Emir Kusturica

Director

November 24, 1954 (71 years)

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Biography

Emir Nemanja Kusturica is a Serbian filmmaker, actor and musician, recognized for several internationally acclaimed feature films. He is a two-time winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes (for When Father Was Away on Business and Underground), as well as being a Commander of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Since the mid-2000s, Kusturica's primary residence is Drvengrad, a village in the Mokra Gora region of Serbia. He had portions of the historic village reconstructed for his film Life Is…

Filmography

7.2

Arizona Dream

Rebellious young Axel Blackmar gets caught up into the family car business when his cousin, Paul, coaxes him to come to Arizona to attend the wedding of their Uncle Leo. As Axel makes the decision to try selling Cadillacs with his family, he meets an eccentric woman named Elaine and her equally quirky stepdaughter, Grace. Their lives become inextricably intertwined through romance, dreams – and death.

7.7

Black Cat, White Cat

A small-time hustler makes a deal with a notorious gangster to whom he owes money: marry his teenage son to the latter's daughter. However, the young lovers are not as agreeable.

7.7

Underground

Black marketeers Marko and Blacky manufacture and sell weapons to the Communist resistance in WWII Belgrade, living the good life along the way. 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 Yugoslav Civil War of the 1990s as Marko sees the opportunity to exploit the situation.

7.6

Time of the Gypsies

Perhan is a gypsy teenager with telekinetic powers. A wealthy gypsy, Ahmed, visits the village and promises to get Perhan's sister the medical treatment she needs if they join him to Italy. Perhan soon discovers that Ahmed's business activities are in fact quite shady and he is soon lured into the elder's corrupt surroundings.

7.3

When Father Was Away on Business

In a post-WWII Yugoslavia still under Stalinist rule in the 1950s, six-year-old Malik is oblivious as to why his father, Mehmed, has suddenly disappeared. In truth, Mehmed has been sent to a labor camp as punishment for acts of sexual indiscretion involving young girls. Malik's mother, Senija, however, has no answers, and the family must cope in the father's absence.

8.8

Once Upon a Time There Was a Country

Black marketeers Marko and Blacky manufacture and sell weapons to the Communist resistance in WWII Belgrade, living the good life along the way. 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 sees the opportunity to exploit the situation. An extended television version of Emir Kusturica's Palme d'Or winning Underground.

7.4

Do You Remember Dolly Bell?

Growing up in 1960s Sarajevo, a young man comes of age under the shadow of his good, but ailing father, but is attracted by the world of small-time criminals. He's hired to hide a young prostitute, whom he falls in love with.

6.5

On the Milky Road

Spring in wartime. Each day a milkman crosses the frontline on a donkey, dodging bullets to bring his precious wares to the soldiers. Blessed with good fortune on his mission, loved by a beautiful villager, a peaceful future seems to await him… until the arrival of a mysterious Italian woman turns his life upside down. Thus begins a story of passionate, forbidden love that will plunge them both into a series of fantastic and dangerous adventures. They have been joined by fate, and nothing and no one seems able to stop them… Two-times Palme D'Or winner Emir Kusturica directs and stars in this story of love and war, rich in emotion, comedy and adventure.

N/A

Time of the Gypsies

7.0

All the Invisible Children

Seven short films - each one focused on the plight of a different child protagonist.

7.2

Life Is a Miracle

Set during the Bosnian war in the early 1990s, Luka is a mild-mannered railway clerk whose life is turned upside down, not just by the outbreak of the war, but when his wife runs off with a local musician. Then Luka's son is conscripted and eventually captured in the fighting. To recover his son, Luka is commanded to guard a pretty young Muslim nurse who will be used in a hostage swapping operation.

6.6

Promise Me This

An old man named Zivojin Markovic, living in a remote village prays for his grandson Cane to go to the city, sell his cow and bring back a wife. In the city he is supposed to meet up with his grandfather's stepbrother, but this man is dead. Instead, he meets this man's two grandsons, two good-natured brothers who are nevertheless small-time criminals and experts in demolition. Cane soon clicks with these men, and also falls in love with a schoolgirl (Jasna), who he wants to marry as part of his testament with his grandfather. He gets involved in this girl's family affairs, rescuing both her and her mother from prostitution and gangsters headed by a man called Bajo, and the new group of people return to the small village in time to celebrate Zivojin's wedding to his neighbor, despite the gangsters' best efforts to stop the celebration, which results in a double wedding.

7.3

El Pepe: A Supreme Life

A documentary on the life of Uruguayan politician and former guerrilla fighter José Mujica.

5.9

Buffet Titanic

Based on a short story of Ivo Andrić, famous Yugoslav Nobel Prize winner, this film is set in Sarajevo during WW2. Mento is a humble, poor Jew who runs a caffe. Stjepan is a man of unknown background, with no social or psychological dimension, who joined Nazis to leave any sort of trace behind himself.

6.3

Maradona by Kusturica

A documentary on Argentinean soccer star Diego Maradona, regarded by many as the world's greatest modern player.

5.7

Words with Gods

The first of four installments in the groundbreaking Heartbeat of the World anthology film series. Comprised of several short films by some of the world's most exciting directors, Words with Gods follows the theme of religion - specifically as it relates to an individual's relationship with his/her god or gods...or the lack thereof. In Words with Gods, each director recounts a narrative centered around human fragility, as well as environmental and cultural crises involving specific religions with which each has a personal relationship; including early Aboriginal Spirituality, Umbanda, Buddhism, the Abrahamic faiths, Hinduism, and Atheism. An animated sequence by Mexican animator Maribel Martinez is woven through each of the film segments, with each segment narratively connected as a feature-length film.

8.0

Le court des grands

A program of debut shorts from some of cinema's greatest diectors. Curated by Emir Kusturica and Stephen Frears, featured auteurs include George Lucas' "1.42.08 to Qualify" (1966), Ridley Scott's "A Boy and a Bicycle" (1965), Robert Zemeckis' "The Lift" (1972), Tony Scott's "One of the Missing" (1969), Kusturica's "Guernica" (1978), Luc Besson's "L'avant dernier" (1981), Lars von Trier's "Nocturne" (1980), Terry Gilliam's "Storytime" (1968), Paul Verhoeven's "A Lizzard Too Much" (1960), Roman Polanski's "Le gros et le maigre" (1960), Jane Campion's "Peel" (1982), and Frears' "The Burning" (1967).

5.3

The Brides Are Coming

Jelena, a woman of character, rules an inn in an isolated place in the countryside. She lives with her two sons: Martin and Jakov. Martin has been married to Kata for 5 years, but never succeeded in having a child. Jakov sleeps with his mother in postures suggesting incest, but he is in love with Kata. Each night he hears her cries, the sexual acts with her husband inevitably finish with violence. One day, Jakov can't stand anymore, he leaves, and Kata is found dead the next morning. Two characters arrive then : an old man, who turns to be the father of Martin ; he settles and declares being returned to die here. And a girl, that Martin will keep as his new wife.

5.7

Guernica

The initiation of a young Jewish child into Guernica's world.

6.1

Super 8 Stories

A documentary about the band "No Smoking Orchestra".