Programme

Once upon a time there was a country... Yugoslavia was forever lost in the wars. Yet, in the magical surrealist cinema of Emir Kusturica, its history and people are eternally enshrined.

Born in 1954, Kusturica grew up an only child in a secular Muslim family in Sarajevo. His artistic genius for black satirical comedy was fully recognised by the time he was 40, garnering most of the major awards the film world has to offer with his directorial debut Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (1981), and hits like When Father was Away on Business (1985) and Time of the Gypsies (1988), which are celebrated for their Balkanist farce marked by slapstick and subversive cynicism. Underground (1995), his famously inflammatory take on Yugoslav history remains his crowning achievement, making him one of the few auteurs to have won the Palme d’Or twice. Yet, baffled by the embittered battles with his fellow Bosnian and Serbian countrymen, he once announced to quit filmmaking, and later disconnected himself, never setting foot in Sarajevo again.

Defined by their intoxicating passion and chaotic craze, his films often feature characters on the margins: diehard communist, amoral outlaws and even stuttering zookeeper. No matter how brutal and dire the circumstances they are in, these adamant humans are charged with frenzied, raucous energy to face the unimaginable with joy, hope and lunacy, animated by screwball antics and above all, rapturous music featuring the No Smoking Orchestra, his gypsy-punkrock band. Whimsical turkeys, levitating fish and flocks of geese tromp around everywhere in the scenes of bombing attacks, pillow talks, wedding and funerals alike, playing their roles as in Orwellian parables for a world in disarray.

Kicking politics aside, Kusturica shifts from a controversial satirist to a surrealist romantic, conjuring up hilarious and sentimental dreams for star-crossed lovers in Arizona Dream (1993) and Black Cat, White Cat (1998). Building a village out of nothing for Life is a Miracle (2004), the cultural saviour reimagines his lost city – a land of films and music that will never vanish on the atlas of art.