Kusturica Opposes Bombardment in the Name of Humanity
by Kyodo News and Emir Kusturica
WorldNow
July 08, 2002
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. "The international community was supposed 10 years ago to
bring the whole of former Yugoslavia into the European Union, to
give credits, to give money and to help it keep going as a normal
country," said Kusturica, wearing a T-shirt with the face of Ernesto
"Che" Guevara printed on it.
The following are excerpts from Kyodo's interview with Kusturica.
His quotes below are edited for the sake of readability.
Q. What is the main theme of your new film "Gladno Srce"
(Hungry Heart)?
It is a love story. The central motive, the central place of the movie
is a Serbian guy...whose son went to the war, was captured by the
Muslim side. And he gets in touch with one Muslim woman whom
he was supposed to exchange for his son, but he falls in love with
her.
So basically the idea is to create a movie about the war in Bosnia,
but not from the ideological, not from this kind of new way of
thinking, in which no roots, no real causes are exposed to the
audience. This movie does not want to be ideological, this movie wants
to ... create the context from which the war started and how the war
was projected through the love story of 45-year-old man.
Q. Can people understand your film as a message that love is a
winner over nationalism?
Certainly, although the theme of my movie is not nationalism, but
just the social and historical context from which the love story is
being created by the absurd human position, not the position in which
love comes naturally.
Q. You told me that somebody is creating good and bad, or yes
and no.
Now the United States is also creating something like that -- right
and wrong, or black and white. It does not exist. It is just a genre
like in a cinema in which they create this kind of impression about
life... I am not trying to define what is good, what is bad. This is
more a question of ideology, a political idea, than an artistic idea.
Q.The name of Yugoslavia will disappear from the maps. Former
Yugoslavia has already disappeared. This Yugoslavia will
disappear, too. What kind of emotional feelings does that create
for you?
To me it creates a certain emotional turbulence, because I was born
here. I believed Yugoslavia was supposed to stay and I think like
many other things in the history of this region the big powers create
countries. This country (former Yugoslavia) was created after World
War I and after about 200 years our predecessors were trying to be
(joined) together in order to preserve our culture, our history. The
problem with this disappearance is that it was, I think, mostly
created from outside the country, and is unfortunately not making
nowadays people as happy as I was. So, I think this is clear: this
time Yugoslavia was dismantled because the entire region is under the
capitalist way of imposing a new history. And it was done much too
aggressively, against what this country used to be. So, I cannot say
that I am very sentimental, because people were killing each other
very much in the name of one or the other. But, on the other hand, I
must say that what has been defined as the international community
very heavily participates in this crime. Because, as much as at one
time it was OK to create it (Yugoslavia), at another time it was
not... it was not good for it (Yugoslavia) to exist on this scale.
Q. as it maybe nationalism, religion, that destroyed Yugoslavia?
If there was a nationalism, and it was nationalism, it was fueled from
outside. I think the Western world was creating it, if not creating
than at least putting oil into the fire... I was very suspicious about
just nationalism being what created this tragedy. Because if you
wanted to stop the war in Macedonia, they did it within two months,
that much they could have done in Yugoslavia. But they did not want
to, because they wanted to break it up, to make these small regions
without any power.
Q. What is your definition of nationalism?
At the end of Word War I nationalism used to be of a kind that is
today called patriotism.
Q. Is there any boundary between nationalism and patriotism?
My problem is I do not have strong national feelings. But, I think
nationalism, which can be very dangerous, is at the same time taken
as an instrument in the destruction of the Eastern world. Because
what can you be if you do not have any goods and if you are poor?
Unfortunately you are determined to be at least nationalist... I am
not nationalist, but I am not globalist, either, because I think
globalism is a kind of new form of imperialism... If you look at the
statistics, and if you look from 1989 until today, from the fall of
the Berlin wall, which was the change from what used to be called the
Old World Order, not many people live better. So, the new conception
of the world in one in which there is no nation. But then what? What
is the belief, what is the idea, what is the utopia of the world? To
believe that the market is the one that regulates our relationships?
That is not enough.
Q. You told us that somebody from outside had put oil on the fire
to cause the collapse of former Yugoslavia. Why did they need to
do that?
