Happy 66th Birthday, Emir Kusturica! Born today in 1954, this Serbian musician, actor, screenwriter and film director has been recognized for several internationally acclaimed feature films, as well as his projects in town-building. He also has French citizenship.
Born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, Kusturica grew up as the only child of a secular Serb non-observant Muslim family in Sarajevo.
A lively youth, Kusturica was by his own admission a borderline delinquent while growing up in the Sarajevo neighborhood of Gorica.
In the early 1970s, through his father's friendship with the well-known Bosnian film director Hajrudin "Šiba" Krvavac, Kusturica, aged seventeen, got a small part in Krvavac's film.
In 1978, Kusturica graduated from the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic).
Three years later, Kusturica made his feature film debut in co-writing and directing the 1981 Yougoslavian drama/romance film 'Sjećaš li se Doli Bel?' ('Do You Remember Dolly Bell?').
Later that same year, the film was nominated the Golden Lion. However, it didn't win. Instead, it won the FIPRESCI Prize. This occurred at the 38th Venice Film Festival in September.
Four years later, Kusturica directed his second feature film. This was with the 1985 Yugoslavian drama film 'Otac na službenom putu' ('When Father Was Away on Business').
The film later earned a FIPRESCI Prize and the Palme d'Or at the 38th Cannes Film Festival in May of that same year.
The following year, the film a nomination for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film (Yugoslavia). However, it did not win. This occurred at the 58th Academy Awards in late March 1986.
Two years later, Kusturica earned more accolades for the 1988 British/Italian/Yugoslavian coming-of-age fantasy drama/crime film 'Dom za vešanje' (literally 'Home for Hanging' or 'Time of the Gypsies').
With a runtime of four-and-a-half hours, the film tells about Romani culture and the exploitation of their youth.
Four years later, Kusturica was a member of the jury at the 16th Moscow International Film Festival in July 1989.
Kusturica continued to make highly regarded films well into the next decade. This included his American debut, being the 1993 American/French surrealist independent drama/comedy film 'Arizona Dream'.
It starred Johnny Depp, Jerry Lewis and Faye Dunaway. Kusturica also had a cameo, credited as Man in Bar.
Two years later, Kusturica co-wrote and directed the film of which he is best known.
This was the 1995 Yugoslavian/French/German/Bulgarian/Czech/Hungarian/British/American comedy war/drama film 'Podzemlje' ('Underground'). Kusturica also had a cameo, credited as Arms Dealer.
The film was based upon a scenario of Serbian playwright and director Dušan Kovačević, best known for his theater plays and movie scripts.
It follows two black marketeers Marko Dren (Miki Manojlović) and Blacky (Lazar Ristovski). Both manufacture and sell weapons to the Communist resistance in WWII Belgrade, living the good life along the way.
During this time, Marko's surreal duplicity propels him up the ranks of the Communist Party, and he eventually abandons Blacky and steals his girlfriend.
After a lengthy stay in a below-ground shelter, the couple reemerges during the Yugoslavian Civil War of the 1990s as Marko realizes that the situation is ripe for exploitation.
'Underground' is also known by the subtitle 'Bila jednom jedna zemlja' ('Once Upon a Time There Was One Country'). This was the title of the five-hour mini-series (the long cut of the film) shown on Serbian RTS television.
The feature uses the epic story of two friends to portray a Yugoslav history from the beginning of World War II until the beginning of Yugoslav Wars.
The film was an international co-production with companies from Yugoslavia (Serbia), France, Germany, Czech Republic and Hungary.
The theatrical version is one hundred and sixty-three minutes long.
In interviews, Kusturica stated that his original version ran for over three hundred and twenty minutes, and that he was forced to cut it by co-producers.
Offering an insightful look at Communist Eastern Europe through the microcosm of a long friendship, 'Underground' is truly an exhausting, and yet exhilarating, epic.
'Underground', scripted by Kovačević, was partly financed by state-owned Yugoslav television. However, Bosnian and French critics claimed that the film contained pro-Serb propaganda.
For 'Underground', Kusturica later won the Palme d'Or at the 48th Cannes Film Festival in May of that same year.
This was his second win of this prestigious film award. He is also only one of seven filmmakers to ever accomplish this feat.
However, French-Jewish philosopher, writer and public intellectual Alain Finkielkraut denounced the festival's jury award, saying:
"In recognizing "Underground", the Cannes jury thought it was honoring a creator with a thriving imagination. In fact, it has honoured a servile and flashy illustrator of criminal clichés.
The Cannes jury ... praised a version of the most hackneyed and deceitful Serb propaganda. The devil himself could not have conceived so cruel an outrage against Bosnia, nor such a grotesque epilogue to Western incompetence and frivolity."
It was later revealed that Finkielkraut had not seen the film before writing his criticism. French philosopher and public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy later made a film criticizing 'Underground'.
French philosopher and public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy later made a film criticizing 'Underground'. In a discussion with Levy, the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek said:
"I hope we share another point, which is – to be brutal – hatred of [director] Emir Kusturica. Underground is one of the most horrible films that I've seen.
What kind of Yugoslav society do you see in Kusturica's Underground? A society where people fornicate, drink, fight – a kind of eternal orgy."
Sarajevo-born Bosnian-American fiction writer, essayist and critic Aleksandar Hemon, who emigrated to the United States before the war, said: 'Underground' downplayed Serbian atrocities by presenting "the Balkan war as a product of collective, innate, savage madness."
After the festival, Kusturica taught Film Directing at Columbia University's Graduate Film Division in Manhattan, New York City, New York.
Three years later, Kusturica directed the 1998 Serbian romantic black comedy/crime film 'Crna mačka, beli mačor' ('Black Cat, White Cat').
For the feature, Kusturica later won the Silver Lion at the 55th Venice International Film Festival for Best Direction in September of that same year.
In the early 2000s, Kusturica appeared as Vladimir, an electric guitar player/security specialist.
This was in Neil Jordan's ('The Crying Game', 'The Butcher Boy') 2002 French/British/Irish/Canadian/American crime/drama film 'The Good Thief'. It also starred Ralph Fiennes and Nick Nolte.
Three years later, Kusturica was appointed President of the Jury of the 58th Cannes Film Festival in May 2005.
One year later, 'Time of the Gypsies' was referenced in Larry Charles' 2006 British-American comedy/mockumentary film 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan'.
At the 64th Cannes Film Festival in May 2011, Kusturica presided over the jury of the Un Certain Regard section of the festival's official selection.
On May 14, during the event, he was invested with the insignia of Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, the highest decoration in France.
In the late 2010s, Kusturica directed the 2016 Serbian/British/American/Argentinian war/comedy film 'Lungo la Via Lattea' ('On the Milky Road'). Kusturica played Kosta, a milkman and falconer.
The film also starred Italian actress and model Monica Bellucci. This was the first feature directed by Kusturica in almost a decade.
According to Kusturica's personal life, he is married to Serbian film producer Maja Mandić. The couple have two children together: Serbian actor and composer Stribor Kusturica (b. 1979) and Serbian writer Dunja Kusturica.
Possessing the persona of a rock star (Kusturica once played bass in the Serbian garage rock band No Smoking and still makes guest appearances with them), he is the antithesis of the Hollywood director, viewing the world as a naif or a dreamer and only helming projects that move him strongly.
Though the commerce of films remains foreign to Kusturica, the opportunity to make a visual statement still drives his work.
No fan of the close-up, he always tries to connect one person with what is going on in the mid-ground and background (much like John Frankenheimer ['The Manchurian Candidate', 'Seconds']).
Kusturica has also successfully worked with non-actors in the tradition of Italian neorealism (e.g., Roberto Rossellini ['Paisan', 'Rome, Open City', 'Journey to Italy']).
Throughout his career, Kusturica and his work have provoked controversy at home and abroad.
As a result of his unpopular stand regarding the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, however, he finds himself scorned in his own land, literally a director without a country.
Nonetheless, Kusturica is one of the most-distinguished European filmmakers since the mid-1980s, best known for surreal and naturalistic features that express deep sympathies for people from the margins.
Nicknamed Kusta, Kusturica has been active from 1978–present.
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