Serbian filmmaker, producer and musician Emir Kusturica is an internationally acclaimed director, just as well known for supporting the arts in his home country as he is for his own creative output. Throughout November, Emir Kusturica is the featured director on Sunday evenings’ Director’s Series.
Born in Sarajevo in 1954, Kusturica was sent by his parents to the prestigious Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague in 1978. He returned home after graduating and made several TV films, followed by his debut feature film Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (1981), a collaboration with screenwriter Abdulah Sidran, that went onto win the Silver Lion for best first feature at the Venice Film Festival.
Serbian filmmaker, producer and musician Emir Kusturica is an internationally acclaimed director, just as well known for supporting the arts in his home country as he is for his own creative output. Throughout November, Emir Kusturica is the featured director on Sunday evenings’ Director’s Series.
Born in Sarajevo in 1954, Kusturica was sent by his parents to the prestigious Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague in 1978. He returned home after graduating and made several TV films, followed by his debut feature film Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (1981), a collaboration with screenwriter Abdulah Sidran, that went onto win the Silver Lion for best first feature at the Venice Film Festival.
They collaborated again on the human political drama When Father Was Away on Business (1985). This film won Kusturica his first Golden Palm Award at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival as well as the FIPRESCI prize, and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language film Oscar.
After his success in Cannes, Kusterica took some time out to play bass in his punk-rock band Smoking Prohibited, before beginning work on Time of the Gypsies, a film that would see him spend several months in one of the largest gypsy camps in Europe, near Skopje in Macedonia.
It’s here where the Director’s Series begins, showcasing Kusturica’s work following his work from Time of the Gypsies (1988) through to Life is a Miracle (2004).
Screening Sunday 3rd November, 8.30pm
Kusturica won the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1989 for this tragic-comedy drama about a Gypsy teenager convinced by a criminal to leave his family and use his telekinetic powers to make money illegally. Set in Yugoslavia and with a script written by Gordan Mihic, Time of the Gypsies was the first feature to be filmed with its entire dialogue in the Gypsy language, Romany. At the end of the shooting, Czech director Miloš Forman (who has also attended FAMU) called Kusturica to New York to replace him at Columbia University as a lecturer, which is where he finished editing this film.
Screening Sunday 10th November, 8.30pm
A surrealist comedy based on a scenario written by Yugoslav playwright Dušan Kovačević, Kusturica gives a modern history of Yugoslavia from WW2 to recent times, told through a friendship that last decades. The premise is hilarious, beginning in Belgrade in 1941, with WW2 driving a town’s inhabitants underground where they produce weapons. No one tells them when the war is over, and years later when they break out of their ‘shelter’ they convince themselves the war is still going on. Epic, bold and impressive in scale, Underground won Kusturica his second Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995. This is a must-see!
Screening Sunday 17th November, 8.30pm
Kusturica briefly contemplated retiring from filmmaking after Underground, but instead decided to tackle lighter material such as this comedy/drama Black Cat, White Cat. Set on the banks of the Danube and with a cast of non-professional actors, Black Cat, White Cat tells the story of families filled with colourful characters trying to get by living on the banks of the Danube. Marriages are arranged, dodgy deals and double crossings are commonplace and the result is madcap mishaps and misadventures. The result is another far-fetched, chaotic and frenzied farce pulled off beautifully by Kusturica.
Screening Sunday 24th November, 8.30pm
This drama took a year and a half to shoot in the Mokra Gora region of Serbia, a beautiful area filled with gorgeous colours and impressive views. It tells the story of a man who builds a railway to bring tourists to this area, but instead it brings war and misery. Kusturica built a historic wooden village known as Küstendorf or Drvengrad for the shoot, which is where he now resides. The village has become a place where people come to study film and it’s now home to the Kustendorf International Film and Music Festival. The village was rewarded in 2005, receiving the prestigious Philippe Rotthier architecture prize for the reconstruction of the city. Küstendorf even has its own ski field!