinhardt

Jean-baptiste Reinhardt, Belgian gypsy (of French language) was born in 1910 in Liverchies, in a gypsy family coming from Central Europe. At twelve years, he plays the guitar and the banjo. In 1928, his caravan bruns; seriously injured, his left hand is mutilated ; he trains hard to rehabilitate it. Painter Emile SAVITRY makes him discover the jazz. In 1934, he creates a string quintet (a violin, that of Stéphane Grapelli, three guitars and a double bass) in Claridge in Paris. He then plays and records with the greates jazzmen of the time (Coleman Hawkins for example). During the Occupation, he surfs on the swing mode, becomes orchestra leader and composes Nuages in 1940. After the war, he plays in the United States with Duke Ellington. He turns to the electric guitar and starts painting. He dies in 1953 of a stroke. He remains the “discoverer” of the guitar.

”Django… this guitar with human voice” (Cocteau).

His instrument, rare and mythical guitar, the Selmer Maccaferri was designed by the Italian Violin maker Mario Maccaferri. Without knowing it, he created the first Jazz guitar. For a musician of exception, he needed a guitar of exception. This guitar, by its design, is of an exceptional power. When amplification did not exist, Django could thus face, with big bands composed of powerful blow instruments.

Django Reinhardt in Emir Kusturica's films

In Arizona Dream, beside Goran Bregović's music, there are three songs of Django Reinhardt :

“You're driving me crazy” (by W. Donaldson, played by D. Reinhardt)
“Minor Swing” (by D. Reinhardt and S. Grapelli)
“Topsy” (by Durham, played by D. Reinhardt)

Discography

Impossible to list the whole discography of this exceptionnal musician who recorded more than one hundred albums. To mention only that one, here is a best-of on Amazon.com.

website

A beautiful website dedicated to the artist : www.about-django.com

Do you remember Dolly Bell ? - soundtrack

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 23:41:47 +0200

Do you remember Dolly Bell ? - soundtrack

Release : 1981
Format : SP

Na Morskom Plavom Žalu
Juli '65

Lyrics & music : Dragan Jokić, arrangements : Džemal Novaković.

The main song that Dino's band rehearses in the film is called 24.000 baci (24.000 kisses), and it's a famous song of Adriano Celentano.

Note : two other titles of the soundtrack can be found on a compilation of Zoran Simjanović :

Sjećaš li se Doli Bel
Sjećaš li se Doli Bel - Smrt Oca

Do you remember Dolly Bell ?

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 23:42:11 +0200

Do you remember Dolly Bell ?

Director	Emir Kusturica
Original title	Sjećaš li se Doli Bel ?
Release	1981
Original language	bosnian
Length	1h45
Music	Zoran Simjanović, Dragan Jokić Džemal Novaković and Adriano Celentano
Script	Abdulah Sidran, Emir Kusturica
Photography	Vilko Filać

Awards

Golden Lion of the First film at the Mostra of Venise, 1981
Prize of the International Federation of the cinema Press (FIPRESCI) at the Mostra of Venice, 1981
Critic Prize of the International Film Festival of Sao Paulo, 1982

Synopsis

The Sixties in Sarajevo. Dino, young man in the suburbs, tries to lighten his life with the cinema that show him an Occident full of temptations, with hypnotism lessons, and music, the rock n'roll that makes the rest vanish. Then comes Dolly Bell, lovely cabaret girl that give him the more tremendous feelings.

Casting

Slavko Štimac …. Dino
Slobodan Aligrudić …. the father
Mira Banjac …. the mother
Ljiljana Blagojević …. Dolly Bell
Nada Pani …. the aunt
Zika Ristić …. Cica
Boro Stjepanović …. Cvikeras
Pavle Vujisić …. the uncle

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was once published as a SP.

Details and titles of the soundtrack

DVD, VHS

Country	Format	audio languages	subtitles languages	buy online	Description
Italy	VHS PAL	Bosnian	Italian
United Kingdom	DVD Z2 PAL	Bosnian 2.0	English	amazon.co.uk	interview with Emir Kusturica
Russia	DVD Z5 PAL	Bosnian 2.0, Russian 2.0	Russian
Serbia	DVD Z0 PAL	Bosnian 2.0	-	yu4you.com
USA	DVD Z0 NTSC	Bosnian 2.0 & 5.1	English	Amazon.com

Anecdotes

Emir Kusturica was in the army at the time being. Military officials gave him a special 24h permission to leave Yugoslavia and receive the award in Venice.

The film was initially conceived for yugoslavian television. Title of the film Dolly Bell refers to a stripteaseuse of the Crazy Horse in 1959 italian director Alessandro Blasetti's movie : Europe by Night.

In this film, all the actors speak with their own words, their own real accent. It's the first ever yugoslavian movie where actors don't speak official serbo-croatian (the yugoslav equivalent of BBC english), but the so-called bosnian language, in fact, the language of Sarajevo.

Critics

Télérama ”The brillant beginnings of Kusturica.”

Gallery

Posters

Emir Kusturica's films

Dok cekas sabah sa sejtanom

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 15:13:49 +0200

Dok cekas sabah sa sejtanom

Release : 1985

DOK CEKAS SABAH SA SEJTANOM PLOCA I
1. Stanje soka
2. Djevojcice kojima mirise koza
3. Lutka sa naslovne strane
4. Dok cekas sabah sa sejtanom
5. Dok jezdis ka Alemanji
6. Ibro dirka
7. Ja imam kuhinju
8. Ne me quitte pas
9. Ucini da budem vuk
10. Bas Celik (prvi dio)
DOK CEKAS SABAH SA SEJTANOM PLOCA II
1. Brut
2. Radost prvog zita
3. Ujka Sam
4. Nedeljka kad je otisao Hase
5. Sanjao sam nocas da te imam
6. Kazu mi da novog frajera imas
7. Gospodja Brams
8. Bas Celik (drugi dio)

Lyrics

DOK CEKAS SABAH SA SEJTANOM PLOCA I - STANJE SOKA

Zbog tebe sam ostavio pos'o s' farmerkama,
Zbog tebe sam trzn'o handzar na jarana,
Ti si moja zakletva, ti si moj bog,
Tvoje ime sja sa ramena moga,
A ti, a ti, a ti, a ti,
Sokiras me, majke mi.

Zbog tebe se poceh brijati u nedelju,
Zbog tebe sam prestao ici gledat Zelju,
Zbog tebe sam kasnio daidzi na dzenazu,
Tebi sam za dvjesto milja kupio vazu.
A ti, a ti, a ti, a ti,
Sokiras me, majke mi.

Nanosis mi bol,
Nanosis mi bol,
Lose ti je to…
Nanosis mi bol…
Dok svira rok en rol.

Nanosis mi bol,
Nanosis mi bol,
Lose ti je to…
Nanosis mi bol…
Dok sviram rok en rol.

'Fala.

DJEVOJCICE KOJIMA MIRISE KOZA

Uzalud glancas svoje spicaste cipele,
Uzalud otkopcavas zadnje dugme kosulje,
One se nece nasmijati na tvoje lose folove,
Nece se osvrnuti na tvoje dobacivanje.

Mozes ih lagat' da ti je babo direktor,
Ili da si treca godina prava,
One ce znati da si niko i nista,
Obican uhljug s Koseva.

I opet ces teturati uz memljiv zid,
Na iskrivljenoj cesmi opraces lice,
Sjest' na plocnik, zapalit' cigaru,
I gledati na drugu stranu ulice.

S one strane ulice,
Stanuju djevojcice,
Kojima, kojima mirise koza.

One vole frajere koji nose bradice,
I cije ih rijeci ostave bez daha,
Koji nikad ne prave belaja,
Koji nikad ne psuju Allaha.
Ne znaju one da ti je srce
Vece neg' u tog bradatog gmaza.
Nikad ti nece pruziti sansu,
Ne poznajes dovoljno efektnih fraza.

I opet ces teturati uz memljiv zid,
Na iskrivljenoj cesmi opraces lice,
Sjest' na plocnik, zapalit' cigaru,
I gledati na drugu stranu ulice.

S one strane ulice,
Stanuju djevojcice,
Kojima, kojima mirise koza.

(Alo, dobra.
Alo, dodjite vamo, ej.
Mojne, mojne.
Gdje si otisla,
Alo, dodji mala, pusti njega, pusti ga ba,
Nemoj bolan.
Najgore mi je kad dobra riba s' levatom hoda
Nosi rolku…
Pa jeste bolan sto moras u njih…)

LUTKA SA NASLOVNE STRANE

U tebe smo se kleli,
Na tebe trosili plate,
Zamisljali trenutke s tobom,
U kafani lagali jedan drugoga.
Zbog tebe smo se tukli,
Kupovali vrucih djevreka,
O, kako si samo odudarala ti
Od memle i blata Sebrenika.

Tvoje su misli bile daleko,
Htjela si u fotomodele,
Skupa svila i skupe pele,
I gola si se slikala, vele.

Zbog tebe smo se tukli,
Kupovali vrucih djevreka,
O, kako si samo odudarala ti
Od memle i blata Sebrenika.

Virili smo dok se presvlacis,
Ma nije bilo ljepse pod Allahovim svodom,
Pjesme smo ti pjevali.
A tvoja nas je nana poljevala vodom.

Tvoje su misli bile daleko,
Htjela si u fotomodele,
Skupa svila i skupe pele,
I gola si se slikala, vele.

Htjela si da tvoje aktove
Vidi barem pola svijeta.
A sada, u Granapu Sebrenika,
Lokalni dripci te pitaju
Lutko, posto je pasteta?

DOK CEKAS SABAH SA SEJTANOM

Sam djavo ti je dao brzinu eskivaze
I razoran udarac desnom,
Sam djavo te je spaso
Kad te Prco s burazerima cek'o u mraku.
I onda kad te agent 071
Pedagoski trehao o stanicni zid sivi,
I uspio je da ubije boga u tebi,
A djavo u tebi je ostao da zivi.

I sad cekas sabah sa sejtanom.
I sad cekas sabah sa sejtanom.

Pomogao ti je i onu noc
Kada je rekla da s fukarom nece,
Kad te umalo nije ugusila tuga,
Koliko si samo popio to vece.

Rekao ti je da zivot tece dalje,
Rekao ti je da ima jos zena,
A ti si mu siroku otvorio dusu,
I pustio u nju sejtana.

I sad cekas sabah sa sejtanom.
I sad cekas sabah sa sejtanom.

Cvikeras iz opcine je dolazio,
Nudio ti posao il' da ucis nauke,
Al' bilo je vec kasno,
Jos samo djavolu sluze tvoje tetovirane ruke.
Kafana je vec poodavno pusta,
Prijatelj ti ostao jos samo on,
Kucnuo si se i iskapio case
Dok cekas sabah sa sejtanom.

I sad cekas sabah sa sejtanom.
I sad cekas sabah sa sejtanom.

Rekao ti je da zivot tece dalje,
Rekao ti je da ima jos zena,
A ti si mu siroku otvorio dusu,
I pustio u nju sejtana.
I pustio u nju sejtana.
I pustio u nju sejtana.

I sad cekas sabah sa sejtanom.
I sad cekas sabah sa sejtanom.

DOK JEZDIS KA ALEMANJI

Iza tebe su porazbijane boce,
Okrenuto janje, na ledini,
Zar je moguce da je gotov
I ovaj odmor u domovini?
Dugo si ljubio zenu i sina,
Vec je visok metar cetres' sest.
Poljupcima je zvonila stanicna aula,
Dugo nisi pustao njegovu malu pest.

Ti vec jezdis ka Alemanji,
Ceznja ti srce razara,
O kako bezdusno juri kroz noc
Sedamsto sest, Kotar Express.

Dok jezdis ka Alemanji.
Dok jezdis ka Alemanji.
Dok jezdis ka Alemanji.
Dok jezdis ka Alemanji.

U osam i trideset, stizemo u Frankfurt,
Bezbrojna misao glavom ti luta.
Ponovo provokacije neprijateljske emigracije,
Ponovo arbeit gazda Kurta.
I pitas se, koliko jos puta?
Da kupis njivu i zavist sela,
Zbog prekrasnog bijelog svapskog auta.

Ti vec jezdis ka Alemanji,
Ceznja ti srce razara,
O kako bezdusno juri kroz noc
Sedamsto sest, Kotar Express.

Dok jezdis ka Alemanji.
Dok jezdis ka Alemanji.
Dok jezdis ka Alemanji.
Dok jezdis ka Alemanji.

Tvoja saka zestoko pogadja naslon,
Putnici se bune zbog drske lupe,
Ispred tebe su se nakotile pive,
Jao, molim vas nadjite neki novi kupe.

Dok jezdis ka Alemanji.
Dok jezdis ka Alemanji.
Dok jezdis ka Alemanji.
Dok jezdis ka Alemanji.

IBRO DIRKA

Kunem vam se rahmetom mi dedinim,
Iako se u tu svirku ne razumem bas,
Da niko nikad nije znao 'armoniku svirat,
Kao mali Ibro, Ibro dirka nas.
Kada pocne dernek i kad on zasvira,
Ne bi stigao reci ni bismillah
Vec bi lupao glavom i lomio bi case,
Vec bi te Ibro bacio u sevdah.

Al' ubrzo za Ibru cuse ljudi sa estrade,
I pocese njuskati po nasoj mahali,
Svaki Ibri pice placa,
Svaki deset prsta Ibrinih hvali.

Ibro poce pricati o parama i slavi,
Mi ga odgovarasmo, Ibro, ne budali.
Ti si nesto drugo, ti 'armonikom lijecis bol,
Na estradi sve je lazno, na estradi sve je fol.

Samo da ti kazem nesto za Ibru,
Dodje Mercedes po njega i on ode,
Ode u 'armonicare i posta' popularan.
Eno ga, bolan gledao sam sliku, S' oba Halida se slikao, s' oba
S' Brenom bio.
Covjece, on ti je prije hodo s curom,
nosila bedz da joj se zna prednja strana,
a sad eno ga sad hoda miss ona miss ova, sve noge do Krajine…
Nije nikako zadovoljan,
Znam ja dusevan covjek,
Ma, ne da on da ga se daracu,
Ja mislim da ga daracu oni, oni, oni snimatelji, ogulise ga oni
Pa evo podji od sebe, bil' ti dopustio?…
….raja traze veselo…

Ozrenka daj nam dvije pive i reci boga ti muzici, malo tise.

Ali nije ni to,
Ne daju mu., bolan, da sevdah svira.
Ovo kriza jel'?
Ja, bolan, rad traze veselo.
Ko ce slusat tudju muku?

Al' jednog jutra udje Ibro u mahalu sam,
Isti Gari Kuper, sve je licilo na san.
Na licu mu vise ne bi sjene koju tuga pravi,
Mahalu, sevdah, Ibro nije mogao da zaboravi.
Ibro nije htio para, Ibro ce uvijek bit' fukara.
Neki odmah pocese da blate Ibri lik,
Al' samo prava raja je znala u cemu je trik,
Nije Ibro, jarane, nas fukara, Ibro ti je de fakto umjetnik.
Shvacas?

JA IMAM KUHINJU

Ja imam banju,
Ja imam banju,
Ja imam banju,
Banju imam ja.
Ja imam kuhinju,
Ja imam kuhinju,
Ja imam kuhinju.

Ja nisam znao da se skupilo ovdje
toliko onih, onih, miseva. Opa.

NE ME QUITTE PAS

Ne me quitte pas
vous etes jeune.

UCINI DA BUDEM VUK

Ucini da budem vuk,
Da mirno prelazim preko mrtvih tijela,
Ucini da budem vuk,
Da se ne odricem svoga dijela.
Ucini da budem prorok,
Da znam sta ce protiv mene smisliti sutra,
Ucini da budem Indijanac,
Jer nije dovoljno sto sam crven iznutra.
Ucini da budem vuk.
Ucini da budem vuk.