Because in the projection of serious economists and historians
today... for the period of transition from a communist regime to a
market economy you need 20 years. They never allowed anybody to go on
so long.
They, the big companies, as well as some Western countries, want to
destroy the national infrastructure as soon as possible, so they can
come and buy everything very cheap.
Q. You have made films about the Roma, Gypsies so many times
and recently you have been appointed goodwill ambassador of
UNICEF.
As a hope... and I think humanity's biggest capacity is to hope. And
when you hope, you have some chances. So, therefore I wanted to
help the kids as much as I can.
Q. In what way are you going to help, especially Roma children?
Not just the Roma, all children. I think about what I can do as a film
director. I could do my best to make short movies to participate in
the campaigns.
Q. One very important question. How did you feel about your
film "Underground" on the destruction of Yugoslavia. Who was
attacking you, who was defending you at that time. Why did you
leave Yugoslavia and came back?
The point is that the entire story about Yugoslavia is the opposite of
what we have read and what we know. If you look at the end the
ethnic cleansing, the worst thing that could happen to some
territories, if you look how the Western politicians were treating the
issue, you can find out that some territories that are ethnically
cleansed are very much sponsored by the West, because the idea of
the Western politicians is not humanitarian. That is just a cover
story for something that is much deeper. As I said they need the
region, or small regions in which they can penetrate much more easily
than if it was a serious country. So, since I see this and I know
this, I must say I am standing in the center of this problem, because
this problem is familiar to me from watching all over the world. The
Eastern world economically is a huge one in which there are 1.5
billion people who want to come to the West to share the goods with
them. And they (the West) have put the border through our country, as
they were doing always in history... I will give you one statistic,
look into it. Croatia is almost ethnically purified. They (the Croats)
can now travel all over Western Europe, no problems. Slovenia, too.
The only one that is still a mixture of various nations is Serbia and
this is the worst case for them. I mean the Western world is very
simple: profit above all.
Q. How do you see military operations under the pretext of
humanitarian intervention, such as in Afghanistan?
Certainly the opinion of any human being will be against it. Because
they are bombarding in the name of humanity, but in fact they have
their own strategic and economic interests. They know that this
vicious cycle of war, capital, profit is something that functions for
200 years. We know that the biggest scientific achievements have
been reached in the field of the military. So, the military is a part
of these operations... The change from the past is just the way, the
form... They always find somebody who is very vicious to destroy
him. They call it evil. But it is not because of this evil. I am very
much against any type of bombardment, including American
bombardment of anyone.
Q. Also in Afghanistan?
Everywhere... They bomb Afghanistan as a retaliation to the terrorist
attack, but they do it the same way.
Q. The American logic is that if they did not intervene in
Yugoslavia, (former President Slobodan) Milosevic could have
continued to massacre the Kosovo Albanians. How, in that case,
could the international community have intervened, or helped?
The international community has never intervened properly (in
former Yugoslavia). The international community was supposed 10
years ago to bring the whole of former Yugoslavia into the European
Union, to give credits, to give money and to help it keep going as a
healthy normal country. I would not talk about massacres, because I
do not believe what the propaganda is saying. I want to see the proof.
I still did not see the proof of the massacres. That was the trigger
aimed to bring the international community to the level it needed (for
intervention).
Q. Do you believe children can be nationalist?
I do not think that is possible.
Q. What did you feel about the tragedy of Sept. 11?
I was very much moved, because any human tragedy, whoever did it,
produces in my heart a kind of turbulence. So, I was really sorry for
these people.
Q. What is your opinion about U.S. unilateralism?
That is a Medieval way of drawing history, in which they do not
respect the law and want the rest of the world to respect the law.
That not possible.
Q. Why did UNICEF selected you for good-will ambassador?
Because I am a funny guy.
Biographical note: Emir Kusturica, born in Sarajevo in 1954, began
his career as TV-film director in the capital of former Yugoslavia's
Bosnia-Herzegovina after having studied film-making technologies
at FAMU School in Prague. In 1981, his first film "Do You
Remember Dolly Bell?" won the Golden Lion Award in Venice. His
other films include "Time of the Gipsies," which earned the Best
Director Award at Cannes, "When Father Was Away On Business,"
winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1985, and "Underground,"
winner of the Palme d'Or in 1995.
