Emir Kusturica Movies

Acclaimed filmmaker Emir Kusturica traces the remarkable story of soccer legend Diego Maradona in this documentary featuring music by composer Manu Chao. Maradona has a reputation as the people's champion, an athlete who rose from humble beginnings to achieve worldwide fame, and who has overcome incredible adversity to become a living legend. As the director and his subject grow increasingly intimate, Maradona reveals details about his life that have never come to light in the public eye. A tour of the places that mean the most to Maradona offer a unique look at the way the soccer star was shaped by his surroundings, and conversations with the people closest to him offer a unique glimpse into his colorful personality. A conversation with Cuban leader Fidel Castro highlights how even the most powerful personalities become awestruck while speaking about Maradona. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Omnibus films attained renewed popularity during the 1990s and 2000s; this particular seven-episode film-a-sketch arrived during that period, and involved several top-tiered international filmmakers including John Woo, Spike Lee, Ridley Scott, Emir Kusturica and three others. Each helmer was asked to shoot a segment of between 16-18 minutes in length, for UNICEF, on the subject of exploited and/or underprivileged children around the world. The package opens with "Tanza," helmed by Algerian novelist-cum-filmmaker Mehdi Charef and shot in Burkina Faso. It concerns the 12-year-old female title character - an adolescent freedom fighter - who trollops through the countryside accompanied by young male guerilla fighters who spout off deliberately nonsensical English-language dialogue. Kusturica takes the reins for the second segment, "Blue Gypsy," an overtly comical episode in the vein of Time of the Gypsies about a precocious young boy who makes the split from his alcoholic father and thieving family and goes to live in a juvenile detention center, finding it preferable to home. The third episode, helmed by co-producer Stefano Veneruso and entitled "Ciro," recalls neorealismo with its Naples-set tale of a young boy unloved and systematically neglected by his mother, who resorts to spending time with other neglected children and stealing watches, and then gets caught in the direst of ways. The fourth segment, Spike Lee's delicately-handled "Jesus Children of America," stars Hannah Hodson as Blanca, a young Brooklynite ostracized by her peers because her parents are junkies; when she learns of her HIV-positive status, her world crumbles. For the 5th episode, "Bilu and Joao," Brazilian director Katia Lund casts child actors Francisco Anawake de Freitas and Vera Fernandes as two impoverished tykes whose days involve walking around the outskirts of Sao Paulo and pulling a wooden cart, into which they pile aluminum and paper - but do so joyously, with the courage and grace of two individuals delighting in subhuman work despite the direst of circumstances. For the sixth segment, "Jonathan," Ridley Scott teams up to co-direct with daughter Jordan Scott; the episode stars David Thewlis (Naked) as an emotionally-traumatized war photographer who encounters a band of Eastern European orphans. And the closer, John Woo's "Song Song and Little Cat," studies the contrast between the lives of two young Asian girls from polar opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum: Oi Ruyi is Little Cat, an abjectly impoverished child discovered in the garbage, during infancy, by a homeless man; she grows up helping her discoverer forage for victuals until he dies, leaving her aimless and bereft. Woo cuts between her story and that of Song Song, a wealthy and pampered little girl whose story is equally tragic in its own way, as her parents are undergoing a bitter divorce. Though this film, as indicated, enlisted the support of at least two major Hollywood directors (Scott and Lee) it did encounter extreme difficulty securing U.S. theatrical and ancillary distribution, which effectively kept it out of North America in the years that immediately followed its global release. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

The tragedy of the war in Bosnia makes way for the humor and compassion of people living their lives under difficult circumstances in this comedy drama from filmmaker Emir Kusturica. In 1992, war is brewing in Bosnia, but the city fathers in the town of Golobuci are going ahead with their plans of building a railroad line they hope will bring more visitors into the city. Luka (Slavko Stimac), who is in charge of the construction project, lives with his wife, Jadranka (Vesna Trivalic), a former musician who is suffering from manic depression, and his son, Milos (Vuk Kostic), a talented soccer player who dreams of turning pro some day. After Jadranka has an especially severe episode, Luka takes her to the hospital, where he meets Sabaha (Natasa Solak), a Moslem nurse who quickly develops a nonprofessional interest in Luka. As the clouds of war appear on the horizon, Milos is drafted into the army and Jadranka runs away, and after Sabaha is left with no place to go, she's sent to Luka's place by his friend Aleksic (Stribor Kusturica), where she quickly takes over as both housekeeper and bedmate to Luka. Zivot Je Cudo (aka Life Is a Miracle) was screened in competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Dusan Milic's hostage film Jagoda in the Supermarket stars Branka Katic in the title role. She is a 30-year-old cashier who, after seeing someone else steal the man she wanted to date, makes the mistake of refusing to sell an elderly woman some strawberries. The next day the woman's grandson, Marko (Srdjan Todorovic), walks into the store firing weapons and taking hostages. Eventually the relationship between Jagoda and Marko deepens and grows more complex. Jagoda in the Supermarket was screened at the Berlin Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