Ucini da budem lija,
Da nikad ne napravim nikakvu fulu,
Da moje tijelo ne svrsi u jarku,
Da ne izgorim kao Brac u julu.
Ucini da budem nevidljiv,
Da se vise ne plasim vlastite sjene.
Ucini da budem vuk,
I imaces vazda pivu od mene.

Ucini da budem vuk.
Ucini da budem vuk.

Veceras na terasi hotela Jadran samo za vas svira
Skupina skromnih muzicara,
Nele vuk i tri palme,
Natali, Renata i Kosjenka.
Ladies and gentlemen,
For your pleasure tonight,
Sing old evergreen songs.
Nele wolf and three palm trees,
Natali, Renata i Kosjenka.
Singing all night long,
Until sabah in the morning.

Bando, ajde pusti taj
Pa idemo na dva maratonca, 'ajde.

BAS CELIK (prvi dio)

Bila je noc, i svetionik stao da namigiva,
Bila je noc, i mjesec i zvonik i ti, uz mene ziva,
Padao mrak, Bas Celik svjetlost dana uze.
Padao mrak, mjesto zvjezda zablistale su suze.

A snivali smo krilat let ala i divova,
Dozivali smo suncan svijet od srece i od snova.

DOK CEKAS SABAH SA SEJTANOM PLOCA II - BRUT

Bio od nas nekako drugaciji, nekako pametniji,
Imao je djevojku uvijek jednu istu, pametnu, bogatu, urednu i cistu,
Bio je oprezan, ponekad i vedar,
Prije no sto bi pisao, on bi proverio vjetar.
Daleko od stola, on nikad ne bi bivao,
U letu rotacije uvijek bi dobivao.

Citao je samo ono podvuceno,
Mirisao na brut, na pokoseno sijeno.

Imao je on svojih dobrih strana,
Rijec cvrstu kao kamen temeljac,
Imao je on i svojih mana,
Imao je sina, sina narkomana

Bio je sa nama, vinuo se daleko,
Postao je poznat, postao je neko.
Ipak kad moze, on ugrabi priliku
Doceka nas, obeca nam fabriku.

Citao je samo ono podvuceno,
Mirisao na brut, na pokoseno sijeno.

RADOST PRVOG ZITA

Eto, s jeseni nam je stiglo i prvo zito.
A nije s proljecem k'o sto to neki tvde, nije.
Jer ko drugome jamu kopa ne cini proljece,
I da vam kazem, nikad ga nece ciniti, nikad.
A zito nama treba, da narod ima hljeba.
Ili k'o sto je to divno jedan nas pjesnik rekao,
('Aj zivio)
Sta se zuti na beskrajnom polju,
Ako te tko bude pit'o
Ponosno mu odgovori– To je nase zito.
Jer mi buducnost ne zacrtavamo planovima,
Nego brazdama traktora.
A, ako imas traktor, vrati kombajn.
A ne k'o neki koji imaju i traktor, i kombajn,
I onaj, onaj, onaj, cirkulator,
A jos imaju vremena da se bave

A, jel' tako? Pa jasno je, ja mislim da jeste.
I zato sto mozemo pozeliti? Mozemo pozeliti da nam rodi zito.
I nek' nam rodi zito i iduce godine.
I nek' uvijek rodi zito.
Hvala.

UJKA SAM

Osam i trideset, zvono na vratima,
Ustajem, i zastajem nijem,
Covijek u cilindru i fraku mu rece:
Hello boy, I'm Ujka Sam.
Mozda covijek naplacuje struju,
TV pretplata il' parno grijanje,
U lice mi dunuo dim cigare,
No my boy, meni se vise duguje.
Rek'o, garant, losa loza il' nesretna ljubav neka,
Sto pijes kad ti skodi, vidi sta ucini od covjeka.
A on izvadi pozuteli papir:
Six thousand dollars you must pay to Ujka Sam,
A ispod moj potpis, godina, i dan.

Bang, bang, boogie woogie…
Give me my money!
Bang, bang, boogie woogie man…
Give all the money to Ujka Sam!

Ujka Sam! Ujka Sam!
Easy…

Ja poceh da se vadim,
Zemlja u razvoju,
Slaba razmjena robe,
Nase bogatstvo je Bratstvo i Jedinstvo,
Nase bogatstvo su tekovine NOB-e.

Oh? No, problem my boy.
Ujka Sam kupuje sve.
Oh? No, problem my boy.
Ujka Sam kupuje me!

Bang, bang, boogie woogie…
Give me my money!
Bang, bang, boogie woogie man…
Give all the money to Ujka Sam!

Jutro je pocelo burno,
Probudi me sa kreveta pad,
Cuh glas zene iz kuhinje:
Zakasnio si na posao!
Politicar na radiju prica o jubilejima,
Time valjda hoce da nas zbari,
Al' iza mojih ledja se smije Ujka Sam,
U mojim ocima igrali su dolari.
Otrcah odma' u firmu,
Rekoh: raja, sve mi je jasno sad:
BRATSTVO-JEDINSTVO NE BRANI RADIO,
BRATSTVO-JEDINSTVO BRANI RAD!

Ujka Sam! Ujka Sam! Ujka Sam! Ujka Sam!

NEDELJA KAD JE OTISAO HASE

Ljudi su isli u kolonama,
Nikom nije smetao vjetar sto je dunuo,
Te majske nedelje je dosao Osijek,
Al' opet je Kosevo bilo puno.
Bio sam tad jos sasma mali,
I nisam znao zasto neki placu,
Rekoh sebi provucu se dzaba,
Sijesti negdje i navijacu.
Prodjoh pored jednog redara,
On samo svoju cigaru pali,
Kaze prodji sad i ne boj se nista,
Danas te niko nece dirati mali.
Sjedoh negdje u guzvu, u raju,
I cuh samo brujanje mase:
Danas nam odlazi Hasim Ferhatovic,
Danas nam odlazi nas Hase.

Nedelja kad je otisao Hase!
Nedelja kad je otisao Hase!
Nedelja kad je otisao Hase!
I BBC na mome radiju,
Oslobodjenje u mojim rukama.

I dok je utakmica ova trajala,
Stariji ljudi su uzimali rijec,
Sine, Hase je tukao Engleze, Svabe i Ruse,
I ovo sad mu je poslednji mec.
Bijese rezultat jedan-jedan,
Kad sudija odsvira kraj.
Spustise se zastave stadiona Kosevo,
Stade jedna nedelja da se nastavi maj.
Maj!

Nedelja kad je otisao Hase!
Nedelja kad je otisao Hase!
Nedelja kad je otisao Hase!
I BBC na mome radiju,
Oslobodjenje u mojim rukama.

Nedelja kad je otisao Hase!
Okrenu se Hase poslednji put,
Nedelja kad je otisao Hase!
Uzdignutih pesnica i ozarena lica,
Nedelja kad je otisao Hase!
Kao da veli mene vise nema,
Ali imate jos mnogo vaznih utakmica!

Izlazili smo svi iz stadiona cutke,
Culo se samo brujanje mase,
Poneki usklik i poneka zastava,
Svi u napad, jedan je Hase!

Svi u napad,
Svi u napad,
Svi u napad,
Jedan je Hase!

Svi u napad!
Svi u napad!
Svi u napad!
Jedan je Hase!

Svi u napad!
Jugoslavija!
Svi u napad!
Jugoslavija!
Svi u napad!
Jugoslavija!
Jedan je Hase!

Jugoslavija!
Jugoslavija!
Jugoslavija!
Jugoslavija!
Jugoslavija!

SANJAO SAM NOCAS DA TE IMAM

Obukao sam novu pidzamu,
Obukao sam svezi ves,
Veceras kad mi u snove dodjes,
Hocu da budem lep.
Ubrao sam rumenu jabuku,
Samo, samo bejbi tebi na dar,
Ali sam je smazao usput,
Jer me je morila glad.

Moje je oci zaklopila zelja,
Kroz moj krvotok tece san,
A ujutru samo zguzvana postelja,
Kao da nisam spavao san.

Ali umjesto tvoga lica,
Umjesto mekane trave,
Sanjao sam pozar na carsiji,
Sanjao sam ljude bez glave…

Obukao sam novu pidzamu,
Obukao sam svezi ves,
Veceras kad mi u snove dodjes,
Hocu da budem lep.
Ubrao sam rumenu jabuku,
Samo, samo bejbi tebi na dar,
Ali sam je smazao usput,
Jer me je morila glad.

Moje je oci zaklopila zelja,
Kroz moj krvotok tece san,
A ujutru samo zguzvana postelja,
Kao da nisam spavao san.

Ali umjesto tvoga lica,
Umjesto mekane trave,
Sanjao sam pozar na carsiji,
Sanjao sam ljude bez glave…

Sanjao sam nocas da te imam,
Sanjao sam nocas da te imam,
Sanjao sam nocas da te imam ja.

KAZU MI DA NOVOG FRAJERA IMAS

Dobro, pa cu se javit',
Dobro,
A ne, ja sam mislio ovaj americki film da pogledamo,
A ti se dogovorila? Aha, dobro, dobro, aj' dobro.

Kazu mi da novog frajera imas,
Nisam ga vidio, al' znam da nije los.
Ti si vazda znala da biras,
Ti si vazda trazila jos.

Kazu mi da novog frajera imas,
Koji te s' autom ceka posle skole,
Koji s visine gleda na nas, druge djecake koji te vole.

Kazu, kazu.
Kazu, kazu.

Ti ces s njime da ides na Jahorinu,
Tamo je lijepo i zdravo, stavise.
A ja cu ostati u prljavom gradu
I ustima hvatati kapi kise.

Kazu mi da novog frajera imas,
Koji se sjajno slaze s tvojom tasnom.
Kada tasna izadje iz mode,
Hoce s njime biti isto k'o sa mnom?

Kazu mi da novog frajera imas,
Koji sjajno prica i divno mirise,
A ne zna da je u tvom zivotu
Samo stepenica korak vise.

Kazu, kazu.
Kazu, kazu.

Ti ces s njime da ides na Jahorinu,
Tamo je lijepo i zdravo, stavise.
A ja cu ostati u prljavom gradu
I ustima hvatati kapi kise.

GOSPODJA BRAMS

Pokupila je ostatke jela,
Pogledala Dnevnik i rekla strasno.
Pogladila je po glavi djecu, psa i muza,
Navika il' ljubav, nije ni vazno.

Zadihani muz je sisao s njenih grudi,
Pogled upret gore ka plafonu,
Razmazuje po licu njemacku kremu,
Madam Brams, u svemu.

Danas je imala naporan dan,
Po prozoru dobuju kisne kapi,
Oci joj se gase u mocvari sna,
Madam Brams se sprema da zaspi.

I tada u odaje upada on,
Njen Latino lover iz Verakruza,
Pod prozor je doveo marijace,
I gospodja Brams u snu sapce:

Povedi me, vodi me, odavde!
Povedi me, por favor.
Povedi me, vodi me, odavde!
Povedi me, senor.

Danas je imala naporan dan,
Po prozoru dobuju kisne kapi,
Oci joj se gase u mocvari sna,
Madam Brams se sprema da zaspi.

Povedi me, vodi me, odavde!
Povedi me, por favor.
Povedi me, vodi me, odavde!
Povedi me, senor.

BAS CELIK (drugi dio)

Bila je noc, i svetionik stao da namigiva,
Bila je noc, i mjesec i zvonik i ti, uz mene ziva,
Padao mrak, Bas Celik svjetlost dana uze.
Padao mrak, mjesto zvjezda zablistale su suze.

A snivali smo krilat let ala i divova,
Dozivali smo suncan svijet od srece i od snova.

en:dolly_bell

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 10:13:11 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is Do you remember Dolly Bell ?.

Douglas Sirk

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 22:28:13 +0200

Douglas Sirk

Dougla Sirk (Hans Detlef Sierck, before his “americanization”) was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1897. Disagreeing with the third Reich, he moves to United States in 1930. Smart and cultured person, he soon uses colour and “wide” format. He dies in 1987 in Switzerland.

In Douglas Sirk movies, characters usualy overact, feelings are exagerated, but beyond the superficial aspect of his characters, Fassbinder says that “the good, the 'normal' et 'beautiful' people are absolutely disgusting ; the bad, the weak, the strange characters bring compassion”.

Douglas Sirk in Emir Kusturica's films

We can consider the theatre play with Natalja in Underground to be an homage to Sirk, ans his exagerated romantic feelings.

en:drvengrad

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:36:50 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is Küstendorf.

Dušan Kovačević

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 12:22:18 +0200

Dušan Kovačević

Dušan Kovačević was born in 1948 in Mrđenovac, in Voïvodina (Serbia). He is certainly the most well-known dramatic Serbian author as well in his country as abroad. Author of twenty plays translated in more than fifteen languages, among which The Marathon family run their lap of honour”, ”Radovan III”, ”the balkan spy”, and the play ”spring in January” which was used as a basis for Underground. In 2005 he was appointed ambassador of Serbia in Lisbon.

Dušan Kovačević : With Emir, I wrote sixteen versions of the scenario of Underground. That represents more than 2000 pages of text. When we agreed to make a film of it, I worked for more than three years. It is a kind of work one could not make any more today. We were a group of workaholics, directed by Kusturica, towards and against all the external pressures. When the industry of the cinema is computerized, this kind of craft industry is not possible any more .

We went on the basis of a story, that of my play, before the war burst but then, we could not avoid this subject. We were working on the scenario while all the events in the country occurred ; the third part of film became synchronous with the bursting of ex-Yugoslavia.

Films scripts

1978 - Poseban tretman (Special treatment), by Goran Paskaljević
1980 - Ko to tamo peva (Who's singing over there), by Slobodan Sijan
1995 - Underground, by Emir Kusturica

Films directing

Dušan Kovačević has directed two films, adapting his own scripts :

1984 - Balkanski špijun (The Balkan spy)
2003 - Profesionalac (The Professional)

Theatre plays

1973 - Radovan III
1973 - Maratonci trče počasni krug (The Marathon family run their lap of honour)
1982 - Balkanski špijun (The Balkan spy)
1987 - Klaustofobicna Komedija (Claustrophobic comedy)
1990 - Profesionalac (The Professional)
1996 - Lari Tompson, tragedija jedne mladosti
1999 - Kontejner sa Pet Zvedica
2001 - Doktor Šuster

Buy online :

The Professional : Amazon.fr
The Marathon family run their lap of honour : Amazon.fr

Dušan Milić

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 12:31:51 +0200

Dušan Milić

Dušan Milić is a Serbian director born in 1969 in Belgrade. He started very early his career in 1988 as second assistant director of Enki Bilal for Bunker Palace Hotel, then, as first assistant director, this time with Goran Marković for his film Tito and me.

Since then, Dušan Milić has written several scripts, and has shot two films that have both been produced by Rasta Internationnal, Emir Kusturica's production company.

Filmography

2006 - Guča!
2003 - Jagoda u supermarketu (strawberries at the supermarket)

Ederlezi

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 18:11:11 +0200

Ederlezi_FR

Ederlezi est le nom tsigane de la fête Serbian de la Saint-George. Elle est célébrée le 6 mai.

Le nom Ederlezi vient du turc Hidirellez, nom des vacances annonçant le début du printemps, se produisant environ 40 jours après l'équinoxe de printemps. Les slaves des Balkans y ont ajouté la dimension chrétienne du jour de la Saint George. Cette fête est magnifiquement filmée par Emir Kusturica dans son film Time of the Gypsies.

