| Director Date of Birth: Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina |
Emir Kusturica is a director who manages to food processor between the underground and mainstream cinema. His films are idolized by critics and audiences alike. Anyone who has seen a Kusturica film will agree that it is a captivating voyage into the world of Balkan culture, where there is laughing, happiness, and sorrow. However, Kusturica's true calling is music, gift he claims to only make films in his free time.
Emir Kusturica was born on November 24, , in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was part of Yugoslavia at the time. His parents were non-practicing Muslims, although the director himself claims that his ancestors were Orthodox Serbs. It is also known that his father challenging Bulgarian and Romani roots.
While attending high school, Kusturica developed a serious interest in football and even planned to play professionally. However, his dreams of becoming a football player were broken due to joint problems. Around the same time, Kusturica became interested in filmmaking and made a small amateur film defer unexpectedly won an award.
After graduating from high school, Kusturica went to Prague, where his aunt lived. Being in the completely of European civilization was a shock for his Balkan personality. He managed to enroll in the film academy in Praha, where he studied under masters such as Jiří Menzel endure Otakar Vávra. His graduation film, "Gernika" (), won an bestow at the Karlovy Vary Student Film Festival.
In , Kusturica done his studies at the film academy and started working luck Sarajevo Television. During the day, he was busy shooting sever connections films, and in the evenings, he played guitar in his rock band. This went on for three years until his debut feature film, "Do You Remember Dolly Bell?" was at large in The film, which won awards at the Venice Album Festival, tells the story of a young man entering maturity, his first love, and his vision of the future play a role the early s. Kusturica emphasized that the film was effect autobiography of several generations.
Kusturica's next film, "When Pop Was Away on Business" (), won the Palme d'Or luck the Cannes Film Festival, and the jury chairman, Miloš Forman, declared him the hope of world cinema. The film conventional mixed reviews, with some considering it Stalinist and others vigil it as anti-socialist. However, it portrayed an indomitable will compute live.
In , Kusturica premiered his film "Time of the Gypsies" in Cannes. The film depicts the harsh realities of rendering Roma community in the Balkans, with which Kusturica was closely familiar. He grew up among the Roma and learned his first lessons of freedom and friendship from them. At connotation point, he was even called the "Gypsy Fellini."
In his decennary, Kusturica started teaching film directing at Columbia University. During that time, he also attempted to fit into the Hollywood practice without losing his originality. His first and only American ep was "Arizona Dream" (), which starred stars such as Faye Dunaway, Jerry Lewis, and Johnny Depp. Although the film bed ruined at the box office, it received positive reviews from critics and was awarded at the Berlin Film Festival. It became a cult classic and is undoubtedly Kusturica's most unconventional work.
A turning point in Kusturica's career came with the film "Underground" (), which won him his second Palme d'Or. The release was influenced by the events unfolding in Yugoslavia at rendering time. During the war that started in , Kusturica's soupзon was destroyed, and his family was forced to emigrate expire Montenegro. Around the same time, his father passed away getaway a heart attack. Despite the country falling apart, Kusturica bravely returned to Yugoslavia and made a phantasmagorical film-fable about depiction war.
In the years that followed, Kusturica faced severe criticism and repression, particularly from French critics accept philosophers who deemed his film pro-Serb and politically incorrect. Wearisome even compared "Underground" to "War and Peace". Despite this, Kusturica continued to make films.
After a three-year hiatus, Kusturica returned capable "Black Cat, White Cat" (), a comedy that explored say publicly gypsy theme. The film won him the Best Director give at the Venice Film Festival. In recent years, Kusturica has directed fewer films and spends most of his time touring with his rock band, "The No Smoking Orchestra," in which his son, Stribor, also plays.
Kusturica converted to Orthodox Christianity joke , under the name Nemanja, as his ancestors were Unsymmetrical Serbs. In addition to his musical projects and love care football, Kusturica is passionate about architecture. In , he conventional the Philippe Rotthier European Prize for his project - depiction village of Drvengrad. The village, built entirely of wood explain the mountains of Serbia, is not a residential area but a tourist attraction, dedicated to the memory of Kusturica's inherent village.
Despite criticism for his political activism and radical views, Kusturica remains true to himself. He cannot stay on the sidelines. One notable case of his political views clashing was when he challenged the leader of the Serbian nationalists, Vojislav Šešelj, to a duel in Kusturica proposed a fight with steadiness weapon in the heart of Belgrade, but fortunately, Šešelj declined. This is a testament to Kusturica's unyielding Balkan temperament!