Fonte:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=2086
Ringraziamo Patti per la segnalazione.
by Kyodo News and Emir Kusturica
WorldNow
July 08, 2002
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. "The international community was supposed 10 years ago to
bring the whole of former Yugoslavia into the European Union, to
give credits, to give money and to help it keep going as a normal
country," said Kusturica, wearing a T-shirt with the face of Ernesto
"Che" Guevara printed on it.
The following are excerpts from Kyodo's interview with Kusturica.
His quotes below are edited for the sake of readability.
Q. What is the main theme of your new film "Gladno Srce"
(Hungry Heart)?
It is a love story. The central motive, the central place of the movie
is a Serbian guy...whose son went to the war, was captured by the
Muslim side. And he gets in touch with one Muslim woman whom
he was supposed to exchange for his son, but he falls in love with
her.
So basically the idea is to create a movie about the war in Bosnia,
but not from the ideological, not from this kind of new way of
thinking, in which no roots, no real causes are exposed to the
audience. This movie does not want to be ideological, this movie wants
to ... create the context from which the war started and how the war
was projected through the love story of 45-year-old man.
Q. Can people understand your film as a message that love is a
winner over nationalism?
Certainly, although the theme of my movie is not nationalism, but
just the social and historical context from which the love story is
being created by the absurd human position, not the position in which
love comes naturally.
Q. You told me that somebody is creating good and bad, or yes
and no.
Now the United States is also creating something like that -- right
and wrong, or black and white. It does not exist. It is just a genre
like in a cinema in which they create this kind of impression about
life... I am not trying to define what is good, what is bad. This is
more a question of ideology, a political idea, than an artistic idea.
Q.The name of Yugoslavia will disappear from the maps. Former
Yugoslavia has already disappeared. This Yugoslavia will
disappear, too. What kind of emotional feelings does that create
for you?
To me it creates a certain emotional turbulence, because I was born
here. I believed Yugoslavia was supposed to stay and I think like
many other things in the history of this region the big powers create
countries. This country (former Yugoslavia) was created after World
War I and after about 200 years our predecessors were trying to be
(joined) together in order to preserve our culture, our history. The
problem with this disappearance is that it was, I think, mostly
created from outside the country, and is unfortunately not making
nowadays people as happy as I was. So, I think this is clear: this
time Yugoslavia was dismantled because the entire region is under the
capitalist way of imposing a new history. And it was done much too
aggressively, against what this country used to be. So, I cannot say
that I am very sentimental, because people were killing each other
very much in the name of one or the other. But, on the other hand, I
must say that what has been defined as the international community
very heavily participates in this crime. Because, as much as at one
time it was OK to create it (Yugoslavia), at another time it was
not... it was not good for it (Yugoslavia) to exist on this scale.
Q. as it maybe nationalism, religion, that destroyed Yugoslavia?
If there was a nationalism, and it was nationalism, it was fueled from
outside. I think the Western world was creating it, if not creating
than at least putting oil into the fire... I was very suspicious about
just nationalism being what created this tragedy. Because if you
wanted to stop the war in Macedonia, they did it within two months,
that much they could have done in Yugoslavia. But they did not want
to, because they wanted to break it up, to make these small regions
without any power.
Q. What is your definition of nationalism?
At the end of Word War I nationalism used to be of a kind that is
today called patriotism.
Q. Is there any boundary between nationalism and patriotism?
My problem is I do not have strong national feelings. But, I think
nationalism, which can be very dangerous, is at the same time taken
as an instrument in the destruction of the Eastern world. Because
what can you be if you do not have any goods and if you are poor?
Unfortunately you are determined to be at least nationalist... I am
not nationalist, but I am not globalist, either, because I think
globalism is a kind of new form of imperialism... If you look at the
statistics, and if you look from 1989 until today, from the fall of
the Berlin wall, which was the change from what used to be called the
Old World Order, not many people live better. So, the new conception
of the world in one in which there is no nation. But then what? What
is the belief, what is the idea, what is the utopia of the world? To
believe that the market is the one that regulates our relationships?
That is not enough.
Q. You told us that somebody from outside had put oil on the fire
to cause the collapse of former Yugoslavia. Why did they need to
do that?
Because in the projection of serious economists and historians
today... for the period of transition from a communist regime to a
market economy you need 20 years. They never allowed anybody to go on
so long.