Hidrellez est un jour très important en Anatolie : le mot lui-même est très significatif ; il est la combinaison des noms de deux prophètes : Hizir & Ilyas. Hidrellez signifie la renaissance de la nature et est aussi considéré comme le début de l'été.

Selon les croyances anatoliennes, Hizir et Ilyas seraient deux prophètes - et amis - qui auraient bu l'eau de l'immortalité. Ils se seraient fait la promesse de se revoir à nouveau chaque nuit du 5 mai, pour chaque année redonner vie à la nature.

Hizir est le protecteur des plantes et des gens pauvres ; il apporte l'abondance partout où il va

Ilyas est le protecteur des eaux et des animaux ; il redonne la santé partout où il va.

Les gens croient que les voeux formulés cette nuit là seront honorés ; que les malades seront soignés, et que ce sera la fin des malchances…

Il y a également de nombreux rituels : certains mettent une pièce dans un tissus rouge et l'accrochent à une rose. Au matin, cet argent est remis dans le porte-monnaie, et est sensé apporter l'abondance.

Aujourd'hui, ce jour est surtout connu comme l'occasion de faire des grands picnics dans la nature…

Elegy for Kosovo

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 01:18:08 +0200

Elegy for Kosovo

Original title	Tri kenge zie per Kosoven
Author	Ismail Kadare
Publisher	Arcade Publishing
Language	English

”Allah ! It's more than six centuries and I am tired, recluse sovereign, in the Christian vastnesses. Sometimes, at the most dark hours, I wonder whether my blood would not be at the origin of all these horrors (…) Please let my blood be extracted and carried out of this frozen plain…” This is an extract of the prayer of Mourad 1st addressed to God. The sultan of the Ottoman army, fictitious witness of the recent wars in ex-Yugoslavia, wonders whether his victory of June 28, 1389 is not a curse for the people of Balkans who do not stop carrying mourning of it (the battle had taken place on the plain of Kosovo and was won in 10 hours). June 28, 1989, date of its sixth centenary, the Serbian leader Milošević launched a new massacre in Kosovo, this time against the Albanians. Some consider it's this day that the implosion of Yugoslavia started…

The most famous Albanian writer wrote an account of a rare sobriety. This collection, in its impartiality, is an attempt to give a testimony of the lost nobility of this civilization, and a hope that it reappears.

Buy online :

English translation Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.com
French translation Amazon.fr

(Thanks to Caroline for this article)

Emir Kusturica by Dina Iordanova

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 13:48:21 +0200

Emir Kusturica by Dina Iordanova

Title	Emir Kusturica
Author	Dina Iordanova
Publisher	bfi publishing
Language	English
Release	2002

Dina Iordanova plunged herself in the universe of Emir Kusturica, and in this complete book we can read about his roots, his engagements, his evolutions, and a survey into what makes of Emir Kusturica a unique director. This book is full of anecdotes, analysis and researches that will content the most curious.

This book, very pertinent at its release (2002), should deserve today an update.

Buy online : Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, or Amazon.com.

Emir Kusturica, by Giorgio Bertellini

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 22:11:35 +0200

Emir Kusturica, by Giorgio Bertellini

Title	Emir Kusturica
Author	Giorgio Bertellini
Publisher	Il Castoro (collection Il Castoro cinema)
Language	Italian
Release	9 september 2011

Presentation by the publisher : castoro-on-line.it

Buy online : Amazon.it

Emir Kusturica by Jean-Max Méjean

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 14:56:46 +0200

Emir Kusturica by Jean-Max Méjean

Title	Emir Kusturica
Author	Jean-Max Méjean
Publisher	Gremese
Language	français
Release	2007

Already well known for his works on Federico Fellini and Pedro Almodovar, Jean-Max Méjean focused this time on Emir Kusturica, through a “filmographic” approach. One after the other, the films are detailed, explained and analyzed, with a fluent and pleasant style. Jean-Max knows how to place accordingly comparisons with the other big masters of the cinema, some anecdotes, or interviews extracts which are spread throughtout his analyzes.

Richly illustrated with photograms and archives pictures, the book is a complete testimony of today's Kusturica's work.

Buy online : Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.uk

Emir Kusturica, by Paolo Vecchi

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 15:16:34 +0200

Emir Kusturica, by Paolo Vecchi

Title	Emir Kusturica
Author	Paolo Vecchi
Publisher	Gremese, collection i grandi del cinema
Language	Italian
Release	1999

First book in Italian on Emir Kusturica.

Publisher's presentation :

Free and surreal, the work of Kusturica represents one of the most significant novelty of these last two decades in the cinema. A balkanic fresco started in the underground networks of Sarajevo in the 70's. Impossible to classify his cinéma which makes out of disorder poetry its strength ; impossible to stop thinking in front of this kaleidoscope of excessive, contradictory and huge images, distinctive signature of his cinema.

Buy online : Amazon.it, Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

Enki Bilal

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 23:08:03 +0200

Enki Bilal

Enki (diminutive of Enes) Bilal was born in Belgrade on 7th October 1951, six years after the end of the war, from a Yougoslav father and a Czech mother. His father was the former tailor of Marshal Tito. He spent ten years of his life in Belgrade before exiling with his parents to France, in Paris.

In 1971, he enters Pilote for illustrations (caricatures of politicians). He will there meet Christin, with whom he will collaborate many years for strips which will be enormous success like Les Phallanges de l'Ordre Noir, then it is in solo that he will affirm his style with albums like La femme piège, La Foire aux Immortels and Froid Equateur (sacred better book of year 1993 by French magazine LIRE, all genres confused, a first in the history of comic strips).

Then Enki Bilal directs his first film, Bunker palace hotel, in 1989 with Jean-Louis Trintignant and Carole Bouquet. It is very possible that Emir Kusturica saw this film. We see in an interview from 1992 that both artists know each other, and appreciate their work. We notice the esthetics and the topics of this films are close those of Underground. In both films, indeed, some people are kept in an underground cellar without possibility of leaving, without news of the external world, besides those which are given by an obscure manipulator…

In 1997, Bilal made his second film : Tykho moon, co-written by Dan Frank. Jean-Louis Trintignant plays again, accompanied by Julie Delpy, Joseph Leysen, Michel Picolli and Richard Bohringer. Among his collaborations to the cinema, we can also mention his work on the set of Life is a bed of roses by Alain Resnais, and The name of the Rose by Jean-Jacques Annaud.

Enki Bilal continues to work on both kind of projects : films and comic strips, because as soon as his new animation film (Immortel Ad Vitam) was released, the album 32 December was also released. It's the third album of the quadrilogy of the Monster. This serie happens in a near future, on the background of dark religious orders, modern art, human cloning, and many links with ex-Yugoslavia. The history is somptuous and complex, and we can think Enki put a little bit of hisself on the character of Nike (anagram of Enki) Hatzfeld, born in Sarajevo during the bombings of his city in 1993.

Albums

Buy online :

Quadrilogy of the monster :
- Four ? : Amazon.fr
- Rendez-vous in Paris : Amazon.fr
- 32 December : Amazon.com, Amazon.fr
- The dormant beast : Amazon.com, Amazon.fr
Trilogy Nikopol : Amazon.fr
- Froid Equateur : Amazon.fr
- La femme piège : Amazon.fr
- La foire aux immortels : Amazon.fr

Filmography

Buy online :

2004 - Immortel (Ad vitam) : Amazon.fr
1996 - Tykho Moon : Amazon.fr
1989 - Bunker Palace Hotel (with Immortel Ad Vitam) : Amazon.fr

website

A complete website on Enki Bilal : bilal.enki.free.fr (in French)

Ernst Lubitsch

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 22:20:56 +0200

Ernst Lubitsch

Ernst Lubitsch was born in 1892 in Berlin and left Germany in 1922. His german nationality was cancelled in 1935. Adopted by Hollywood, he directs there many comedies, until 1947, when he dies of an heart attack. Reputed for his extreme sophistication, il also knew how to create a funny atmosphere on the set. Ernst Lubitsch has directed many comedies, but To be or not to be is certainly his most interesting film because beyond the laughs good plot, there is a true denonciation of the nazi regilme. For a 1942 film, the comic of repetition of ”So they call me Concentration Camp Ehrhardt ?” was quite dared. This film is certainly the most brillant example of the ”Lubitsch touch”.

Hollywood and Emir Kusturica

Emir Kusturica is a big fan of americain cinema… of the 40's. In many interviews, he uses to repeat that Hollywood has lost its originality and creativity it once had. When he teached cinema in New York, hollywood movies of the 40's had an important place in his programme. We realize the influence throught some of its “classiques”such as Ernst Lubitsch, but also Michael Curtiz, Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles, Douglas Sirk, etc.

Ernst Lubitsch in Emir Kusturica's films

We find in this film a lot of similar plans to those of the theatre scene in Underground : the interruption of the play at the crucial moment, the plan seen from the back of the stage, and then the panic in the theatre among the spectators.

Buy online

DVD - To be or not to be : Amazon.fr

Europe, my city is burning !

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 22:50:49 +0200

Europe, my city is burning !

(text by Emir Kusturica, translated by Matthieu Dhennin, published in Frecnh newspaper Le Monde on 24 april 1992)

Since, Europe, you are changing the face of the Balkans these days, don't forget that you have also to stop the war which rages over there.
On my city fall the grenades sent from the surrounding mountains by some wild bands. Sarajevo is in tears and blood ; in Yugoslavia, everyone cut the other's throats.
United Europe, if you create new States on all the Yugoslav territory, you must understand consequently that you take the responsability for the blood over there, for the children tears and the distress.
While mad dogs send the grenades from the hills of Sarajevo and destroy the old medieval city, the current president, such as a General without an army, the president of a State without borders calls for the defense of the democracy at the price of blood.
Europe, this is no time for political analyses, any political direction already died over there, we can only try to extinguish the fire : Europe, my city is burning ! Over there, instead of the spring rains, fall the grenades.
I know how difficult is to understand my scream, while in Paris the first steps of the democracy were made two hundred years ago when each place of Paris bathed in blood. However, Europe, do not leave the places of Sarajevo, today at the end of the twentieth century, become what Paris was, because the new order doesn't take place today like at the nineteenth century.
Europe, this is the end of the twentieth century in the Balkans !
The chaos of the ethnique war was introduced in the Balkans for hundreds of years : it's the ground on which the greatest empires tore, it's there that the Roman Empire splitted in two, east and west, it's there that the ottoman empire saw its end ; it's there that the austro-Hungarian monarchy was buried.
Europe, the confrontation of the Muslims of Bosnia and Serbs of Bosnia is not authentic, it was manufactured, it appeared on the rests of the dead empires leaving behind them ashes. It is maintained by the nationalist movements deprived of any reason, it's YOUR fire, its up to YOU to extinguish it.
It's time to check your conscience, Europe, if ever you exist !

KUSTURICA EMIR

en:ex-yugoslavia

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 18:03:19 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is ex-Yugoslavia.

ex-Yugoslavia

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 13:22:50 +0200

ex-Yugoslavia

YUGOSLAVIa. 20.07.1917, Corfou - 04.02.2003, Belgrade. R.I.P.

When this country is now part of history, I remind a prophetic sentence of Underground : Ivan, lost in the underground asks for the way back to Yugoslavia. Someone answers him: ”Nema Jugoslavia !” (Yugoslavia does not exist any more !).

Understanding the situation in Balkans is necessary to catch the subtleties and to read between the lines of Emir Kusturica's films. The people, the religions, the politics, the geopolitical conflicts had already a strong importance in each republic before they were joined together in Yugoslavia and after they imploded in the complex situation of today.

Geopolitical context

Balkan means mountain and the first physical characteristic of this area is its mountainous aspect, not easily crossable, particularly in the winter. Its accentuated relief does not help mixings of populations and was undoubtedly one of the causes that many particularisms resulting from history remained, and still divide the local populations (all of Slavic roots). There are however geophysical disparities which unbalanced the economic progresses of the various areas : fertile fields in Slovenia, large agricultural plains in Voïvodinia, better conditions for industry in Serbia, sea access for Croatia, Slovenia and Montenegro. Bosnia and Herzegovina, mountainous except in its northern part is from this point of view less favoured.

The weight of history

Area not very favourable to the massive military operations and fast progressions, Balkans were naturally a border not easily crossed during the confrontations of Eastern and Western civilizations.

Coming from south, Greek civilization has first reigned on Balkans. The Romans settle on these territories starting from IVth century BC, coming from west and southwest. During the fourth century a first division of the territory occurs because the line separating the Western part of Roman (catholic) empire from its Eastern part (orthodoxe) is situated along the Drina river. During the 5th century, barbarians invasions (Francs, Ostrogoths and Slaves) are coming gradually from east and northest. During XIIIth and XIVth centuries the Ottoman empire gradually extends its influence on Balkans by introducing Islam. In 1389, the Turks win a decisive victory at Kosovo Polje and obtain a large part of ex-Yugoslavia, except Montenegro and Croatia. This domination involves important population movements : Serbs settle in Voïvodine and in Krajina, and Albanians settle in Kosovo emptied by this emigration. This situation creates a durable feeling of foreign occupancy, badly felt by the populations concerned and thus creating a cleavage within these populations. This cleavage is accentuated by the islamic conversion of bosnian minorities, soon treated as collaborationnists.

At the beginning of the XIXth century, the retreat of the Ottoman empire places gradually these countries under the influence of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Serbia remains however autonomous. The Balkan wars of the beginning of the XXth century push back the Turks, and Turkey reaches its current border. Serbia doubles its surface. A first idea of joining the southern Slavs appears inside the Austrian empire, project which would separate Serbia from Bosnia strongly populated of Serbs. François Ferdinand is then assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, an utopist bosnian serb, on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo.

The first World War

War bursts and Serbia, thanks to a decisive French assistance, pushes back the Austrians. With the issue of the First World War the countries are gathered within a kingdom which becomes the kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929 with a Croatian opposition (Oustachis) strong enough to cause the assassination in Marseilles of king Alexander Ist. The first explicit reference to Yugoslavia (Southern Slavs) appeared in 1917 with the creation by king Alexandre Karadjordjevic of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which followed the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croatians and Slovens, founded in 1918. King Karadjordjevic was the first leader trying to impose on the mosaic of people gathered under his authority the idea of a Yugoslav identity, but without much success.

Second World War

The Second World War causes conflicts between Serbs and Croatians, due to the attitude regarding German occupancy. Serb resistance and Tito's communist resistance, are led by Tchetniks, using the old name of the resistants to the Ottoman empire .

Tito's era

During the war a tenth of the population dies. Half of it resulting from the civil war. Then Tito founds a new Republic of Yugoslavia, and will live more than thirty years of peaceful life. With its iron hand, Yugoslavia imagines a socialism that is not aligned on Moscow. Tito will always tried to calm the conflicts between the diffrent ethnic and religious groups. Thus, in 1968 he created the “muslim” nationality, for those who do not identify as Serb, nor as Bosnian. This nationality did not imply any religious belongship.

Communist politic in Yugoslavia consisted in giving a standard cultural model to cinema and television. It was a form of propaganda, and efforts were made to accentuate the ressemblances between Serbs and Croats, Croats and Muslims, etc. Thus, yugoslav film industrie didn't favoured the historical, national or religious films. It's that time when directors were tightened to the Party that Emir Kusturica wanted to denounce in his burlesque scene of Film inside the film in Underground. Only the Second World war was tolarated as film subject because it highlighted the only time in its history that Yugoslavia, was united to fight an external ennemy.

However, after his death in 1980, the country dislocates slowly. In the 80's, central autority is gradually lowered to the benefit of the provinces in which will grow very nationalist atmospheres. In 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall will encourage the provinces to emancipate from the authority of Belgrade.

The crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Croatia

The elections of 1990 lead to the sucess of Franco Trudjman who is elected president of Croatia, what refuse the Serbs living in the south of the country. The Croats start to build an army. In 1991, Milošević takes the power in Serbia exploiting the claims of the Serb minorities of Kosovo in front of in the local Albanian muslim majority. June 25, 1991 Slovenia and Croatia proclaim their independence what causes the first engagements. October 15, 1991 the croato-muslim majority votes for the sovereignty of Bosnia, which involves auto-proclamation of three autonomous Serb republics, in the north of Bosnia (Banja Luka), in eastern Herzegovina and in Romanja (Blade). The European Community recognizes Bosnia on April 6, 1992. The federal army, now Serb, settles in Serbia which becomes with Montenegro, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) on April 27, 1992.

The Serb militia takes the heights of Sarajevo and install heavy weapons. The Serbs of Bosnia also take cities next to Serbia. In 1993 the Croats attack the Muslims in Mostar whereas the Serbs help the Croats in central Bosnia and the bosnian army in Mostar. One year later under assistance of the USA a croato-muslim agreement ends the hostilities (March 18, 1994). Following the engagements a certain balance of the forces remains in Bosnia.

An exclusion zone is created during the ultimatum of Sarajevo on February 9, 1994 after the explosion of a fatal bomb in the market of Markale. No heavy weapon should be fired within a 20 km circle centered on Sarajevo or being out of the control of the FORPRONU. The same status is extended to the town of Gorazde on April 22, 1994.

At the end of 1994 the war has made more than 150 000 died people and 2 million moved people including 1 200 000 refugees out of Bosnia and Herzegovina (when there were 4 350 000 people in 1991). During this period failed the plans Vance Owen (January 1993), and Owen Stoltenberg (September 1993) whereas the plan Juppé Kinkel (April 1994) meets severe difficulties. In the spring of 1995 after an hostage capture of blue helmets, the international community reacts more highly, and sends a fast force of reaction and starts a more brutal engagement of NATO and UN which results in air and terrestrial operations strongly criticised due to strong collateral damages.

Dayton's peace

Then, a peace process is being developped and leads to the agreements of Dayton on November 21, 1995, signed in Paris on December 14, 1995. These agreements foresee the separation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in two entities: the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (of which the majority of the ten cantons present a bosnian-muslim majority : cantons of Sarajevo, Tuzla or Zenica, or a Croatian majority : canton of Livno, in Herzegovina), and Republika Srpska (with a Serb majority). But if Bosnia is officially divided into two entities, it actually does not count less than thirteen governments : those of the common State, those of each of the two entities, and those of the ten cantons of the Federations…

Independance of Montenegro

Feeling crushed by a capacity lowered by the international community for its exactions within the conflicts in Bosnia, Croatia and in Kosovo, Montenegro took little by little distance from Belgrade to engage on the way of independence. After the fall of Milošević in October 2000 and the introduction of a team of democrates and reformists to the head of Yugoslavia, the European Union opposed to a new parcelling out in Balkans, summoning Serbia and Montenegro to get along, at least for a three years period.

Thus, the creation of this Serbia-Montenegro Union, whose common institutions, still of first importance (diplomacy, defense, economy, minorities), were very limited. Despite the pressures of Brussels to maintain the federated state, Montenegro organized after the three-years period a self-determination referundum. Europe still imposed a specific 55% mandatory rate for independance in order to recognize the results. This rate was shortly obtained with 55.5% with the vote of 21 may 2006.

Serbia has thus inherited from the institutions and the international positions of the previous federated state, and Montenegro was admitted on 28th june 2006 as the 192nd state of the UN.

Frequently Asked Questions

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 13:15:01 +0200

Frequently Asked Questions

I always answer to each message I receive, (and always with pleasure…) but I would like to list here some of the questions I'm the most frequently asked to …

Could you give me the address of Emir Kusturica ?
- It isn't that I don't want… I just don't know the personnal address of Emir Kusturica (no snail mail, no e-mail). Emir spends most of his time in Küstendorf… The postal address of the village is :

Drvengrad
Resavski put 10
31000 Užice
Serbia

Tel : +381 31 800 686 
Fax : +381 31 800 680

I would love to meet Emir Kusturica…
- For any professional request, you can write to Palass, who manages the No Smoking Orchestra : palass(à)palass.fr

I've heard that Emir Kusturica had opened a cinema school : how can I apply ?
- Indeed, Emir Kusturica has made a cinema workshop in Küstendorf during the summer 2005. If some new workshops were likely to be reorganized, all the information would be given on the page of Küstendorf, as soon as possible.

When will Emir Kusturica's new film will be released ?
- Please read the News page.

Is the No Smoking Orchestra going to make concerts in my country ?
- ALl the relevant information are given on the No Smoking Orchestra page.

The navigation menu doesn't open anymore !
- The wiki engine used for the website uses heavy cache management, and somtimes, you have to help it by refreshing your browser. Just click on “shift” and “reload page”, or click on the menu “tool/empty cache” of your browser.

I don't see any videos !
- You need to download the realvideo plugin

I don't see the toolbar allowing to listen to the music
- You need the quicktime plugin

Is it the official site of Emir Kusturica ?
- Yes and no. The site is getting official de facto, but I continue making it on my own, and freely, without any editorial nor financial help from Emir or his producers, since 1998. However, this site would have never been able to exist without the help of many friends in Paris, Sarajevo, Milan or Belgrade. The hosting costs are covered by the commissions recovered on the articles sold on the Amazon websites

Where can I find those CDs, DVDs, books ?
- On the pages dedicated to soundtracks, films or books, I put links allowing to order the items online, with worlwide shipping.

Where can I find those posters ?
- The posters pictures were found on internet, they are difficult to find.

Fanfare Ciocarlia

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 18:10:56 +0200

Fanfare Ciocarlia_FR

La Fanfare Ciocarlia (“rossignol” en roumain) c'est du brass band à la mode tsigane. Onze musiciens originaires d'un tout petit village de Roumanie ont un jour décidé de traverser les frontières munis de leurs cuivres. Trompettes, cors et tubas ont trouvé un immense écho dans tous les pays qu'ils ont parcourus, grâce à une musique d'une authenticité et d'une vigueur enthousiasmantes . Danses traditionnelles et rythmes de fête composent l'essentiel de leur répertoire. Inépuisables, ces artistes ont autant d'humour que de talent et ils peuvent jouer des heures, dans la rue comme sur une scène. On raconte même qu'ils auraient joué 20 heures de suite lors d'un mariage roumain !

La Fanfare Ciocarlia était l'invitée d'honneur lors du concert du Nouvel An du Nederlands Blazer Ensemble à Amsterdam, le 1 er janvier 2000. Ils ont mis un désordre tonitruant dans la mythique salle du Concertgebouw.

Coachés par les deux allemands d'Asphalt-Tango, le groupe roumain continue de parcourir le monde, de Tokyo à New York, en passant souvent par Paris, la Fanfare Ciocarlia continue de déverser ses notes à un rythme effrené et ont sorti leur 5ème CD en 2007 : “Queens & Kings”. On les a également vus dans le superbe film allemand Gegen die Wand (Head-On en VF), et un DVD vient de sortir contenant un concert et le magnifique reportage Iag Bari qui a gagné des prix dans plusieurs festivals.

Leurs derniers albums témoignent d'une inventivité et d'une fraîcheur spectaculaire. On y croise des reprises de chansons traditionnelles tsiganes (le superbe Lume Lume), des compositions originales, ainsi que des clins d'oeil aux clichés occidentaux (comme une étonnante reprise du James Bond Theme), et un hommage à Kusturica avec la chanson Sandala, que l'on trouve sur la B.O. de Black Cat White Cat.

Discographie

1999 : Radio Pascani : Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk
2000 : Baro Biao : Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk
2001 : Iag Bari : Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk
2004 : DVD (PAL, zone 2, audio 5.1 : German, Français, English) “l'histoire de la Fanfare Ciocarlia” : Amazon.fr, Amazon.de
2005 : Gili Garabdi : Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk
2007 : Queens & Kings : Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk

website

www.fanfare-ciocarlia.com

Farewell

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:18:06 +0200

Farewell

Director	Christian Carion
Release date	23 september 2009 (France)

Synopsis

The scenario of the film is based on real events, which happened at the beginning of the 80s, and which have accelerated the fall of the Berlin wall. Emir Kusturica will play the role of a KGB lieutenant-colonel who delivered to French counter-spies crucial information on Soviet spies in western countries, particularly in economical, militaro-industrial and high technology research domains. A treason under the code-name Farewell that the movie will revisit by mixing it with the intervention of a French engineer.

trailer

Farewell - the trailer

Anecdotes

The role that Emir Kusturica plays should have been initially done by his friend Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov, but he cancelled for calendar reasons.

Emir Kusturica has declared in an interview : ”I play a double-agent who is really tired of life. It's a very interesting story, and I think this will help me in the art of cinema”.

Also, during the shooting, the producer, Christophe Rossignon, said : ”In the skin of the famous KGB spy who offered his services to the west, strange and particularly complex character, incredibly mimetic, Emir Kusturica is just exceptional.”

Farewell is the very first film which obtained the authorization to shoot inside the Elysée palace in Paris (where the president of the Republic works and lives). Christian Carion, the director, was convinced: “I explained them that the American films, when they show the Power, do not make fakes. And why wouldn't French films have access to the Elysée, when the Americans shoot in Versailles or the Louvre ? In the end, French ministry of Culture supported us.”

In the party hall of the Elysée, the actor Philippe Magnan made a François Mitterrand truer than nature. So much so that all the staff of the Elysée went to “see once again Mitterrand”…

Christian Carion, in his preoccupations with exactitude, wanted also to shoot in Moscow. But, when the scenario arrived in the hands of the French translator of Vladimir Poutine, he got nervous. The Russian ambassador in France, Avdeïev made all he could to block the project. And not without reasons ! In fact, Avdeïev belonged to the 47 Russian diplomats expelled by Mitterrand. Indeed, in January 1983, France discovered that all the messages exchanged since 1977 between the French embassy in Moscow and France were intercepted by the Russians, who had installed a derivation on the teleprinter. Furious, Mitterrand required the list of the members of the KGB and the GRU, the operative Soviet military information in France. This list could be obtained thanks to Farewell…

So, Carion decided to go to Kiev, in Ukraine. He will add real sights of Moscow in background in post-production. Aesthetically, the capital of Ukraine looks in many points like Moscow. The subway, for example, is as beautiful as there. The authorizations were not long to receive, and even more quickly, since any occasion to make Moscow nervous remotely are rather welcome there… But by prudence, at the Regency Hyatt in Kiev, Guillaume Canet and Emir Kusturica checked in under false names : Marc Lanvin and Pierre Legrand…

Emir Kusturica had to act in Russian (a language that he knows well, for having learned it at school under the Communist regime of Tito) and in French. Even if he speaks relatively good French, he nevertheless had to work his text phonetically, and also to be helped by posters held by an assistant…

The shock of the revelations provided by Farewell led USSR to its decline and led also to the fall of the Berlin Wall. On this subject, Emir Kusturica declares: ”I am not the ideal person to appreciate the fall of the Wall. The reunification of Germany caused the dismantling of my country, Yugoslavia, which I always miss, why deny it. There were some bad parts in Communism, but there were also good ones. What I like in the vision of Christian Carion of these events, it is their human dimension. Farewell is a Communist in the noble sense, like my father was, who, like him, would not have supported that his youth ideals be perverted.”

Casting

Emir Kusturica …. Vladimir Vetrov, the Russian spy
Guillaume Canet
Willem Dafoe
Alexandra-Maria Lara
Niels Arestrup
David Soul
Philippe Magnan …. François Mitterrand
Fred Ward …. Ronald Reagan

Gallery

Shooting

Farewell - the trailer

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:42:16 +0200

Farewell - the trailer

en:father

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 11:45:27 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is When father was away on business.

Federico Fellini

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 22:16:54 +0200

Federico Fellini

Federico Fellini was born on January 20, 1920 in Rimini (small Italian seaside resort). Weak child, young Federico finds refuge in his wild imagination. He loves the circus and the cinema : he admires the Marx brothers, Laurel & Hardy, Charlie Chaplin but also the acrobat dwarves and the clowns… His assiduous frequentation of the cinema does nothing but grow and in parallel, he starts to expose his drawings. At the age of 18, he settles in Rome and immediately falls in love with the city. His meeting with Roberto Rossellini was decisive : director with a good reputation yet, he entrusts to Federico the scenario writing of Rome, open city in 1945. Great critical and commercial success, their collaboration will continue on other films, and sometimes, as he is sick, Roberto Rossellini will entrust even the camera to Federico Fellini for certain plans.

”I didn't choose to become director : it's the cinema that chose me.” Fellini will then starts directing by his own, and it will be the beginning of a long and prestigious career, that will end after 24 films, 5 oscars and a palme d'or on the 31st of october 1993.

He has signed big classics such as La dolce vita (1960), 8 1/2 (1963), Satyricon (1969), Roma (1972), Amarcord (1973), Intervista (1987)…

Federico Fellini in Emir Kusturica's films

Emir Kusturica is often quoted as the Fellini of the Balkans. We'll see the comparison is fair for several reasons.

In her excellent book on Emir Kusturica, Dina Iordanova recalls a sentence of Emir Kusturica in 1999 : ”I'm proud of having discovered how Fellini made his films, and using the same little tricks, like a magician who sees a circus, and then goes in another to work. There are three specific features : first, the excitment that comes from every character, second, the incredible architecture of the scenes, third, the dominant Mediterranean paganistic vision of life.”

Amarcord

Emir Kusturica has often quoted Amarcord as being the major inspiring work for his film Time of the Gypsies. He is said to be screening the film continuously in his caravan before arriving on the set. We can see obvious visual references, like, for example :

First, the sense of the frame, the complexity of the scenes with simultaneous action in the background and the foreground.
family eating scenes, Weddings, great banquets in nature.
an lunatic narrator facing the camera at the opening of the film.
the Film inside the film scenes where young Federico dares to approach the girl next to him during the film.
accordeon.
and even a turkey hypnosis scene !

Beyond this film, the references to Amarcord can be found also in other Emir Kusturica's films such as :

the geese plucks flying in Life is a miracle.
the kid's bad joke who pee in a pipe in the classroom, like in the Football match scene of Life is a miracle.
the tic tac tic tac… in Underground, with the same actor Davor Dujmović than in Time of the Gypsies

About Amarcord, Emir says that he tried eight times to watch it, when he was student at the FAMU, but each time he fell asleep after fifteen minutes. The ninth time, he was captivated, and since then, this film didn't cease to haunt him. It's certainly the film that has the most influence on his work.

Other films of Fellini

The influence of Fellini on Kusturica's work is also wider : we can find homages to many other films of the italian maestro :

using the roman ruins : Roma / Time of the Gypsies
kids running after the car : La Strada / Time of the Gypsies
The elephant that invades the screen without surprising the audience : Intervista / Underground
We can even note that Emir took that name of one of Fellini's first films to baptise his production company : Cabiria films.

Selective filmography

8 1/2 : Amazon.com, Amazon.fr
Amarcord : Amazon.com, Amazon.fr
Boccace 70 : Amazon.fr
Intervista : Amazon.fr

en:fellini

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 22:13:52 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is Federico Fellini.

en:festival_of_cannes

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:39:54 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is Cannes Film Festival.

Film inside the film

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 22:32:13 +0200

Film inside the film

In each one of the films of Emir Kusturica, there is at least a sequence of “film inside the film”, where a movie is being watched, or where a character imitates a famous role from another movie…

	Do you remember Dolly Bell ? Dino discovers Dolly Bell at the news in the cinema.
	When father was away on business Mirza makes a small amateur film and projects it with his family, amazed… At the end of the film, all the family listens religiously to the radio the football match where Yugoslavia's team is playing.

