Once Upon a Time There Was a Country
Thursday 23. 1. 2025.
10:00 – The Stanley Kubrick Theatre
In Belgrade, during World War II, Marko hides his friend Blacky from the Nazis in a cellar where a group of Yugoslav partisans live underground, manufacturing weapons. For Marko, it is a lucrative business and a way of separating Blacky from the girl they both love, the actress Natalija. For 20 years, Marko tells the people below that the war is still on, manipulates and feeds them false information. At the same time, he becomes a rising political figure in communist regime.
Director: Emir Kusturica
Screenplay: Dušan Kovačević, Emir Kusturica
Director of Photography: Vilko Filač
Film Editing: Branka Čeperac
Producer: Karl Baumgartner
Cast: Miki Manojlović, Lazar Ristovski, Mirjana Joković, Slavko Štimac, Ernst Stötzner, Srđan Todorović
Duration: 170’
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, 1995
About Director
Emir Kusturica
Emir Kusturica is a Serbian film director, musician, and writer. He studied film directing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU), and his graduation film Guernica (1978) won the first prize at the student film festival in Karlovy Vary. His first feature film, Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (1981), earned him the Silver Lion in Venice, while his film When Father Was Away on Business (1985) won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award. Time of the Gypsies (1988) earned him the Best Director award at Cannes, while Arizona Dream (1993), his work in English, won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. Underground (1995), his allegorical take on Yugoslav history, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, making Kusturica one of the few directors to win this prestigious award twice. He taught acting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo and film directing at Columbia University in New York. On Mećavnik Hill, he built the village of Drvengrad, which has been hosting the Kustendorf International Film and Music Festival since 2008.