Kusturica offers Minsk students to take part in his festival

The students of Belarusian State Academy of Arts had been waiting for Emir Kusturica for so long and their expectations became reality. The cinema legend was to give a masterclass for the future directors on the first day of his visit to Minsk. Melancholic and unshaved Kusturica spent two hours telling about himself and giving advice to the young creators. 



The hall was overcrowded, people were stanting in the aisles. Everyone had an opportunity to ask a question. Here are some of them:

— What was your first love - music or cinema?
— Football.

— What should be the place of a direction teacher in a student's life?
— I recall the times when I was a student. I respected just one teacher out of seven.

— What do you believe in?
— I do believe in God, but I am such a modern person that I know God does not live in the stratosphere with a temperature of -40 Celsium. However, I believe God lives inside each of us. I believe in fire, water, air, earth and God.  



Emir Kusturica conducts a student festival "Kustendorf" ("Village of Kusturica") each year. This year Belarusian students have an opportunity to take part in it. 

Emir Kusturica: “I am flying back tomorrow, thus you have an opportunity to bring your works. I will leave you an address of the festival where you can send the best 10 films so we could choose something”.



The director's story about how he fell asleep three times while watching Fellini's "Amarcord" made the audience laugh. When the movie of the cinema legend was first shown in Prague, Kusturica was in love with a Saraevo girl. So, the director faced a complicated dilemma: to go and watch "the best film of all times" or go to see his beloved...

Emir Kusturica: “…I was in love with a girl from Saraevo and I hadn't seen her for three years. And then they told me Fellini had arrived to Prague to take part in a special show in a cinema club. At the same time they told me the girl kept asking about me all the time.

What was I supposed to do? To go to Saraevo to find out whether that girl had really been interested in me, or to see the best movie of all times? So, I realised it had been more important to me to go to Saraevo and see that girl. I bought a train ticket and spent 25 hours travelling to Saraevo. However, the girl wasn't there...”

You can read this story in details in Emir Kusturica's book "Death is A Unverified Rumours", published recently by the director.  This book was intended to be an auto-biography, but turned into a novel. 

Emir Kusturica: “If there is a lesson to learn in this story, it is that a person should set life as his first priority anytime. You'll see the important films you need to see anyway, even if it's Fellini. Life should be the basis of your cinematographic art. And your talent will know what to take from it”.



The students decided to find out what the director could do apart from movie-making. A youngster suggested Kusturica could play the guitar (which he gave to the director as a gift afterwards), another student walked onto the stage with coloured pencils, asking the director to draw something. He drew a heart-shaped apple, and promised he would take some drawing lessons. 



Emir Kusturica: “I've tried all the forms of art, and the only one I am weak in is drawing. As the Americans say, nobody's perfect. I know how to draw with a camera, but this way it's very difficult. However, I'll try.  A person needs much time to do something valuable. So now I am going to take some drawing lessons when I get back to my village”.