Time of the Gypsies
When they go to the cinema, Perhan and Azra look at the film You Only Love Once, in which Miki Manojlović plays. This same scene of love is then paraphrased in the film with a girl forced to prostitution. Other allusions to the cinema in this film are given by Merdzan who makes remarkable imitations of Bruce Lee and Charlie Chaplin (for this one, it can be in homage to Chaplin's gypsy roots ?). Finally, in confidence to Perhan, Ahmed says that times are getting more and more difficult, and that a film even had been just made on the children traffics by gypsies. It is a clear allusion to Goran Paskaljević's film Guardian Angel

Arizona Dream
To convince Axel to remain in Arizona, and to remind the good old times, Leo projects an old Super8 film. Paul, great fan of Carry Grant and Robert De Niro makes a spectacular imitation of Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, and a remarkable doubling of the dialogues of Raging Bull. When Grace threatens to commit suicide, all that the moment inspires him is a monologue resulting from the Wizard of Oz. There are also some allusions to the Classic American movies, such as the fly on the cheek of Paul sleeping (Once upon a time in the west)

Underground
The archive pictures are used here as historical documents, and some are even faked (like in Forest Gump) to insert inside the protagonists of the film. One sees thus Marko next to Tito shortly after the war. Then, to ensure his propaganda in the underground, and to maintain the people's ignorance of the real situation, Marko organizes projections of images of war in loop and radio emissions with Bata at the microphone. Finally, when coming out of the underground, Blacky falls in the shooting of a film on his own life ! Just like Marko before, he faces the official interpretation of his history, and recognizes only the resemblance of the characters, not the situations.

	Black Cat, White Cat To supervise his house, Grga uses a very up-to-date video network. But his best pleasure remains looking in loop the final scene of Michael Curtiz' Casablanca on his video recorder : this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship…
	Super 8 Stories This film contains several extracts of Emir's personal archive films. It is thus already a compilation of films inside the film. We can see, for example, young Stribor crying for no reason…
	Life is a miracle Jadranka is frightened by the news she sees on TV. Luka doesn't believe in them. Once alone, angry against this mighty TV set, he will throw it out of the window, but it will resist and continue until he shoots it with a gun…

Filmography

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 13:23:07 +0200

Filmography

1971 - A part of the truth (short)
1972 - Autumn (short)
1978 - Guernica (short)
- First prize at the student film festival of Karlovy-Vary
1978 - The brides are coming (TV film)
1979 - Titanic (TV film)
- First prize at the Yugoslav television film festival in Portoroz
1981 - Do you remember Dolly Bell ?
- Critique prize of the International Film Festival of Sao Paulo
- Golden Lion for the First Film at the Mostra of Venice
1985 - When father was away on business
- Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival
1989 - Time of the Gypsies
- Best director at the Cannes Film Festival
1993 - Arizona Dream
- Silver Bear (Special Jury Prize) at the International Film Festival of Berlin
1995 - Underground
- Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival
1996 - Seven days in the life of a bird (short for French TV France 2)
1998 - Black Cat, White Cat
- Silver Lion at the Mostra of Venice
2001 - Super 8 Stories
- Silver Plate for Best documentary at the International Film Festival of Chicago
2004- Life is a miracle
- French National Education Prize at the Cannes Film Festival
- César (French Academy award) for the Best film of the European Union
- Golden Globe of the best European film
2005 - Blue Gypsy
2007? - Promise me this (in post-production)
2008? - Maradona (in post-production)

In 1982, Emir Kusturica was assistant director on the film 13 July.

Emir Kusturica has also directed many Commercials, and played the actor in some of his films, or other director's.

Flight

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 22:53:01 +0200

Flight

Each hero of Emir Kusturica would like to fly away.

Emir Kusturica : I had a professor in Prague who said to me “One makes the difference between a bad film and a good film by the fact that in good film, the characters seems to escape from gravity”. I said to myself then, why not straightforwardly make people fly like Chagall?

	Do you remember Dolly Bell ? To fly is Dino's obesssion…
	When father was away on business Malik is sleepwalking. At the end of the film, he even flies away…
	Time of the Gypsies At the time of Saint-George day, Pehran dreams that he flies with his turkey in his arms… At the end of film, when Perhan meets the new wife of Ahmed, just deceased. She pull a gun and says to him ”I will kill you, even if you were a bird”. Perhan dies and sees the turkey metamorphosed in cloud and flapping its wings in front of him… an image retaken later in Underground.
	Arizona Dream Elaine et Axel spend their time building flying machines…
	Underground For her wedding, Yovan's wife makes a mystical levitation exercise. In this scene, one finds clearly the inspiration of Marc Chagall.
	Black Cat, White Cat He won't fly away, but this funny machine reminds those of Axel in Arizona Dream, doesn't it ?
	Life is a miracle Luka is sick in his bed, and Sabaha joins him. They start to dream… the bed flies and they start floating around the gorgeous area of Mokra Gora…

Football

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 21:38:29 +0200

Football

Football is a real passion of Emir Kusturica : at 18, he had to choose between a professional football player career and to start cinema studies… Since then football is in almost all his films…

	When father was away on business Malik has always dreamt of a real leather football ball…
	Time of the Gypsies Ahmed's place and his caravans, in the suburbs of Milan, are on a football playground.
	Arizona Dream At the time of Arizona Dream, Emir Kusturica set up with his students of the Columbia University a football team : the gypsies.
	Underground In the underground, the kids play football, and more than all target the head of Golub. The ball will end up in the well…
	Black Cat, White Cat Playing alone against himself, still cheating, Matko wins a game and shout : Maradona !…
	Life is a miracle The key scene of the film is the one of the football match. Allegory for the forthcoming war, the 15 days of the shooting for this scene were so demanding in energy that Emir ended in the hospital…
	Maradona No doubt football will be the main subject of this film…

Forum

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 13:36:39 +0200

Forum

Welcome to the discussion forum of kustu.com.

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Enter the forum

Francis Ford Coppola

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 22:03:38 +0200

Francis Ford Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola was born on april 7th 1939 in Detroit, Michigan (United States). Son of a composeur and an actress, Francis Ford grows up in New York and then studies cinema at UCLA. He first writes scenarios and in 1969, he founds an indpendant production company American Zoetrope. Their first movie will be Georges Lucas' THX 1138. It's with Godfather in 1972 that Francis Ford Coppola wins the respect of his peers (and an Oscar). He will then direct many other great movies that have enriched the american cinema like Godfather - part II (1974) Apocalypse Now (1979) or Dracula (1992). In Europe too, he will be recognized as a great director, since he wins twice the Palmes d'Or in Cannes for The conversation and Apocalypse Now. He is now working on a new film, a science-fiction project “on Utopia, much more ambitious than Apocalypse Now : Megalopolis”.

Francis Ford Coppola is typically a hated child of Hollywood, obliged work in the “system”, he alterns command films and personnal films, he produces popular films for better producing independant films.

Francis Ford Coppola dans les films d'Emir Kusturica

Godfather - part II in particular, but other films of Coppola in general are visual references for Emir Kusturica. We find homages in different forms :

The imagery in the Godfather trilogy has strongly marked the student Emir Kusturica in Prague, and according to Andrew Norton, american journalist, Time of the gypsies would even be a remake of Godfather I & II ! Beyond the physical resemblance between Perhan (Davor Dujmović) / Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) and Ahmed (Bora Todorović) / Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), the similar topics are numerous (the transition from the godfather to his unwilling successor, rise and fall of a mafia “family”)

We see in Arizona Dream a scene of Godfather - part II that Paul watches on TV during Elaine's birthday. Clearly, Paul knows it by heart and he “lives” it more than he acts it.
The attack of an helicopter by Blacky on the beach in Underground a direct homage to Apocalypse Now.

Controversy

So many clues… but yet ! there is someone who contests the admiration that Emir Kusturica shows to Francis Ford Coppola. It is noone else than Vincent Gallo himself. He has declared in an interview :

The scene in Arizona Dream where I parody “The Godfather” wasn't written in the script. Certainly not the use of the animal and certainly not using “The Godfather.” I kind of improvised both those things. The director, Emir Kusturica, is not a giant film fan so he didn't really get involved in the choices of which movies we were going to parody or use for those scenes. I have to be quite honest and tell you that a lot of it had to do with what was available to be used, so that limited my choices. What would happen is I would pick a movie and right at the last minute I'd have to change my choice based on what was available to get the rights to. So the scene using “The Godfather” was decided a day before we shot the scene.

Of course I'd seen the film several times but I'm not a fan of DeNiro or Pacino. I'm not one of those guys who quote from “The Godfather.” I'm certainly a fan of movies, no doubt about it, no denying it. Certainly I liked “The Godfather” - but I'm not an actor who's in love with DeNiro. I got so good by that point at watching a movie and being able to mimic a film that I watched that scene over and over for 15 minutes and I could do it that way that I did it in the movie. So I just was in the habit of being quick to be able to do that.

The complete interview of Vincent Gallo : http://www.tv-now.com/intervus/gallo/vgi.htm

Should we see in this declaration a denial on the points mentioned above ? Or a narcissistic attempt from Vincent Gallo to steal the paternity of one of the best scenes of the film ?

Even if both men share the private club of the winners of two GoldenPalms at the Cannes Film Festival, the admiration is not reciprocical. See the meeting in images.

Selective filmography

The godfather trilogy : Amazon.com, Amazon.fr
DVD Dracula : Amazon.com, Amazon.fr
DVD Apocalypse Now Redux : Amazon.com, Amazon.fr

Giovanni Robbiano

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 16:50:00 +0200

Giovanni Robbiano

Giovanni Robbiano was born on 25th november 1958 in Genova, Italy. Writer, scenarist and cinema teacher in Genova, Milano and in Greece, Giovanni Robbiano is also director. After having studied in Columbia University in New York in Emir Kusturica's class, he directs Figurine based on one of his scripts, then 500 !, a comedy co-directed with two friends at John Landis style, and Deadly compromise a thriller made with the same team.

His last film Hermano should have been HIS big feature, but a financement problem prevents it to reach the screens.

Today, Giovanni works on a big new script…

Exclusive interview with Giovanni Robbiano

Giovanni, you were born in Italy but studied cinema in Columbia University at the time Emir Kusturica was teaching there, in 1990. Did that happen “by chance” or have you moved specifically to meet him ?
- Giovanni Robbiano : Actually, he came in the fall of 1988. I had already been studying there for a year when a person from the administration called me upstairs at Columbia for a big matter and told me that someone was arriving to teach directing and he was “coming from where you come from” ; he did not remember the name and said “Costa something…” so I replied if he was Costa Gavras, and in the end I mumbled to myself : could he be Kustu-rica ? Yes. I was stunned twice, first because I had seen both Dolly bell and When father was away on business and he was already one of my all time favourites, second because to this man Yugoslavia, Italy, or anywhere else were the same area of the world…

Tell me more about Emir Kusturica as a teacher. What do you recall as his most memorable lesson ?

GR : Soon we made up a Kustu-class, and later it became a Football team, the “gypsies”. We named it so because there were people from all over Europe, and even an iranian goal keeper ! Some of the americans just couldn't hold on with him, Kustu could come in the morning and not feel like teaching, so we could go around in the park or downtown, that was exciting, but some of my fellow mates could go crazy ! You know, the attitude you have in the USA with the university is that you are a customer and you are supposed to get a service. I teach in Italy now and still some students look at you like some guru or a “wise man” that has a superior knowledge and is somehow unattainable. Kustu, anyway was completely even with us, he didn't have any arrogance or attitude, he was just interested in movies and his classes consisted mostly in watching movies and discussing about scenes and shots. I remember a lot of course, once he stayed on one shot in Pudovkin's “mother” for a long time, it was strange and fascinating for us, he was questioning himself about the choices, the thinking, everything, he was fond of russian silent movies, those which he had studied in deep when he was studying in Prague. Here's a small list of kustu's teaching material : Mouchette and Pickpocket ¹⁾, Amarcord, La dolce vita, (he was so proud to be named the new Fellini) Kurosawa's The idiot, Loves of a blonde (he was Forman's close friend and it is Miloš Forman who brought him at Columbia). Here's a sentence I can't forget, “you cannot come up with anything in storytelling that dostoyevsky hasn't done yet”. He had Columbia buying a 16mm copy of Roublev since he said that he couldn't go on with teaching without showing us Roublev, maybe it was his favourite movie… but on the other hand I remember he was fascinated by a cheap US flick, “against all odds” a probably forgotten movie (though it was a remake of a Robert Mitchum classic of the fifties)

Did he have a rigorous program for the course, or was it more improvised day by day ?
- GR : Anything could happen, he could come and stay for one hour then excuse himself and say he didn't feel like, or spend the whole day, have lunch, go on until late at night, we used to have dinner with him at times. Stribor (his son) was a little kid, very shy, which is amazing when you see him now. He plays drums in his band and he is a giant. Besides I was one or his favourite pal, we could talk about Football and about Politics or just go around in New York.

David Atkins was also one of the students of this course. He is said to have proposed his scenario to Emir Kusturica and it became Arizona Dream, but can you tell me more about how this happened ? Did Emir mentionned to you he wanted to make a film in the United States at the beginning ?
- GR : There's one thing to say about Emir, it is my repeated experience, I was asking him what is your next movie and he started telling a spared collection of situation, loosely tied together, very emotional but without a strict narrative logic, so I didn't understand the story. The ast time it happened was in Torino and he was telling me he was going to shoot a version of “the Nose” but I couldn't make sense out of it and I said, ok Emir, I don't understand the story but I'm sure it will be excllent as usual and he laughed. He once told us a story about a naive painter form Yugoslavia, getting to the States and being - if I remember well - the victim of a plane accident… I think some of this stuff went into Arizona Dream. David's story was called originally “the arrowtooth waltz” and Emir loved the title, it was very very different from the final result. David was extremely talented, but if you understand me, it is difficult to make a movie with Emir without his own energy taking command on everything. I believe he was disappointed, but Emir is a real director, I mean, a vampire : he absorbs everything and turns it into his own style. And it is a style we love. This means that he was always interested in what was happening around, if there's a good idea coming up, he is instantly interested, he is a true director… On the other hand his ideas are so complicated and personal that is difficult for him to work on someone's else material, he has to adapt it to himself. He wanted to make many things in the States, I remeber he wanted badly to shoot Crime and Punishment in the russian neighborhood of Brighton beach in New York, contemporary. He had negotiations for that, even with Cecchi Gori, by the time the greatest italian producer, but it fell down, he met them in Los Angeles and when he returned he said to me those people were stupid… Anyway, the situation with Time of the Gypsies went bad, the film was coproduced by Columbia (not the university…) pictures and he had a deal with them that allowed him to make Arizona Dream with a big (for him) budget and a big cast, he simply had the hardest time with the studio. Arizona Dream had a lot of problems that in someway you can read in the film even if it is beautiful, it was painful for him, he got sick. He loved Johnny Depp, though, they became friends, he said to me he was a brilliant young man. by the time he was considered an outisder in he States, a rebel, he didn't have a good reputation, and Emir, obviously liked him.

For Hermano, you only shot two days with Emir Kusturica, but how was it to ask who was once your teacher to act in your own movie ?
- GR : I think mostly we were friends, it was difficult to consider him just a teacher, he was very open, you see, some of the people in Kustu's class (and in Kustu's Football team) made it up to become directors, that is what we wanted most, even if I am definitely a screenwriter. I remember Ben Ross, David Atkins of course, Tobias Meineke, from Germany… There was a guy form Poland that shot a movie and I don't remember his name… So It was not convenient to have him in my first or second movie, but Hermano was just right, I tried to reach him and I had a long gone cell number, that was not active anymore, the only way was to reach him through his agent in Paris,I spoke to her and she was of course reluctant… there's this unknown guy from Italy telling he wants to talk to Emir in order to have him for a cameo in his movie… Sounds crazy, I said to her, please tell him I think he will reply, she promised to do and the following day she called back, it was ok, and emir was glad to do it !