When Yugoslavian-born filmmaker Emir Kusturica isn't busy directing films like Crna Macka, Beli Macor and Dom Za Vesanje, he plays guitar with the No Smoking Orchestra (aka Zabranjeno Pusenje), a ten-piece ensemble that blends the folk music styles of the Balkans with the anarchic energy of rock & roll; the group has won a large and devoted audience in Europe for their witty, raucous music, which often features lyrics that are pointedly critical of the political situation in their native Sarajevo. Super 8 Stories, which was shot using both Super-8 film and portable Digital Video cameras, offers a look at the band's fascinating 20-year history of battling political censorship and struggling to survive the violent upheavals in the Balkans, as they tour Europe in the wake of their acclaimed 2000 album Unza Unza Time. Joe Strummer, former leader of the Clash and a fan of the No Smoking Orchestra, briefly sits in with the band for one number. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Bosnian-born filmmaker Emir Kusturica made this farce, set in a Gypsy settlement along the banks of the Danube, where three generations of characters burst forth in manic and frenetic displays of charm, confusion, and chaos. Garbage dump godfather Grga Pitic (Sabri Sulejman) and cement czar Zarije Destanov (Zabit Memedov), both in their 80s, remain friends even though they haven't seen each other in 25 years. Zarije's son Matko Destanov (Bajram Severdzan) goes to Grga for a loan. Matko is double-crossed by his partner, gypsy gangster Dadan Karambolo (Srdan Todorovic), who demands that Matko's son, Zare Destanov (Florijan Ajdini), marry Dadan's small sister, Afrodita (Salija Ibraimova). Unfortunately, Afrodita and Zare have absolutely no interest in each other. Cute barmaid Ida (Branka Katic) and Zare fall in love and only have eyes for each other as plans get underway for the wedding of Zare and Afrodite. The sudden death of Zarije seems to offer a solution, since no gypsy would have a wedding and a funeral on the same day. However, Dadan delays the death announcement by hiding Zarije, packed in ice, in the attic. The wedding celebration gets underway amid numerous madcap mishaps and misadventures. With a soundtrack of gypsy music and songs, the funny film features numerous non-professionals in the cast. Shown in competition at the 1998 Venice Film Festival and at the 1998 New York Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Director Emir Kusturica and screenwriter David Atkins crafted this absurdist comedy in which Johnny Depp plays Axel Blackmer, who lives in New York State and is obsessed with fish. He tags fish and monitors their habits for a living, but his greatest curiosity is when and how they dream. Axel's uncle, Leo Sweetie (Jerry Lewis) would prefer Axel take over the family business, a Cadillac dealership in Tucson, Arizona; against his better judgment, Axel drives from New York to Arizona to check out the lot and attend Leo's wedding to Millie (Paulina Porizkova), a woman who is hoping that marriage will keep her from crying all the time. While watching the Cadillacs, Leo meets Elaine Stalker (Faye Dunaway), the sexy widow of a wealthy mine owner, and the two strike up a romance, while Elaine's daughter Grace (Lili Taylor) wanders through her mother's home playing "Besame Mucho" on the accordion to her pet turtles. Needless to say, Warner Bros, the film's United States distributor, didn't figure this was a sure bet for box-office success, and they trimmed Arizona Dream of 22 minutes before putting it into limited release and eventually dumping it onto home video without opening it in most major cities. Kusturica's original 142-minute cut was released in Europe (where it did respectable if not ground-shaking business) and to a few art houses in America; the shortened 120-minute version is available on home video. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

If this is, as it seems, a typical Yugoslavian comedy, the grim events taking place there in the 1990s seem more comprehensible. Grandpa Buda seems like he is one who can take everything in stride, just as it comes to him. When Marshall Tito dies, he invites the neighborhood gypsies into his back yard to listen to the television coverage of the events following that. Then he invites them inside. After a while, he invites them to live in the backyard permanently, which his family thinks is carrying goodwill a bit too far. He takes the accidental deafening of his grandson in stride, learning sign language to compensate for it. He even seems to take the theft (by a magpie) of his cherished gold retirement watch in stride, though he does spend much of his time searching the neighborhood for it. However, when he learns that his grown daughter's illness which he had been raising money for is a fake, he falls into a depression and kills himself. Apparently, this was one bearing-up too many. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Filmed in Yugoslavia, Do You Remember Dolly Bell? is set in the Sarajevo of the mid-1960s. When the government begins relaxing its hold on individual rights, many citizens don't quite know how to handle their sudden freedom. The film concentrates on the effect an onslaught of Western culture (movies, music, clothing, creature comforts) has on a previously "sheltered" group of young Slavs. The main characters also adapt to the Sexual Revolution in a series of romantic (and lightly censorable) setpieces. Originally released in 1981, Do You Remember Dolly Bell won the Golden Lion award for Best First Film at the Venice Film Festival, the first of several such honors for its director, Emir Kusturica. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi