{"id":298,"date":"2018-03-21T23:21:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T23:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldscientists.fr\/?p=298"},"modified":"2024-03-31T23:23:24","modified_gmt":"2024-03-31T23:23:24","slug":"citizen-nobody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/worldscientists.fr\/?p=298","title":{"rendered":"CITIZEN NOBODY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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When somebody asks him who he is and where he comes from, he says that he is nobody and comes from nowhere. His name is Emir Kusturica, also known as \u00abthe Fellini of the Balkans\u00bb and \u00abGypsy Tarantino\u00bb. While Kusturica considers himself to be a man from the past, critics reckon the film director among the cinema of the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is Muslim and was born in Sarajevo, but he is ethnic Serbian. He calls himself Yugoslav, Emir of the non-existing land (Emir is an Arabian name that means \u00abmaster\u00bb, \u00abthe ruler of the kingdom\u00bb).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The films by Kusturica, which were shot before the collapse of Yugoslavia, predicted the inevitability of outburst. Yugoslav cinema had been in the grip of \u00abguerilla pathos\u00bb for many years, but still it produced some masterpieces of the military theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the Soviet cinema of the period of \u00abthaw\u00bb, innovations in Polish, Hungarian and Yugoslav cinema took place. Kusturica was studying at the department of directing at the Prague Academy after the breakdown of the Prague Spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

-his first film \u00abGuernica\u00bb (thesis project) won a prize at Student\u2019s Film Festival in Karlovy Vary. Critics had already noted that the films by Emir Kusturica didn\u2019t have any illusions of the 60s and didn\u2019t reflect disappointed hopes. The young director\u2019s films easily won the prizes, which Tarkovsky and Besson dreamt about. He is one of the few filmmakers in the world, who won the two awards \u2013 Golden Palms Cannes Film Festival not for long-term service, but being still young. (In 1985 for the film \u00abWhen Father Was Away on Business\u00bb and in 1995 for the film \u00abUnderground\u00bb)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Successfully combining religious exotics and folklore, of which people beyond the Balkans had vague view, Kusturica impressed his audience with ethnical identity of national life and inner nobleness of the poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 His second film \u00abThe Brides Are Coming\u00bb was prohibited for moral reasons. So, on the one hand, Kusturica became famous and won a lot of prizes, but, on the other hand, the government disapproved of him. Emir Kusturica reciprocated this attitude and used to say: \u00abThese people have been playing at petty politics all their life. Yesterday they were ultra-left, today they are shirakists and tomorrow they are someone else. It was they who formed Yugoslavia after World War I, and it was they who ruined it\u00bb. It seemed strange to Kusturica why the West, which advocates the multicultural world, supported the collapse of Yugoslavia \u2013 the only multicultural country in the Balkans? In his film \u00abUnderground\u00bb he answers this question and provides a clear explanation for his position. Critics called this film a real boom. A brilliant tragicomic entanglement (bombardment of the Zoo), an endless chain of the baroque images, which sometimes go beyond the border of poor taste, but inexhaustible inventiveness and pervasive erotism intoxicate a viewer better than strong brandy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Europe accepted such esthetic chaos, but, at the same time, it caused fear of this happy sadism and inexhaustible energy, which looked great on the screen, but less attractive in the chain of endless Balkan conflicts. In the film a war lasts half a century. Tito\u2019s functionaries convinced the residents of the underground of the continuing World War II. When \u00abprisoners\u00bb escaped, they found that the war in the Balkans was still going on, but this time it was Yugoslav Civil War. \u00abA war is not a war until a brother kills a brother\u00bb \u2013 this is the main idea of the film \u00abUnderground\u00bb by Emir Kusturica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kusturica brought fresh blood to the decrepit veins of the cinema and became the living classic of the global European style in his new, post \u2013 modernistic variant. Hardly had he turned 40, when he became one of the most highly-acclaimed film directors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His gypsy theme<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1989 in Cannes Kusturica presented his film \u00abTime of Gypsies\u00bb, where identity of national life was shown from the different angle. The Yugoslav film director revealed that gypsies have some kind of aesthetics, which is very close to absolute kitsch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film director grew up next to the Roma community, and he received the first life lessons of friendship and freedom from gypsies. He felt that these poor but free people are noble inside. Gypsies can steal, kill, rape but their way of living is still different. \u00abMoney, love and family- that\u2019s everything that only matters for gypsies. That\u2019s it. Never anything extra. \u00bb \u2013 says Kusturica about gypsies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film \u00abTime of Gypsies\u00bb (\u00abHome for hanging\u00bb) is about a destiny of a young gypsy, who has come a long way from poverty to fabulous wealth and from spirituality to the loss of moral values. \u00abTime of the gypsies\u00bb is purely tragic: for the first time we see an inverted figure of the Christ, the symbol of Yugoslavia, which was left by God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next films by Emir Kusturica became more optimistic. For a small project called Music-acrobatics for the German television Kusturica had to tell about gypsy music, but the idea ended up with the film \u00abBlack cat, White cat\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film director didn\u2019t conceal that he was escaping from the gruesome world of politics to the utopia of happiness, to the familiar \u00abtime of gypsies\u00bb. While \u00abTime of Gypsies\u00bb is an outstanding ethnographic fresco and \u00abUnderground\u00bb is an outstanding tragicomedy of Yugoslav modern history, \u00abBlack cat, White cat\u00bb \u2013 is an outstanding ode to kitsch and happiness. Love, drugs, delicious food, wedding near the house, where two living corpses are lying, a black cat, a white cat\u2026 \u00abIn this film even the dead come alive. By making this film I get rid of tragedies and admire everything natural\u00bb.-says Kusturica. At Venice Film Festival \u00abBlack cat, White cat\u00bb won Special Jury Prize for Best Director. But the film received recognition among spectators, who gave Kusturica a standing ovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His animals theme <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the films by Kusturica even animals had a role of a great importance: to the point of sometimes naming a film in honor of cats. Dogs, goats, monkeys and even elephants \u00abplay roles\u00bb in his films. In the film \u00abTime of Gypsies\u00bb a turkey can execute orders, in \u00abBlack cat, White cat\u00bb \u2013 a pig eats the paneling of \u00abTrabant\u00bb. In the first scene of \u00abUnderground\u00bb bombs are dropped on the Zoo, and animals, overwhelmed with survival instinct, escape to the city. And how comical was the moment, when during the bombardment of the city one of the main characters was polishing his smart lacquered boots with the cat he accidentally saw. \u00abThere is some magnetism in animals. They exist between our past and present\u00bb, -says Kusturica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His music theme<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The music to Kustunica\u2019s films wrote his composer \u2013 Goran Bregovic. However, Kusturica didn\u2019t share fame with him and they had to stop working together. It had an impact on music partition of Kustunica\u2019s latest films. It became less inspired, repeating old themes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From easy hand of internationally acclaimed film director of the legendary films \u00abUnderground\u00bb, \u00abBlack cat, White cat\u00bb, \u00abLife is a Miracle\u00bb, Emir Kusturica, fashion of Balkan music appeared. Balkan music, which Kusturica used in his films, is a melodious cocktail of gypsy, Serbian and Turkish rhythms \u00abflavored\u00bb with rock-n-roll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His orchestra <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kusturica \u2013 rock star is known not less than Kusturica-film director. He was a bass guitarist of Sarajevo rock group called \u00abZabranjeno Pu\u0161enje<\/a>\u00bb (\u00abSmoking forbidden\u00bb). Life wasn\u2019t a bed of roses for the young musicians: the first repetitions took place in the cellar and the musicians didn\u2019t have enough money for the instruments. After the group\u2019s breakup Emir created a new group called \u00abThe No Smoking Orchestra\u00bb. It became famous immediately: for the first time the music of \u00abThe No Smoking Orchestra\u00bb sounded in the film \u00abBlack cat, White cat\u00bb, and after that it gained popularity all over the world. In 2014 Emir Kusturica and his group took part in Winter International Arts Festival in Sochi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His films and awards<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 1981 \u2013 Do You Remember Dolly Bell? \u2013 Golden Lion, Venice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 1985 \u2013 When Father Was Away On Business, Golden Palm Cannes Film Festival<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 1989 \u2013 Time of Gypsies \u2013 Best Director award at Cannes Film Festival<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 1993 \u2013 Arizona Dream \u2013 Silver Bear \u2013 Special Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 1995 \u2013 Underground \u2013 Golden Palm Cannes Film Festival<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 1995 \u2013 Underground \u2013 Lumiere Awards, France<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 1997 \u2013 Underground \u2013 Kinema Junpo Awards, Japan<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 1998 \u2013 Black cat, White cat \u2013 Silver Lion, Little Golden Lion and Laterna Magika Prize, Venice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 2001 \u2013 Super 8 Stories \u2013 Silver Plate of best documentary at Chicago International Film Festival<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 2004 \u2013 Life is a Miracle \u2013 Cinema Prize of the French Education System at Cannes Festival<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 2005 \u2013 Life is a Miracle \u2013 Best European Union Film at C\u00e9sar Awards<\/a>, France<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 2005- Life is a Miracle \u2013 Best Balkan Film at Sofia Film Festival<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emir Kusturica has been wandering around the world all his entire life: he lived in Czechoslovakia and in America, where he taught directing at Colombia University. Now he lives in Paris, but he prefers to speak English only. However, he has his motherland. This is a marvelous country, where people perform noble deeds, have fun and deeply love each other. And the main thing \u2013 they don\u2019t die (but if they do \u2013 it serves them right). This is life, and Kusturica is its best artist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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