Your last film seems to suffer from a lack of public financement in Italy : can you tell me more about the situation of your film in particular, and the cinema in Italy in general ? Is the situation getting worse ?
- GR : The situation is desperate, the public funding for movies has been stopped abruptly and for one and a half year no films were substained with money. The system is moving to supporting only the commercial productions and those in Italy are very very cheap, The problem is very complicated, I am a professional filmaker and I believe that any movie must find his pubblic and support itself in the market through sales, on the other hand it is impossible for the particular situation of my country to produce any movie that it is not strictly TV oriented, since the TV is so powerful in Italy (no surprise that our prime minister is a TV mogul) and decides which movies are to be done. RAI and Mediaset are the two main film producer here and of course are two TV networks (controlled by the same people…). Real cinema is just a boring appendix, nobody wants to take his part, so our industry is pratically dead, everybody works for TV writing and directing lousy serials or so called “fictions”. Currently the fashion is life of the saints, popes and so on… Nobody goes to see an italian movie in the theaters, what's the use when any american film is better ? Thus, it is going worse and worse, but finally now agony has started, our cinema is dead. Amen. To tell you the truth Italy is the most stupid country in the whole planet, its government is a general shame for Europe and the cultural life is reduced to talkshows and gossip. That is the truth.

What are your projects now ?
- GR : Back to writing, I am working with a close friend writing his first movie (with a british producer). I wait if there will be the opportunity to shoot another movie in the future, I have two projects, one is already written by two of my former students and the title is “camping”, the other one is a personal project about which I don't want to even mention the general area…. Oh, I forget ! I also wrote a nice vampire treatment with the same two kids from “camping”, and there is some interest about it… Besides I keep working as editor or consultant for other projects, it's going fine, if not for Hermano.

What is your favorite Emir Kusturica movie, and why ?
- GR : Difficult question. Probably Underground all over but I am very close to Time of the Gypsies because Emir was completing it when we met and we followed it so closely, almost shot by shot…

What is your favorite movie of all time ?
- GR : You want a straight answer at this impossible question ? Ok, Alien (strange isn't it?)

What is the last film you've seen at the cinema ?
- GR : Saw.

¹⁾ a film by R. Bresson

Goran Bregović

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 15:34:06 +0200

Goran Bregović

Goran Bregović was born on March 22, 1950 in Sarajevo. Just like Emir Kusturica, he reflects by his origins the multi-ethnic aspect of Yugoslavia : his father is Croatian, his mother Serb, his wife muslim . He is today surely the most known composer of the balkans.

At the age of 16, after studies of violin, he creates Bijelo Dugme (White Button), a rock band that put fire to Yugoslavia from 1974 to 1989 with 13 major albums. At that time, he met young Emir Kusturica, then bass player in the Zabranjeno Pušenje. Yugoslav youth identified itself with this kind of revolt and opening to the West.

Around the mid-80's, Goran meets again Emir Kusturica, and Emir convinces him to work for the local cinema. This collaboration will lead to the unforgettable score of Time of the Gypsies (1989), this album will be an international success.

This return to the origins, at the same time Slavic and gypsy, this fusion of popular music and modern techniques of production, this cosmopolitanism perfectly assumed will become the public image of the composer.

Then, Goran will continue his experiments in the fusion of sorts of music. He will seek in the Jewish yemenit music of Ofra Haza (La Reine Margot, 1994), in the Cap-Vert tango of Cesaria Evora (Underground, 1995) or with Iggy Pop completely reinvented (Arizona Dream, 1993), without forgetting this self fusioning music, the one of the Gypsies, sources of a really universal music, at the same time symphonic and intimate, lyric and perfectly rigourous.

After having written the music for a dozen of full-length films, Goran starts to play in concert his works with the Orchestra of the Weddings and Funerals, surrounded by a philharmonic ensemble and a choir. In 1997, after having played in whole Eastern Europe, he triumphs at the Montreux festival and gives on December 31 a multi-media concert in Thessalonique (Greece), which will be released as a live album, The Silence of The Balkans. Goran Bregović and the Orchestra of the Weddings and Funerals start a European tour in spring 98 which leads them in Italy, Portugal, England, Belgium and France (Printemps de Bourges, Olympia…).

Goran Bregović left Sarajevo in 1992 at the time of the Yugoslavian conflicts to exile in Paris and in the United States. He recorded in 1999 with the Polish singer Kayah, put his cosmopolitan talent at the service of American Iggy Pop, of Cesaria Evora, of the Israeli pionneer of ethno-techno Ofra Haza, English Scott Walker, but Goran Bregović also collaborates since many years with the greatest song stars of the Balkans : singer George Dalaras, major star in Greece, (where he represents the laïko style, modernized form of the rebetiko, close to the blues), or the young singer Alkistis Protopsalti, but also Sezen Aksu, engaged turkish feminist pop star.

In 2000, Goran Bregović released a new album : Tales and Songs for Weddings and Funerals, he has also played with his group in the Swedish film “Music for Weddings and Funerals” (Musikk for bryllup og begravelser) by Unni Straume. This film tells the history of Sara, a writer who, after the death of her only son lives in a villa designed by her ex-husband. She decides to rent the basement to Bogdan (Goran Bregović), a Serbian musician who sometimes plays with his complete gypsy orchestra… The film works on contrasts : North-South, hot-cold, joy-sadness. It was presented at the Sundance festival in 2002, and that of Rotterdam in 2003. This film had a limited audience, mainly restricted to festivals.

In 2004, Goran Bregović made a personnal version of Bizet's Carmen, which he entitled Karmen (with a happy ending). He gave many shows of this new piece in Europe, and a CD should be soon released. Goran should also direct himself the movie out of this album.

In 2005, with his old friends of Bijelo Dugme, the group made a serie of exceptional concerts to live once again the phenomenon of the years 70-80.

Discography (solo career)

1989. Time of the Gypsies (soundtrack) by Emir Kusturica
1989. Kuduz (soundtrack) by Ademir Kenović
1992. Toxic Affair (soundtrack) by Philomène Esposito
1992. Arizona Dream (soundtrack) by Emir Kusturica
1993. Le Nombril du monde (soundtrack) by Ariel Zeitoun
1993. La Reine Margot (soundtrack) by Patrice Chéreau
1994. Ima neka tajna veza (compilation)
1994. Sanjao sam nocas da te nemam - Velike rock balade (compilation)
1994. Rock & Roll - Najveci hitovi (compilation)
1995. Iz sve snage
1995. Underground (soundtrack) by Emir Kusturica
1996. Les Mille et une recettes du cuisinier amoureux (soundtrack) by Nana Djordjadze
1997. XXL (soundtrack) by Ariel Zeitoun
1997. Le baiser du serpent (soundtrack) by Philippe Rousselot
1997. The wedding funeral & Sezen Aksu
1997. Silence of the Balkans (live in Thessaloniki)
1998. The Lost Son (soundtrack) by Chris Menges
1998. Train de vie (soundtrack) by Radu Mihaileanu
1999. Tuvalu (soundtrack) by Veit Helmer
2000. 27 missing kisses (soundtrack) by Nana Djordjadze
2000. Songbook (compilation)
2000. Kayah & Bregović
2001. Ederlezi (compilation)
2001. Film Music (compilation)
2002. Tales And Songs From Weddings And Funerals
2002. Kris & Goran (with Kris Krawczyk)
2007. Karmen (with a happy ending)

Official website

Goran Bregović's official website : http://www.goranbregovic.co.yu/

Gallery

Interview

Interview made in august 2002 for the new album “Tales and Songs from Weddings and Funerals”.

You wanted to creat a record on your own name which your producer presents like your “first true album ever”. Are you going to stop composing for the cinema?
- Goran Bregović : For me these small “tales” are like small film musics, except that there are no images. They are proposals for the own scenario of the listener.

Which film did you make for yourself for these musical “proposals” ?
- GB : I come from a country where the stories always deal with weddings and funerals. My music is between the two. Thus its funny or sad mood. I came to the cinema by chance. Before, I was making rock'n'roll, I sold during fifteen years millions albums before my first disc reaches occident. In this one, there are all kinds of sound experiments, sometimes complex. It is somehow a schizophrenic album that oscillates between simple and complicated things.

Is this different from writing a soundtrack ?
- GB : I was lucky enough to work with directors, whereas Emir Kusturica or Patrice Chéreau, who do not really need composers. They are directors who like to take risks with the music which can be aggressive or melodic. They rarely asked for illustrations of their images. A good film gives immediately the signal. It is like a living body : it accepts or it rejects. I watch the film only at the end, when the score is almost finished. For the director, it is often the occasion to see his film differently. The music changes pretty much the strength of an image. A film without sound, it is completely different.

You gave recently a concert for the festival of Saint-Denis, are there in your album pieces you interpreted there ?
- GB : Not really. For the basilica, I created a kind of liturgy for three monotheist religions. It was a command, like we did with composers before. I have recently been asked to write for a cello octet. I like that. It is not by chance if 90 % of art history of our civilization were commands. I made last year the Cirque d'Hiver in Paris with my music, but now, I work more and more for the theatre which is something more natural for me, less “hysterical” than the cinema where there is always a great pressure. My temperament makes me prefering quite things.

How was born the idea for the Orchestra of the weddings and funerals ?
- GB : From an ambition to play with a symphony orchestra. When I came back to the “concert” form, I first played with a traditional band, orchestra and choir, but removing all wood instruments (clarinets, etc.) that I found too harmonious. I recomposed this orchestra as I imagine the “human” music, not perfectly tuned, more natural. I replaced the trumpets by a gypsy brass band, which requires a shifted play compared to a symphonic score. I also added traditional drums, and computers. In the chorus, I have only male singers coming from orthodox song tradition. And for the female intonations, I have the Bulgarian Voices. All that gives the feeling of a great freedom.

You are said to make gypsy music
- GB : I would say that it is the contemporary music of a composer influenced by the traditional music, like most of the composers in history. It intends to be artistically strong while being contemporary.

It is hard to imagine that you were a rocker ?
- GB : Well, I started to play in traditional music bars very early, at the age of fifteen, then in streap-tease bars at seventeen. I played a sort of local rock'n'roll, like French rock'n'roll.

When you work with artists such as Iggy Pop or Cesaria Evora, it is the confrontation of the universes that interest you ?
- GB : People with whom I worked on my soundtracks were often enthusiastic because I did not compose for show business, and commercial films. I experienced their participation like a kind of autograph of personalities. Iggy Pop, in my musical youth, represented a significant character.

What are the topics you approach in your album ?
- GB : I wrote in gypsy language because my Serbo-Croatian language does not exist any more. One speaks either Serb, or Croatian, or bosnian. Gypsy is a simple language with few words. That enables me to focus on the sounds of the words. It is in the tradition of the Slavic texts, somehow pathetic. If the people do not understand, that does not prevent them from singing with me, even if unfortunately I do not have gypsy roots…

Unfortunately ?
- GB : But because everyone wants to be a gypsy. It is like wanting to be a cow-boy. I was born in a family very distant from this culture. My father was a colonel. It is surely why my universe is also influenced by the military music.

You live in Paris and work in Belgrade. From which country do you feel you belong ?
- GB : My emotional territory, is between Belgrade, Zagreb and Sarajevo. I have the three passports : Bosnian, Croatian, Serb. If one day, I stop somewhere, I would like to live in this territory. I feel myself deeply yugo !

How do you explain your particular relationship with France?
- GB : When I sold my first record of Time of the Gypsies, as I was coming from such a small culture, I said to myself it is incredible : there are hundred thousand French hearths that have my record. That made me feeling strange to have so much success in a country which gave half of the culture of other civilization. That gave me confidence. I think that the war was the revealing element of my own culture. That made me an emigrated artist. Paris welcomed me and allowed me to feel like an artist and a yugo. It is one of the few places for that.

Goran Marković

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 12:29:02 +0200

Goran Marković

Goran Marković is a Serbian director born on 24 july 1946 in Belgrade. He is the author of the very famous Tito and me, but also of Burlesque Tragedy (based on a script of Dušan Kovačević), and Serbia year zero (a documentary with Bernard-Henri Lévy).

The film Tito and me is close to When father was away on business in this way where it denounces Tito's regime thanks to the naive and funny observations of a kid. This film was directed in 1991 at the beginning of the Balkans war. Even if it treats serious subjects, it is directed as a comedy. The hero, Zoran, is a very greedy kid and rather fat. His occupations, in 1954, are divided between his love for a girl orphan of war and his fascination for Tito. He will be brought to take part in ”the walk of the children to the native land of Tito” which will be enclosed by a reception at the dictator. But, for Zoran, these rejoicings will just be one long continuation of disappointments : his beloved girlfriend prefers a goof and at the entry of the house of Marshal Tito lies a gigantic shit… A small masterpiece of funny and caustic irony.

In this film appear Miki Manojlović and Lazar Ristovski.

Filmography

2002 - Kordon : Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.uk
2001 - Serbia, year zero
1997 - Poludeli ljudi
1994 - Urnebesna tragedija (Burlesque tragedy)
1992 - Tito i ja (Tito and me) : Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com
1989 - Sabirni centar
1987 - Vec vidjeno (Deja vu)
1985 - Tajvanska kanasta
1981 - Variola vera
1980 - Majstori, majstori
1979 - Nacionalna klasa
1977 - Specijalno vaspitanje
1970 - Bez názvu

Goran Paskaljević

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 12:46:43 +0200

Goran Paskaljević

Goran Paskaljević is a Serbian director born in april 1947 in Belgrade.
Coincidences made that, in a surprising way, his career has evolved almost in parallel as the one of Emir Kusturica. As a student, he also went to the prestigious cinema school of Prague, the FAMU. Revolted, as Emir Kusturica, by the children traffics by the Gypsies in 1985, he directed a film on this theme (Guardian Angel) two years before Time of the Gypsies. In 1995, Goran Paskaljević tried to show his vision of the USA with Someone else's America, which has a theme close to Arizona Dream.
But it's in 1998 with Bure Baruta (Cabaret Balkan) that the parallel will be the most evident : the casting and the background evoke much the ones of Underground, released three years ago. We see indeed, the four main characters : Miki Manojlović, Lazar Ristovski (Blacky), Mirjana Joković (Natalja), and Mirjana Karanović (Vera) ; as well as Deda (Danilo 'Bata' Stojković), the grand father who turns the clock backward… The similarities don't stop there, since his assistant director was Zoran Andrić, the one of Emir Kusturica for Underground and Black Cat, White Cat. Finally, there is even a scene in which a young couple runs and dances in the streets followed by … a gypsy brass band playing the same traditional tunes as we hear in Underground…
At the end, this gives a chorus film slightly inequal, built on a serie of psychological “duels” that mostly end in a bad way (fights, kills, etc.), but yet, the film remains interesting…

Paskaljević's next film, released in 2001, is called How Harry became a tree, for which he clearly took his distance with Kusturica. If his films are much less rich and complex as Emir Kusturica's, they stil deserve to be watched. But be carefull not to offend him by asking him the same question, comparing him to Emir Kusturica… It annoys him quickly ! Read, for example this interview published in 2001 at the time of the release of ”How Harry became a tree” :

In Someone else's America, for example, are the levitation scene an homage or a response to Kusturica ?
- Goran Paskaljević : Do you think Kusturica has invented the flying people ?
No, not at all, but we can have the impression that your film is a response to Kusturica's Arizona Dream which proposed “his” vision of the USA.
- GP : But, do you think I can make a film as a response to another film ?
No, but maybe inconsciously…
- GP : Kusturica is not an author who has marked me much. Perhaps I have even influenced him. I am older, he made his film on the gypsies two years after mine, taking the same topic, but as in France he is well-known, they say I am his disciple ! Which is completely absurd ! It is like if you said that Melville is the disciple of Kassovitz because Kassovitz is more well-known !

