Emir Kusturica

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Emir Kusturica
Born Emir Kusturica
24 November 1954 (1954-11-24) (age 54)
Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina,
SFR Yugoslavia
Occupation Film director and screenwriter
Years active 1978-present
Spouse(s) Maja Kusturica

Emir Kusturica, OF (Serbian Cyrillic: Емир Кустурица; pronounced [ˈkusturitsa]) (born 24 November 1954 in Sarajevo, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia) is a Yugoslavian[1][2][3][4] filmmaker, actor and musician with a string of internationally acclaimed features. Kusturica grew up as an only child in a secular Bosnian Muslim family in Sarajevo[5]. He won the Palme d'Or at Cannes twice (for When Father Was Away on Business and Underground), he is also a recipient of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.[6][7] On 8 September 2007, Kusturica became a UNICEF National Ambassador for Serbia, alongside Ana Ivanović, Jelena Janković and Aleksandar Đorđević. Kusturica resides in Drvengrad, a village he had built for his film Life Is a Miracle.

Contents

[edit] Life and work

[edit] Early period

Born to Murat Kusturica (journalist employed at SR Bosnia and Herzegovina Secretariat of Information) and Senka Numankadić (court secretary),[8] young Emir grew up in the Sarajevo neighbourhood of Gorica.

After graduating from the Film Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) in 1978, Kusturica began directing made-for-TV television shorts in former Yugoslavia. He made an auspicious feature-film debut in 1981 with Do You Remember Dolly Bell?, which won the prestigious Golden Lion for Best First Work at that year's Venice Film Festival. From 1981 to 1988 he was a lecturer at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo (Akademija Scenskih Umjetnosti) and art director of Open Stage Obala (Otvorena scena Obala).

His second feature film, When Father Was Away on Business (1985), earned a Palme d'Or at Cannes, five Yugoslavian movie awards, and was nominated for an American Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. He wrote the screenplays for both Do You Remember Dolly Bell? and When Father Was Away on Business in collaboration with Abdulah Sidran. In 1989, Kusturica earned even more accolades for Time of the Gypsies, a penetrating but magical look into gypsy culture and the exploitation of their youth.

[edit] 1990s

Kusturica continued to make highly regarded films into the next decade, including his American debut, the absurdist comedy Arizona Dream (1993) and the Palme d'Or-winning black comedic epic, Underground (1995).

In 1998, he won the Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion for Best Direction for Black Cat, White Cat, a farcical comedy set in a Gypsy (Romany) settlement on the banks of the Danube. The music for the film was composed by the Belgrade-based band No Smoking Orchestra.

[edit] Recent life and work

  • In 2001, Kusturica directed Super 8 Stories, a documentary road and concert movie.
  • His film, Maradona a documentary on Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona, was originally released in Italy in May 2007. It was premiered in France during the Cannes Film Festival in 2008.
  • His film Promise Me This premeried at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

He was President of the Jury of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.

  • In 2007 Kusturica prepared a junk opera, Times of the Gypsies. The premiere took place in June 2007 at the Opéra Bastille in Paris.
  • In July 2007, Kusturica directed the accompanying music video to Manu Chao's single "Rainin In Paradize", from the latter's forthcoming album.
  • In mid December 2007, Kusturica announced the formation of Kustendorf Film Festival.[1] Its first instalment will be held at Kusturica's village from 14 January to 21 January 2008.
  • Since January 2008, Kusturica annually organizes his own private Küstendorf Film Festival.

[edit] Acting

Kusturica made his first acting appearance in The Widow of St. Pierre 2000, a movie by director Patrice Leconte, although he had only a few lines. In 2002, Emir Kusturica appeared as an electric guitar player/security specialist in The Good Thief, directed by Neil Jordan.

[edit] Music

Performing with No Smoking Orchestra in March 2009.

In 1986-1988 Kusturica played bass guitar in Zabranjeno Pušenje, a rock band from Sarajevo (SR Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Although Kusturica played a minor musical role in the band, it changed its name to 'Emir Kusturica & No Smoking Orchestra'. In 1999, the No Smoking Orchestra recorded a new album, Unza Unza Time, produced by the Universal record company, as well as a music video, directed by Emir Kusturica. The band has toured internationally.

