LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Emir Kusturica
built 180 days ago
Sarajevo-born filmmaker Emir Kusturica has been a leading figure in world cinema. His features such as WHEN FATHER WAS AWAY ON BUSINESS, TIME OF THE GYPSIES, UNDERGROUND and BLACK CAT, WHITE CAT are renowned for their depiction of unrestrained earthy desires, raucous ethnic music and poetic magical realism. Filmmaker and collaborator Marie-Christine Malbert profiles the outspoken director at work on LIFE IS A MIRACLE, as he presides over the Cannes film festival jury, and performing with No Smoking, his Gypsy rock band.
Source:
The Cinema of Emir Kusturica: Notes from the Underground is the first book on the Sarajevan film-maker to be published in English. With seven highly acclaimed films to his credit, Kusturica is already established as one of the most important of contemporary filmmakers, with each of his films winning prizes at major festivals around the world. In covering films such as Underground, Arizona Dream, and Black Cat, White Cat, this timely new study delves into diverse facets of Kusturica’s work, much of which is passionately dedicated to the marginal and the outcast, as well as discourses of national and cultural identity.
Source:
Zlatibor, Yugoslavia, May 17, 2002 (Kyodo) - Emir Kusturica, the Sarajevo-born filmmaker, has won two Palme d'Or awards at Cannes since starting out as a film director in 1981. During his 20-year career he has produced only seven films, all of which have won praise. Asked what he thinks of events in Afghanistan, Kusturica said the United States is "bombarding (the country) in the name of humanity" to achieve "its own strategic and economic interests." He was speaking to Kyodo News in an interview held at a hotel in the mountainous district of Zlatibor in Yugoslavia, where the director and his colleagues are working on a new film called "Gladno Srce" (Hungry Heart). The district is near Bosnia. "The international community has never intervened properly in" the former Yugoslavia, he says.
Source:
The director Emir Kusturica, a two-time winner of the Cannes film festival's top honor, will serve as president of this year's jury. The Sarajevo-born director, known for his whimsical, folkloric style, won the Palme d'Or for "When Father Was Away on Business" in 1985 and for "Underground" in 1995. Three other directors have won the honor twice: Shohei Imamura of Japan, Bille August of Denmark and Francis Ford Coppola of the United States. The 58th Cannes film festival will take place from May 11 to 22.
Source:
Mokra Gora, on the western slope of Mt. Zlatibor, home of the legendary railroad "Šargan's Eight", was the set for the greater part of Kusturica's film Life is a Miracle. "The Šargan's Eight" is a part of a narrow-gage railroad that runs from Užice to Višegrad, Mokra Gora and Kreman, across Šargan's hill. The railroad runs across a great number of bridges and through 19 tunnels, the longest of which is Šargan's: 1660.80 meters. An ascent of 18 per mill makes this railroad unique in Europe, making it a great tourist attraction. As the steam locomotive is not able to overcome this rise, the railroad approaches the climb on a stretch of track in the shape of the number eight.
Source:
Kusturica's Cannes-award winning film is a magical portrait of a boy's coming of age in 50's Yugoslavia. As little Malik takes up sleepwalking and experiences his first love, the family knows the real "business" Father is conducting--in a labor camp for his unrepentant Stalinist leanings and his philandering. Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles; Yugoslavia, 1985, 144 mins.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Emir Kusturica