I do not have anything against Kusturica, but the end of Someone else's America is firstly an homage to the end of Sica's Miracle in Milan. But there are also levitations in Tarkovski's The Mirror…

Filmography

1969 - Pan Hrstka (Mister Croatia)
1970 - Nekolik slov o lásce (Some words of love)
1973 - Deca (The children)
1974 - Teret (The burden)
1976 - Cuvar plaze u zimskom periodu
1977 - Pas koji je voleo vozove (The dog who loved watching the trains)
1979 - Zemaljski dani teku (days passing)
1980 - Poseban tretman (Special treatment)
1982 - Twilight Time
1984 - Varljivo leto '68
1987 - Andjeo cuvar (Guardian Angel)
1989 - Vreme cuda (Time of the Miracles)
1992 - Tango argentino
1995 - Someone Else's America
1998 - Bure Baruta (Cabaret Balkan)
2001 - How Harry Became a Tree
2004 - San zimske noci (Winter's night dream)
2006 - Optimisti (the optimists)

Official website

www.paskaljevic.com

Gordan Mihić

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 19:27:41 +0200

Gordan Mihić

Gordan Mihić was born in Mostar in 1938. After studies of literature in Belgrade, he started to work in 1957 as a journalist at the Borba daily newspaper.

At the beginning of his brilliant career of scenario writer, Gordan Mihić was a journalist of investigation and had the rigour and precision of the work of chronicler, but always also quite a creative curiosity.

Mihić is just a young journalist when it hears the call of the cinema and the very young television so that he starts to write for the small and the big screen. At the beginning, he works with his colleague Ljubisa Kozomara of the Borba daily newspaper. Together they write the scenarii of nine significant and daring films, in particular the two masterpieces of Zivojin Pavlovic, When I Am Dead and White and Rat's Awakening. Together, they make their beginnings as directors for the cinema with Vrane/Crows, one of the major films of the Yugoslavian Black Wave. Later, Mihić was to turn three other. He signed more than forty scenarios, among which The Dog Who Liked Trains, The Deceptive Summer of 68, and Someone else's America, all three directed by Goran Paskaljević, but it is with Emir Kusturica that his collaboration will be the most brilliant, with the Time of the Gypsies, Black Cat, White Cat.

His wife, Vera Cucik, is an actress who has much success on stage and on the small screen. His daughter, Ivana Mihić, followed not only the traces of her mother, but is also, among the young producers of the country, one of keenest to work.

Filmography

1995 - Terasa na krovu
1979 - Srecna porodica
1969 - Vrane (les corbeaux)

Scénarios de films

2007 - Balkan ekspres 3, by Branko Baletić et Milos Radović
2005 - Kontakt, by Sergej Stanojkovski
2003 - Gate to Heaven, by Veit Helmer
2001 - Ona voli Zvezdu, by Marko Marinković
2000 - Mehanizam, by Djordje Milosavljević
1999 - Ranjena zemlja, by Dragoslav Lazić
1998 - Black Cat, White Cat
1998 - Kupi mi Eliota, by Dejan Zecević
1997 - Tri letnja dana (three summer days), by Mirjana Vukomanović
1995 - Someone Else's America, by Goran Paskaljević
1994 - Dnevnik uvreda 1993
1992 - Tango argentino, by Goran Paskaljević
1990 - Pocetni udarac
1989 - Time of the Gypsies
1988 - Balkan ekspres 2, by Predrag Antonijević, Aleksandar Djordjević and Milos Radović
1988 - Zaboravljeni
1986 - Srecna nova '49
1984 - Kraj rata
1984 - Jaguarov skok
1984 - Varljivo leto '68, by Goran Paskaljević
1984 - Kamiondzije opet voze
1983 - Balkan ekspres
1979 - Osvajanje slobode
1978 - Tigar
1977 - Leptirov oblak
1977 - Pas koji je voleo vozove (the dog who loved the trains), by Goran Paskaljević
1976 - Cuvar plaze u zimskom periodu (the beach watcher in winter), by Goran Paskaljević
1976 - Povratak otpisanih
1974 - Protiv Kinga
1973 - Paja i Jare
1973 - Zuta
1972 - I Bog stvori kafansku pevacicu
1971 - Bubasinter
1968 - Sirota Marija
1967 - Budjenje pacova (the rats have woken up), by Zivojin Pavlović
1966 - Kad budem mrtav i beo, (When I'm dead and livid), by Zivojin Pavlović
1966 - Vreme ljubavi
1966 - Tople godine
1965 - Doci i ostati
1962 - Zvizduk u osam

Guča !

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:19:57 +0200

Guča !

Director	Dušan Milić
Original title	Гуча !
Release	2006 (Serbia)
Language	Serbian
Length	1h34
Music	Dejan Pejović
Script	Dušan Milić
Photo	Petar Popović

Awards

Public prize at the Sofia International Film Festival

Synopsis

The famous Romeo & Juliet story transposed into the trumpet festival of Guča, in Serbie.

Casting

Mira Djurdjević
Marko Jeremić
Aleksandra Manasijević …. Julijana
Marko Marković …. Romeo

DVD, VHS

Country	Format	Audio languages	subtitle languages	Buy online	Description
Russia	DVD Z0 PAL	serbian, russian	russian

Anecdotes

“Guča” is the second film produced by Rasta International, Emir and Maja Kusturica's film production, and not directed by Emir himself.

Guernica

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 15:08:10 +0200

Guernica

Director	Emir Kusturica
Original title	Guernica
Release	1978
Original language	czech
Length	25 mn
Script	Pavel Sykora & Emir Kusturica
Photography	(black & white) Emir Kusturica

Awards

First Prize at the Student Film Festival of Karlovy-Vary

Synopsis

FAMU student film, the story is based on a Antonije Isaković novel. It tells the history of a Jewish little boy facing the fear of the anti-semitism. His father brings him in 1937 to the Exposition Universelle in Paris, where he discovers Picasso's painting. Some years later, the nazis come and persecute the Jews. The father explains to his son : “They just want to examinate us because we have a big nose.” When his family is taken away, the boy stays alone at home, he looks at the family photos and cuts all the noses off. He sticks them together an calls it “Guernica”.

Casting

DVD, VHS

This film is available on a French short films compilation : Le Court des Grands. An interesting interview of Emir Kusturica on this first film, as well as a pertinent analysis feature as bonus for this film. The picture quality is remarkable, but the French subtitles are imposed.

This double DVD contains the following films :

George Lucas : 1:42.08 to qualify (1966) - 8 mn
Ridley Scott : A boy and a bicycle (1965) - 27 mn
Robert Zemeckis : The lift (1972) - 7 mn
Lars von Trier : Nocturne (1980) - 9 mn
Terry Gilliam : Storytime (1968) - 9 mn
Paul Verhoeven : A lizzard too much (1960) - 35 mn
Tony Scott : One of the missing (1969) - 25 mn
Emir Kusturica : Guernica (1978) - 18 mn
Luc Besson : L'avant-dernier (1981) - 10 mn
Roman Polanski : Le gros et le maigre (1960) - 16 mn
Jane Campion : Peel (1982) - 9 mn
Stephen Frears : The burning (1967) - 30 mn

Buy online : Amazon.fr

Anecdotes

At the beginning of the film, te father tells to his son that a German soldier discovering Pablo Picasso's painting Guernica asked Picasso :

Did you do that ?
No, YOU did it.

First real 35mm film, it deals with big emotion and intelligence of a difficult and painful subject, specially with such a short format. The image is highly worked out, and we immediately see that the young Emir had swallowed the work of all the big masters of the cinema : vertical travellings, reflections (mirrors, water, windows), self projection of the image of the others, importance of the family, etc. This film was already a condensed version of the visual explosion that was yet to come.

Gallery

Emir Kusturica's short films

Guernica - Seven days in the life of a bird - Blue Gypsy - Our Life

Les guignols de l'info

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 16:48:36 +0200

Les guignols de l'info_FR

Lors du Cannes Film Festival de 2005, Emir Kusturica était président du jury. La chaîne Canal+ a honoré Emir Kusturica en créant une marionette pour son émission satyrique Les guignols de l'info. Le sketch, récurent tout au long du festival, montrait le journaliste cinéma de la chaîne Laurent Weil tenter d'interview Emir Kusturica dans toutes sortes de circonstances, en vain. En effet, à chaque fois, surgissaient de nulle part un orchestre tsigane qui couvrait par sa musique le son de l'interview…

Des plumes volent, des animaux passent dans le fond, ça s'agite, ça fait du bruit….

Les sketches sont diffusés en streaming. Pour visualiser ces films, il vous faut le plug-in Real One Player, disponible ici (cliquez sur lecteur gratuit).

La montée des marches

Voir le sketch

Sur la Croisette

Voir le sketch

Dans la salle de cinéma

Voir le sketch

Au cocktail

Voir le sketch

Les Guignols de l'info - walking the red carpet

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 10:46:01 +0200

Les Guignols de l'info - "La montée des marches"_FR

Download the plugin Real One Player

Les Guignols de l'info - "On the Croisette"

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 10:46:01 +0200

Les Guignols de l'info - "Sur la Croisette"_FR

Download the plugin Real One Player

Les Guignols de l'info - "In the theatre"

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 10:46:02 +0200

Les Guignols de l'info - "Dans la salle de cinéma"_FR

Download the plugin Real One Player

Les Guignols de l'info - "At the cocktail"

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 10:46:02 +0200

Les Guignols de l'info - "Au cocktail"_FR

Download the plugin Real One Player

Gypsies

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 01:03:42 +0200

Gypsies

About Time of the Gypsies, Emir Kusturica said in 1989 : Why the gypsies ? The only reason is that I was shocked by the fact that one could sell children. Emir Kusturica said also he had been marked by two films : ”I even met happy gypsies” of Petrović, and ”Guardian Angel” of Goran Paskaljević. This last film being even quoted by Ahmed, when returning wih Pehran to Italy.

How to define these people too badly known ?

How should they be named ?

Manouches. Familiar name of wandering gypsy (etymology : manouch : ”man”).
Romanichels or roms, from Roumanian, Romania. But this same term, ”Romania”, was given to this province under the Roman Empire, because it was one of the most fertile, and its grounds were given in rewards to the best Generals of the empire. Today, moreover, Romanian is a language very close to Latin, but also to the Catalan.
Tzigane (French). Complicated term, of wandering etymology. Athnganos : ”which does not touch” (sect of Manicheans coming from Phrygia) gave Atsinganos, in Greek byzantin, then by pronunciation of the last : Czigany (in Hungarian), then Tzigeuner (in German), Cigain (XVth century), Tchingueniennes (about 1664) and Gypsy (1843). The exact definition : Tziganes, name of a people (which are even called “Rom”) coming from India, initially appeared in Greece and Eastern Europe by the end of XIIIth and in XVth century in Western Europe, which carry out an existence of nomads exerting various small trades.
Travelling entertainers. Politically correct name, mostly for Circus people, and which better illustrates this wandering people which cross the borders, without territorial root, stateless, and which maintained in spite of ten centuries of pressures and persecutions, a cultural and linguistic corpus, and especially a way of life.
Gypsy. According to the Hachette dictionary : Bohemian, bohemian of Spain. By extension, any bohemian.
Bohemian. Member of wandering tribes which are believed to be originating from Bohemia (area located in current Czech Republic).

Even the term “flamenco”, which is a Spanish music played by Catalan gypsies, comes from “Flemish”, and is once again related to voyages, exchanges between Spain and the Netherlands at the XVIIth century.

In short, it is difficult to define them precisely : in these various definitions, we quoted India, Greece, Romania, Spain, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, France… This ambiguity is part of their soul, because freedom to travel is paid by a relentless segregation which led to the Nazi genecide and the Croatian death camps of Oustachis where Serbs, Gypsies and Jews were the principal victims.

Flag

The flag, representing a red wheel of car (with a sixteen branches chakra to point out the Indian origins) on a green (symbolizing the ground) and blue (symbolizing the sky) background, was approved by the First Rom Congress at 1971 London meeting. During this congress, where representatives of plenty of countries were present, (including India), was also chosen the song dzelem dzelem as anthem.

Websites

http://www.etudestsiganes.asso.fr (in French)

Books

Enterrez-moi debout, l'odyssée des Gitans_FR, by Isabel Fonseca
This book is a true delight, and the reader dives into a million of images, anecdotes, and stories, each one more powerful, surprising, poetic or sad than the other one…

Hangings

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 23:22:04 +0200

Hangings

Hanging suicides can be found in almost each film. It can bring scenes of absurd comic or intense emotion.

	When father was away on business Meša's sister-in-law hangs herself at the tank of a W.C…. Formerly his mistress, but by disappointment or intellectual honesty toward the political authority, she denounced Meša and then married her brother-in-law… The wedding party at the end of the film is the occasion of reunion, remorses, memories, and Reconciliation…

	Time of the Gypsies Perhan, desperate to be able to marry Azra, hangs himself with the bell rope of the church. Thye neighbour blames him saying that it would rather be the politicians that should be hung !

Arizona Dream
Grace hangs herself with a panty because she does not support any more her stepmother. She hopes to reincarnate as a tortoise. This scene ends the famous meal scene between Grace, Elaine, Axel and Paul : certainly the best scene of the film regarding cutting, composition, humour, environment, absurdity… It is the first scene that Emir assembled once the turning of Arizona Dream finished. He was so proud that he wanted to show it already to everyone!

	Underground Ivan hangs himself because his zoo is being destroyed by the bombardments. He feels impotent in front of events, but also in front of its brother Marko, stronger, more skilful, more clever… 50 years later, when he discovers the truth, when he discovers who was really his brother, he will beat him to death in his wheel chair and hangs himself again… definitively…

	Black Cat, White Cat It is not a suicide, but nevertheless a hanging… And moreover it is the French poster of the film. Poor Makto, how will he pick back the bag with the 30.000 DM that he invested for ”the future of his son”?

Herceg Novi

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 21:24:48 +0200

Herceg Novi

Situated on the adriatic coast, in Montenegro, Herceg-Novi is a very beautiful medieval city. Since quite a long time, it is also a place beloved by Emir Kusturica.

Entitled “UNICEF ambassadeur” in 2002, Emir Kusturica made a first concrete action of this partnership by transforming into a Cultural Center an old railway station. The center is made of a café (already open) : the Zhalo (“sand beach”) and a cinema named Aurora with 3 screens (open in september 2006). Masterclasses should be regularly given there.

Hereunder you can see a map centered on Herceg Novi :

Gallery

en:herceg_novi

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 19:08:47 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is Herceg Novi.

