Interviews with Emir Kusturica

What follows is a series of excerpts, organized by theme, from selected published interviews with Emir Kusturica. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own.On weekends [while growing up] I used to work to make some money. The job consisted in bringing coal to heat up the cinematheque. Often, when the job was done, the director would allow us in for free. One of the first films I saw was Visconti’s ...

Underground, Or Once There Was A Country

Film memiliki kemampuan untuk menghadirkan memori. Tidak hanya itu, film juga mampu menjadi memori. Melalui kekhasannya sebagai media audio dan visual film membawa penontonnya dari kurungan ruang dan waktu untuk masuk ke dalam situasi berbeda. Hal tersebut dapat disaksikan pada film garapan Emir Kustirica, Underground. Film yang mengedepankan kekuatan memori, gerak dan pergerakan, serta imajinasi. Melalui Underground penonton tidak hanya diajak mengetahui tentang sebuah negara, Yugoslavia, juga dibawa masuk ke kisi-kisi sejarah dan imajinasi yang sublim. Keywords: film, memory, movement, Emir Kusturica, Underground

IDENTIDADE E ALTERIDADE NO CINEMA DOS BÁLCÃS EM TORNO DA GUERRA NA EX-IUGOSLÁVIA

Partindo do pressuposto de que toda guerra civil provoca redefinições de caráter identitário entre os grupos beligerantes frente à violência, teceremos considerações sobre a representação fílmica da Guerra na Ex-Iugoslávia, elegendo para isso os filmes Bela Aldeia, Bela Chama (Srdan Dragojevi?, 1996), Terra de Ninguém (Danis Tanovi?, 2001), e A vida é um milagre (Emir Kusturica, 2004). Enquanto os dois primeiros filmes propõem uma imagem irreconciliável marcada pelo ódio, o último apresenta uma imagem poética de reconciliação através do amor. Palavras-chave: Cinema dos Bálcãs; Guerra na Ex-Iugoslávia; Identidade; Alteridade; Violência.

Skoro Bałkany istnieją, lepiej ich nie wymyślać — między pragnieniem ucieczki do „EU-ropy” a „bałkanizacją Bałkanów”

Vesna Goldsworthy once stated that interest in the Balkans lasts as long as there are conflicts in the area. Furthermore, that interest is extremely superficial. Europeans prefer to fit inhabitants of the Balkans into lasting ‘popular’ stereotypes (clichés) rather than to become acquainted with them. On the one hand, the Balkan region is viewed as being the proverbial powder keg, an area suffering from the ‘eternal’ hatred of the nations inhabiting it and stained with the blood of their fratricidal strife; at the very least the region is a synonym of extreme retrogression and obscurantism, from whichonly European paternalism can save it. On the other hand—the brighter picture—the region is viewed almost like a ludic open-air folk museum, as in the films of Emir Kusturica. Those who are more inclined to hold the first view dream of the Balkans’ escape to ‘EU-rope’; the latter do not in principle oppose remaining in this idyllic land ‘flowing with rakia’. The aim of the article is to analyze the discourse concerning the Balkans in two dimensions of social life—politics and art.

Emir Kusturica

Emir Kusturica is one of Eastern Europe's most celebrated and influential filmmakers. Over the course of a thirty-year career, Kusturica has navigated a series of geopolitical fault lines to produce subversive, playful, often satiric works. On the way he won acclaim and widespread popularity while showing a genius for adjusting his poetic pitch—shifting from romantic realist to controversial satirist to sentimental jester. This book divides Kusturica's career into three stages—dissention, disconnection, and dissonance—to reflect both the historic and cultural changes going on around him and the changes his cinema has undergone. The book uses Kusturica's Palme d'Or winning Underground (1995)—the famously inflammatory take on Yugoslav history after World War II—as the pivot between the tone of romantic, yet pungent critique of the director's early works and later journeys into Balkanist farce marked by slapstick and a self-conscious primitivism. Eschewing the one-sided polemics that Kusturica's work often provokes, the book employs balanced discussion and critical analysis to offer a fascinating and up-to-date consideration of a major figure in world cinema.