They, the big companies, as well as some Western countries, want to
destroy the national infrastructure as soon as possible, so they can
come and buy everything very cheap.
Q. You have made films about the Roma, Gypsies so many times
and recently you have been appointed goodwill ambassador of
UNICEF.
As a hope... and I think humanity's biggest capacity is to hope. And
when you hope, you have some chances. So, therefore I wanted to
help the kids as much as I can.
Q. In what way are you going to help, especially Roma children?
Not just the Roma, all children. I think about what I can do as a film
director. I could do my best to make short movies to participate in
the campaigns.
Q. One very important question. How did you feel about your
film "Underground" on the destruction of Yugoslavia. Who was
attacking you, who was defending you at that time. Why did you
leave Yugoslavia and came back?
The point is that the entire story about Yugoslavia is the opposite of
what we have read and what we know. If you look at the end the
ethnic cleansing, the worst thing that could happen to some
territories, if you look how the Western politicians were treating the
issue, you can find out that some territories that are ethnically
cleansed are very much sponsored by the West, because the idea of
the Western politicians is not humanitarian. That is just a cover
story for something that is much deeper. As I said they need the
region, or small regions in which they can penetrate much more easily
than if it was a serious country. So, since I see this and I know
this, I must say I am standing in the center of this problem, because
this problem is familiar to me from watching all over the world. The
Eastern world economically is a huge one in which there are 1.5
billion people who want to come to the West to share the goods with
them. And they (the West) have put the border through our country, as
they were doing always in history... I will give you one statistic,
look into it. Croatia is almost ethnically purified. They (the Croats)
can now travel all over Western Europe, no problems. Slovenia, too.
The only one that is still a mixture of various nations is Serbia and
this is the worst case for them. I mean the Western world is very
simple: profit above all.
Q. How do you see military operations under the pretext of
humanitarian intervention, such as in Afghanistan?
Certainly the opinion of any human being will be against it. Because
they are bombarding in the name of humanity, but in fact they have
their own strategic and economic interests. They know that this
vicious cycle of war, capital, profit is something that functions for
200 years. We know that the biggest scientific achievements have
been reached in the field of the military. So, the military is a part
of these operations... The change from the past is just the way, the
form... They always find somebody who is very vicious to destroy
him. They call it evil. But it is not because of this evil. I am very
much against any type of bombardment, including American
bombardment of anyone.
Q. Also in Afghanistan?
Everywhere... They bomb Afghanistan as a retaliation to the terrorist
attack, but they do it the same way.
Q. The American logic is that if they did not intervene in
Yugoslavia, (former President Slobodan) Milosevic could have
continued to massacre the Kosovo Albanians. How, in that case,
could the international community have intervened, or helped?
The international community has never intervened properly (in
former Yugoslavia). The international community was supposed 10
years ago to bring the whole of former Yugoslavia into the European
Union, to give credits, to give money and to help it keep going as a
healthy normal country. I would not talk about massacres, because I
do not believe what the propaganda is saying. I want to see the proof.
I still did not see the proof of the massacres. That was the trigger
aimed to bring the international community to the level it needed (for
intervention).
Q. Do you believe children can be nationalist?
I do not think that is possible.
Q. What did you feel about the tragedy of Sept. 11?
I was very much moved, because any human tragedy, whoever did it,
produces in my heart a kind of turbulence. So, I was really sorry for
these people.
Q. What is your opinion about U.S. unilateralism?
That is a Medieval way of drawing history, in which they do not
respect the law and want the rest of the world to respect the law.
That not possible.
Q. Why did UNICEF selected you for good-will ambassador?
Because I am a funny guy.
Biographical note: Emir Kusturica, born in Sarajevo in 1954, began
his career as TV-film director in the capital of former Yugoslavia's
Bosnia-Herzegovina after having studied film-making technologies
at FAMU School in Prague. In 1981, his first film "Do You
Remember Dolly Bell?" won the Golden Lion Award in Venice. His
other films include "Time of the Gipsies," which earned the Best
Director Award at Cannes, "When Father Was Away On Business,"
winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1985, and "Underground,"
winner of the Palme d'Or in 1995.
Fonte:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=2086
Ringraziamo Patti per la segnalazione.