Hermano

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 17:06:14 +0200

Hermano

Director	Giovanni Robbiano
Original title	Hermano
Release	2007 ? (Italy)
Original language	Italian
Music	Pasquale Filastò
Script	Riccardo Aprile, Marcello Olivieri & Giovanni Robbiano
Photography	Pietro Sciortino

Synopsis

Antonio Sterni is a young man without family, without roots and who does small jobs for Don Eugenio, a mafia boss, who some years ago shot his father. Antonio doesn't know this. Don Eugenio entrusts him this particular mission : deliver a car to a russian mafia boss in Switzerland. During his trip, Antonio meets an ex-Argentina boxing champion, Carlos Avileda, who saves him from a fight with a drunk truck driver. To thank him, Antonio drives him to Switzerland in order to find the man that once ruined his boxing career. Their friendship gets reinforced during the journey and Carlos decides to take Antonio's place for the car delivery. The car affair was a trap and Antonio tries to save Carlos but arrives too late. The russians kill the boxer and Antonio returns to Napoli to have the revenge of the death of his friend by killing Don Eugenio…

Casting

Ignazio Oliva …. Antonio Sterni
Rade Serbedzija …. Carlos Avileda
Paolo Villaggio …. Don Eugenio
Cristina Moglia …. Franziska
Emir Kusturica …. Chomsky

Anecdotes

In this film, Emir Kusturica plays a small role, the character of Vladimir Chomsky.

Let's recall Giovanni Robbiano was one of Emir Kusturica's students in the Columbia University in New York.

Having had the occasion to see a working copy of Hermano, we can only but regret that the film doesn't reach the public. The music is gorgeous, the light is heavily worked out, and the story is highly moving.

Read the exclusive interview of Giovanni Robbiano.

Gallery

en:homage

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 10:15:48 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is Homages.

Homages

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 21:51:32 +0200

Homages

Emir Kusturica has a great admiration for some directors. He has paid them homages in his own way, through some anecdotes or scenes all along his career.

Charlie Chaplin
The famous tramp can be seen in the work of Emir Kusturica…

Francis Ford Coppola
The admiration that has Emir Kusturica for Francis Ford Coppola is not totally reciprocical…

Michael Curtiz
The film Casablanca is clearly honoured in the film Black Cat, White Cat…

Federico Fellini
Emir Kusturica if often called the Fellini of the Balkans… for good reasons !

Alfred Hitchcock
The mmythical scene of North by northwest is replayed in a very spectacular way by Paul Léger in Arizona Dream…

Ernst Lubitsch
The author of to be or not to be symbolises the Hollywood of the years 40 qu'that Emir Kusturica apreciates so much…

Jean Renoir
The author of La règle du jeu is often quoted by Emir Kusturica as one of his most decisive influences…

Douglas Sirk
Douglas Sirk is the key figure of the manered cinema in Hollywood…

Andréï Tarkovski
The mirror in particular, but all Tarkovski's films in general are references for Emir Kusturica…

Jean Vigo
Emir Kusturica has very often quoted L'Atalante as one of his cult films…

Orson Welles
We see an homage to the author of Citizen Kane in Time of the Gypsies…

Humour

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:54:32 +0200

Humour

Humour allows to escape from the worst situations, it allows to bear the unbearable for the characters of Emir Kusturica's films. Always present in his films, humour uses often the farce, the unlikely, the ridiculous of the tragi-comic… This genre mixing, this particular gaze on life, Emir acquired it at the cinema school of Prague…
The film Black Cat, White Cat is the first pure comedy. Until then, Emir declared : ”I always try to make a comedy, but endlessly, my films finish to be dramatic…”. Nevertheless, even through the tears, Emir Kusturica's characters always succeed to laugh… or to make laugh !

	Do you remember Dolly Bell ? When Maho gets home, drunk, Emir Kusturica's camera turns around this scene, half sad half funny, in a way anticipating Arizona Dream's diner scene…

	Time of the Gypsies To kill time, to take revenge, or just to use his energy with something, Merdzan removes the roof of the house by fixing a rope at the chimney and draws it with the car… under a beating rain. Zabit, to Perhan: ”If you were my son and you wanted to hang yourself, I would kill you!”

	Arizona Dream Paul is so much in the role of the character that he doesn't hesitate to jump on the stage to imitate the actors during the projection of the film Raging Bull.

	Underground Marko with the prostitute… He will only be finding pleasure when the bombs will fall on Belgrade ! Blacky, later, to his son : ”never believe a woman who lies…”
	Black Cat, White Cat Triumphal exit of the hospital thanks to the brass band ! Grga, irritated : ”Shut up, when you speak ! ”

	Life is a miracle During the ass-boxing sequence, Filipović receives a message ”What are you doing ? The war has begun !”.

en:hungry_heart

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 03:02:49 +0200

This page has been moved, the new location is Life is a miracle.

Il était une fois ... UNDERGROUND

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 13:58:14 +0200

Il était une fois ... UNDERGROUND

Title	Il était une fois … UNDERGROUND
Author	Emir Kusturica & Serge Grunberg
Publisher	Les Cahiers du Cinéma
Language	French
Release	1995

This book was released with the film Underground and offers a very complete panorama on the genesis of the film. Richly illustrated, this book lets Emir Kusturica speak with his impressions during filming, but also Pierre Spengler and Charlotte Fraisse (production), Dušan Kovačević (scenario), Miljen Kljakovic (set), Vilko Filać (light), Lazar Ristovski (Blacky), Miki Manojlović (Marko), Goran Bregović (music). There are also photographs of Peter Marlow (from Magnum) taken during filming and a very thorough analysis of the symbols of the film.

This item is out of print, but some copies are still available at Amazon.fr.

en:index_albums_nso

Mon, 04 May 2009 22:17:22 +0200

Albums of the No Smoking Orchestra

en:index_archives

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 12:32:47 +0200

[ News ] Archives :

2006 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2005 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2004 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2003 : 1st quarter - 2nd quarter - 3rd quarter - 4th quarter
2002
2001

en:index_films

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 08:43:17 +0200

Emir Kusturica's films

News - 26 June 2011

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 13:11:31 +0200

News - 26 June 2011

Kamengrad is on its way ! The work for the construction of the “stone city”, on the shores of the Visegrad bridge (The bridge on the Drina), should start next week. We can see on this picture the first 3D pictures allowing to have an idea of what will look like the project. Some other views can be seen on the website : visegradturizam.com. The old adaptation project of Ivo Andrić's novel should finally see the light of day. According to the last news, Emir would now be likely to make a TV serie when the work will be finished (in 3-4 years). He declared : ”This city should be a symbol of pacifism. If its men have suffered and lost their lives because of their ethnicity or religious beliefs, this city should pacify all these conflicts through its cultural function. This city is the heart that has to beat a great idea to encourage eastern Bosnia as a symbol of peace. May it live in terms of culture and development of multiethnic life.” (source : glassrbije.org)
On 18 June 2011, Emir Kusturica received the Golden Camera at Art Film Festival of Trenčianske Teplice (Slovakia) for his “exceptional contribution to cinema”. At this occasion, he gave an new interview.
As an actor, Emir Kusturica has accepted the proposition of French director Jean-Pierre Mocky : we should see him soon in the film “Calmonies”, next to Alain Chabat, Quentin Tarantino, Jean-Luc Godard and Michel Gondry. ”All these independant directors have accepted to be actors, because the subject has catched them.” Mocky, who will shoot from 15 August to 1st October in Paris, also says : ”I didn't want to talk about Dominique Strauss-Kahn, but I wanted to talk of all the people that are destroyed by spreading false news on them. In these cases, we don't kill, like with the Mafia, but we deprecate them to empeach them to talk.” (Source : lefigaro.fr)

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This page has been moved, the new location is Interviews.

Interviews

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Interviews

All the interviews below were translated into English.

2008

29 january 2007 : ”Kusturica celebrates love and fresh air”, interview in French newspaper Le Figaro

2007

26 june 2007 : ”Real artists are always face to face with death”, interview made the day before the opening of the Opera "Time of the Gypsies"” in Paris, published in Le Monde.
27 may 2007 : Interview in Serbian magazine Politika

2006

28 december 2006 : Interview in Serbian magazine NIN
2 june 2006 : Interview in French newspaper Libération.
January 2006. ”Poverty is older than richness”. Interview-conversation between Diego Maradona and Emir Kusturica in Serbian newspaper Politika.

2005

9 september 2005. Emir Kusturica in his village - Interview in French newspaper L'Humanité.
11 may 2005. Interview in French newspaper Le Monde.
8 may 2005. Article of Dan Halpern in American magazine New York Times.
April 2005. List of questions.

2004

May 2004. Interview in French magazine Les Inrockuptibles.
March 2004. ”The Emir of the 7th art”. Interview in French magazine Optimum.

2003

October 2003. Interview in Serbian newspaper Kurir.
July 2003. Interview in Republika Srpska magazine Ekstra magazin.
January 2003. Interview in Serbian magazine Politika.

2002

8 july 2002. Kusturica opposes to humanitarian bombings - interview on www.zmag.org

2001

October 2001. ”The wizard of Unza” - interview in French magazine Repérages #23.
October 2001. ”I come from the poor south” - interview French newspaper l'Humanité.
28 february 2001. ”Even on a boat, I sail against the winds” - interview in Glas Javnosti.

2000

July 2000. ”I am the nobody of the Balkans” Interview in French magazine L'Evénement du Jeudi.
29 may 2000. Interview of Emir Kusturica and Nele Karajlić, before the concert at the Aéronef (Lille)
2000. Press conference in Montréal.

1999

9 september 1999. Momentum and Emotion, Emir Kusturica's Black Cat, White Cat in indieWire, interview by Anthony Kaufman, 9 september, 1999.
September 1999. ”The director they couldn't quash”. Interview by Graham Fuller.
23 April 1999. ”The duellist”, interview in British newspaper The Guardian
April 1999. ”Totally non-productive”, interview in French magazine L'Express.
January 1999. Interview for the release of Black Cat, White Cat in German magazine Novo (march-april 1999).

1995

21 october 1995. ”Underground - like a thunderstorm”, interview in French magazine Le Point for the release of Underground.

1993

6 january 1993. ”Films have to be bigger than life”, interview in French newspaper Le Monde for the release of Arizona Dream.
1993. Interview for the release of Arizona Dream, published in Le petit livre d'Emir Kusturica.

1992

September 1992. ”Our Yugoslavia”, crossed-interview between Emir Kusturica and Enki Bilal in French magazine L'Express.

1989

November 1989. Interview in French magazine L'Express.

1988

17 april 1988. ”The magic child of the yugoslav cinema” in French newspaper Le Monde.

1985

October 1985. Interview in French magazine Positif.
Juillet 1985. Interview in the the press book of When father was away on business.

Interview of Emir Kusturica and Nele Karajlić, before the concert at the Aéronef (Lille), 29 ...

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 22:27:12 +0200

Interview of Emir Kusturica and Nele Karajlić, before the concert at the Aéronef (Lille), 29 may 2000

How did you meet ?
- Dr. Nele Karajlić : Not in a bookshop !! (laughs) In fact, we made the same thing in a different way. When Emir made his first film, we recorded our first album. And, we had same the ideas. Otherwise, I believe that our first meeting took place in a radio station.
Why did you choose No Smoking for the music of Black Cat, White Cat ?
- Emir Kusturica : I was born against ! I was born to revolt, just like the group. To have a telephone line, because at the time it was not automatic … it was necessary to fill papers, and as I was badly seen because of my political opinions, I had to pay for some services. Thus, our revolt… which is common because No Smoking sang stories of heros…

What do you like in playing in a group ?
- EK : My first film told the history of a hero in a group of rock'n'roll. The influences which were important then, were the chewing-gum, the jeans, the toothpaste… which arrived by Italy. And, when I joined No Smoking, for me it was like joining the hero of my film…
- Dr NK : In the group, we sing stories of characters in a political and social environment. For example, there is a song which tells the story of a guy who steals a car to go on the coast. There is another one, it's a gypsy who sells his horse for 3.000 F and then after he is very sad. (note : laughing in the room because the interpreter translated this last story without saying the price… the singer, repeated 3.000 F so that it is translated…!!)

You started by playing bass guitar, then you went to the guitar. Which instrument will you be playing this evening ?
- EK : Guitar. I learned bass. Very quickly. Then, I learned guitar. Very quickly also (laughs in the public). Both are guitars.

What do you feel on stage ?
- EK : To stay in good shape, it is easier to play on stage than to make plastic surgery ! (laughs in the room, whereas he remains impassive) In fact, on stage, I feel at home. And what helps to hold out, it is this adrenalin push you feel on stage, in front of the public.

Don't you think people who come to see you in concert come especially to see the 2 Cannes gold palms winner rather than your group ?
- EK : (silence) In fact, I think that it is a privilege for me to be able to make both, the cinema and the music. I did not have a plan of career as you imply it… It is like when I was proposed to be an actor. I received scenarios, without really interesting me. But, in fact, what attracted me, was the discovery of a new experiment. To pass on the other side. Because each director imagines his film, and hears it. And, being one element among all attracted me.

I think that your son is with you on stage ?
- EK : Yes, my son plays the battery. He worked during 6-7 years, while many people did not believe in him. And, then, he held on… By th way, it's him who found the name “Unza Unza”. It is when we in were touring Italy, he told the 4-times music he heard in the bars of Belgrade. It was hard rock, metal reggae.. And, that made unza unza unza…

What would say on your music ?
- EK : It is a generous, joyful, anti-depressive music, completely different from the one we hear today which is sad. Showing it on stage makes it possible to feel good…

What do you think of Emir Kusturica on stage ?
- Dr NK : On stage, he jumps more than a team of Football !! He would have to play Football… He has an insane energy to spend… (laugh) He is good, disciplined, and clever ! You know he makes his films like a musician, and when we're in studio, he behaves with the music like a director !!

How did you manage to work on the music of the film Black Cat, White Cat ?
- Dr NK : There were two front lines. We knocked ourselves with ashtrays…!! (laughs) Well, in fact we worked approximately 17 months on the music of this film ! Emir had come one morning to listen to us to repeat. And, he heard a piece he liked well. He came back the following day to ask to us whether he could integrate it into his film. Two days later, he came back, and asked us if we could write a piece of techno. - Hey, it takes only 3 hours to record a piece of techno…! - Then, he came back to ask us a tango… There, I said to him : “Listen Emir, who makes the music of your film? “He answered me : “Well, you !”.

Do you think to work with the No Smoking again for your next film ?
- EK : Yes, because there were excellent songs in the last album. And, we had excellent working conditions. Like a family work. And, that stuck perfectly with Black Cat, White Cat which marked a transition between my old life and the new one, more turned towards the music.

What is the message you want to leave when we leave your concert ?
- EK : That we play elements of traditional music, but in a dynamic way. And, what arises is positivity and energy there is in each one of us. It is like in my last film, it is the first happy-end I made. - what you find in all these bad Hollywood films (laughs in the room) I don't say that the American cinema is bad, but, the films of Hollywood. - Therefore, for once, I wanted to release the positive energy of the characters…

What do you privilege when you shoot, the images or the music ?
- EK : When I think of the story, I project in myself a lot images, but, to stick them, I need a very good ear to see how they are bound by the music.

Do you recognize references ?
- EK : Yes, they are numerous… At each stage of my life, I have had. When I saw Jean Vigo's L'Atalante I felt much poetry… how can one put as much poetry in a film ? Otherwise, I also have Buñuel, Fellini…

How did you pass from a very dark film like Underground, where you said you left a part of yourself, to Black Cat, White Cat, more festive ?
- EK : With Underground, I touched the bottom. All that arrived before, during, and after the film has forced me to change life. Black Cat, White Cat, that was the end of the tunnel ! Release of the past. But, I am extremely glad to have been able to say in Underground all that I had to say, to have been able to deliver the political message and history which imported me.
- Dr NK : It went in the same way with the group. At the time of Underground, we touched the bottom too, we were sinking in Yugoslavia…

What is the subject of your next film ?
- EK : It will be called “The nose”. It is about an actor who plays Cyrano of Bergerac at the theatre. And, 5 minutes before going up on stage, he receives a small package with the nose of his father, cut by the Russian Maffia. At once, he drops all to leave and revenge his father!!

Interview transcription by Julien, translation by Matthieu Dhennin