The musician and composer Goran Bregović also created music for several Kusturica's films, including Time of the Gypsies, Arizona Dream, which featured Iggy Pop, and Underground.

[edit] Controversy

[edit] Work

Kusturica as well as his work remains controversial at home and abroad. Underground, scripted by Dušan Kovačević, was partly financed by state-owned Serbian television and created controversy. The film detailed the history of Yugoslavia from the beginning of the second World War until the conflict in the 1990s. Some critics claimed Kusturica propagated a pro-Serbian view of the Yugoslav Wars including animosities during WWII. Others held the opinion that his ironic characterizations of Balkan ethnic groups were equally detrimental to all.[9]

The Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek says that Underground is a mythical Balkans shot for the Western gaze, adding, it's a film that internalized the Western notion of a crazy nation, where war is simply our nature. (In Žižek's book The Plague of Fantasies, the section on Kusturica is titled The Poetry of Ethnic Cleansing.)

[edit] Politics

When New York Times interviewed Emir at the beginning of the Bosnian War, he said: "I am a living illustration of Bosnian mixing and converting," "My grandparents lived in eastern Herzegovina. Very poor. The Turks came and brought Islam. There were three brothers in the family. One was Orthodox Christian. The other two took Islam to survive."[10]

[edit] Personal

Mayor of Guadalajara Alfonso Petersen offering Kusturica the keys to the city at Telmex Auditorium on March 2009

On Đurđevdan (St. George's Day) in 2005 Emir was baptised into the Serbian Orthodox Church as Nemanja Kusturica (Немања Кустурица) in Savina monastery near Herceg Novi, Montenegro.[11][12] To his critics who considered this the final betrayal of his Bosnian Muslim roots, he replied that: "My father was an atheist and he always described himself as a Serb. OK, maybe we were Muslim for 250 years, but we were Orthodox before that and deep down we were always Serbs, religion cannot change that. We only became Muslims to survive the Turks."[11][13]

At the 2007 parliamentary elections he gave indirect support to Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica and his center-right Democratic Party of Serbia.[14] In 2007, he also supported Serbian campaign Solidarity - Kosovo is Serbia, a campaign against the independence of Serbian province of Kosovo.[15]

Although Kusturica holds a French citizenship, he is currently living in Drvengrad, Serbia, the village he had built for his film Life Is a Miracle.

Emir Kusturica is married to Maja Kusturica with whom he has two children, Stribor, 29, and Dunja, 21.[16]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Awards

[edit] References

  • Gocic, Goran: "The Cinema of Emir Kusturica: Notes from the Underground", Wallflower Press, London, 2001.
  • Irodanova, Dina: Emir Kusturica. London. British Film Institute 2002.
  • Imsirevic, Almir: "Based on a Truth Story", Sarajevo, 2007.
  1. ^ http://movies.nytimes.com/person/98330/Emir-Kusturica
  2. ^ http://kustu.com/w2/en:europe_my_city_is_burning
  3. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/25/weekinreview/conversations-emir-kusturica-bosnian-movie-maker-laments-death-yugoslav-nation.html
  4. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/08/magazine/08EMIR.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1
  5. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/08/magazine/08EMIR.html
  6. ^ Politika
  7. ^ Ministere de la culture
  8. ^ [http://www.globus.com.hr/Clanak.aspx?BrojID=307&ClanakID=8519&Stranica=4# INTERVIEW: EMIR NEMANJA KUSTURICA, Globus, February 2009]
  9. ^ http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Emir_Kusturica_-_Life_and_work/id/5020342
  10. ^ NY Times
  11. ^ a b Article about Kusturica's religion on pionirovglasnik.com
  12. ^ News of Kusturica's baptism on passagen.se
  13. ^ An interview for Guardian
  14. ^ (Reuters) - Film director Emir Kusturica attends the final pre-elections rally of Democratic Party of Serbia in Belgrade 17 January 2007.
  15. ^ Radio Slobodna Evropa article
  16. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/08/magazine/08EMIR.html

[edit] External links

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