10 films by Emir Kusturica that are worth watching

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Lifehacker talks about the iconic work and style of the famous director.

1. Do you remember Dolly Bell?

• Yugoslavia, 1981.
• Drama.
• Duration: 110 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 7.

Sarajevo, sixties. Young Dino observes changes in popular culture, and at the same time develops hypnotic abilities in himself. With their help, he wants to bring the onset of communism closer, conquer a prostitute, or at least control a rabbit.

A full-length film debut immediately attracted attention to Emir Kusturica. He turned out to be the first director to shoot a film in the Bosnian dialect rather than the official Serbo-Croatian language.

In many ways, this picture is the memories of Kusturica himself about growing up and the formation of a teenager's personality. After all, he grew up in the same way in Sarajevo in the sixties.

2. Dad on a business trip

• Yugoslavia, 1985.
• Drama.
• Duration: 136 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 9.

End of the forties in Yugoslavia. The father of six-year-old Malik constantly goes on business trips. But in fact, he has many mistresses in different cities, and he goes to them in turn. The boy realizes that something is wrong with his father, and is very worried. But then dad is sent to jail because of a denunciation written by one of his mistresses. For three years Malik and his mother will have to make ends meet.

By the mid-eighties, when this film was released, the era of totalitarianism was just beginning to recede into the past, and many still tried not to touch on sensitive topics about the times of the reign of Josip Broz Tito. And Emir Kusturica has already shot a tough, ironic film about poverty and an atmosphere of general mistrust.

Here, the corporate identity is already more clearly visible, combining tragic events and sparkling humor. In addition, many actors appeared for the first time in this film, with whom Kusturica will continue to work.

For Dad on a Business Trip, the director received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and nominations for an Oscar and a Golden Globe.

3. Time of the Gypsies

• Great Britain, Italy, Yugoslavia, 1988.
• Drama, comedy, crime.
• Duration: 142 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 3.

A gypsy named Perhan can move objects with his eyes, and his grandmother can heal people without drugs. He wants to get married, but the relatives of his beloved are against marriage, because Perhan is too poor. And then the guy goes with the gypsy baron Ahmet to Italy to get rich, but he loses the main thing - honesty. And this will lead him to tragedy.

Once again, Kusturica is addressing ethnic minorities. This is the first film in history filmed in the Gypsy language, and indeed a rare attempt to tell so touchingly about the life of this people.

While working on "The Time of the Gypsies", the director began a fruitful collaboration with the composer Goran Bregovic - he wrote the soundtrack for the next two films.

4. Arizona dream

• France, USA, 1993.
• Tragicomedy.
• Duration: 142 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 4.

Axel really didn't want to go to Arizona for his uncle Leo's wedding. But he was still taken there, and then his uncle demanded that Axel continue his business of selling Cadillacs. The hero stayed in the city, and then met the local widow Helen and her stepdaughter Grace. Each of them dreams of something unrealizable: to build an airplane, turn into a turtle, or even make a staircase to the moon from "Cadillacs".

Following the success of previous films, Milos Forman invited Emir Kusturica to lecture at Columbia University. One of the students brought the director a script, from which the "Arizona Dream" later grew.

This is Kusturica's first English-language project to feature such stars as Johnny Depp and Faye Dunaway. However, the American public did not appreciate the story of shattered dreams, and the film flopped at the box office. After that, the director said that he no longer wants to work in Hollywood.

5. Underground

• Yugoslavia, France, Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic, 1995.
• Tragicomedy, phantasmagoria, military.
• Duration: 170 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 1.

Belgrade at the very beginning of World War II. People are faced with fascism and try to figure out how to live on. And then they gradually organize a factory for the production of weapons in the dungeon. Years go by, the war is long over, but the underground continues to work, and people who do not come to the surface believe that they are still fighting the fascists.

Many consider this film to be the pinnacle of Kusturica's work. He put a lot of personal experiences into it, linking the history of the Second World War with the Bosnian War of the early nineties. Then the director's house in Sarajevo was destroyed, and he could not help but speak out about this tragedy. In addition to the full-length three-hour version, there is also a television version, with a total duration of 300 minutes.

It was after the release of Underground that Emir Kusturica fell out with Goran Bregovic. The director accused the composer of giving out folk songs for his work, and did not pay for the soundtrack. They have not made up until now.

6. Black cat, white cat

• France, Germany, Yugoslavia, 1998.
• Comedy.
• Duration: 127 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 1.

Swindler Matko Destanov decided to borrow a large sum from a local gypsy baron. But for this he lied that his father was dead. This was the beginning of a whole chain of deception and meanness that people do to each other. As a result, two elderly barons have to deal with everything that their descendants have heaped up.

In this film, Kusturica returned to gypsy culture again. And you can clearly see that the director decided to take a break from serious topics. "Black cat, white cat" is a witty example of rude humor.

7. Super 8 stories

• Germany, Italy, 2001.
• Documentary, music.
• Duration: 90 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 7.

In the next few years, Emir Kusturica did not make films, but he was deeply carried away by music. He assembled The No Smoking Orchestra ensemble, recorded albums with it and traveled around different countries on tour. In 2001, Kusturica released the documentary "Super 8 Stories", in which he spoke about his music and concerts.

8. Life is like a miracle

• Serbia and Montenegro, France, Italy, 2004.
• Comedy, drama, musical, military.
• Duration: 155 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 6.

Engineer Luka dreams of building a tunnel between Serbia and Bosnia. He lives in a small town with his mentally ill wife Jadranka and his son Milos, who wants to become a football player without having any data for this. But the war begins, Jadranka escapes, and Milos is taken into the army.

Years later, Kusturica again returned to the topic of the Balkan War. By the way, for a long time he called himself a Yugoslav, even when the country ceased to exist.

Interestingly, specifically for the filming of this film, Kusturica built a small village of Drvengrad. According to the director, after the loss of his hometown, he wanted to create his own village. Drvengrad still exists as a tourist attraction.

9. Covenant

• France, Serbia, 2007.
• Comedy, drama.
• Duration: 137 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 0.

Young Tsane lives in the wilderness with his grandfather and studies all alone at a local school. Realizing that he will soon die, the grandfather sends Tsane to the city. There he must sell the cow and find himself a wife. And Tsane really quickly meets her beloved. But she has other plans.

And again before us is an easy and kind film with notes of black humor. Kusturica knows how to laugh at stupid life situations, and most importantly - to show people who enjoy the little things in life.

10. Along the Milky Way

• UK, USA, Serbia, 2016.
• Drama.
• Duration: 125 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 4.

Three periods in the life of a completely ordinary man from Serbia. At first he is lonely and works as a milkman, then he meets his beloved woman and enjoys every day with her. And in the end, he is left alone again and realizes that he no longer sees the meaning in worldly affairs.

This picture looks like a rethinking of the life path of an already middle-aged director. If in the early films he grasped only fragments of the biographies of his heroes, then here he is already trying to analyze different periods.