/ world today news/ During the many years of work in the Balkans, I have met Emir Kusturitsa several times. I visited him in Mokra Gora, we also talked in Moscow a year ago.
Emir Kusturitsa has an extraordinary view of the world, he thinks quite interestingly about modern people, about relations with Western culture and Slavic spirituality. CORRESPONDENT: Why in your work do you always try to tell people the truth, even if it is not very pleasant ?
Emir Kusturica: At first I had shot my films in such a way that I would not be ashamed in front of my parents, friends, teachers. I never thought I would get an Oscar, the Palm branch at Cannes. I was just making good cinema for the people. I am sure that if at the beginning of my career I had set out to make a film that would immediately receive all the awards imaginable, then I would not have done anything in my life. I had certain moral principles, I set myself the task of telling the truth. And that is why today they know me and watch my films all over the world. Human life, civilization cannot develop without strong ideas. The apartment, the car, the luxurious life – these are not bad things. They become a lie if they become the goal of life. Each of us should have a purpose in life. But if things become the main meaning of life, the main goal, then nothing comes out. That way you won’t do anything. There must be some main idea, a main goal that guides us in life, guides us spiritually. One must define one’s task, choose one’s own path. Only then can we get what we want. The idea itself will lead us to the result. A rich man can be good. But if he builds his life to become rich, his life becomes meaningless. Everything that contains some spiritual idea leads to the achievement of one’s positive goal. If everything turns upside down, it is difficult to achieve anything good.
CORRESPONDENT: Modern technologies and the Internet are increasingly captivating people. Each of us is under the control of “big brother”, although often we do not realize it. Are we becoming robots that will eventually lose our spirituality and individuality?
Emir Kusturica: Today’s world is filled with “high tech” heathens. This paganism does not benefit humanity. Man is under constant technological control. His brain, all parts of his body are controlled. Everything that happens to each of us is accessible to new technologies. But we cannot say that the man of today is better than the man of the Renaissance. We cannot say that the man of the era of industrial revolutions is better or worse than today’s “high tech” people. However, modern people were left without a spiritual guide. They only have evil intentions, they want to dominate others, to enslave people. What does God give to man? It gives it an individuality that is leveled in today’s world. The man turned out to be divided not into two, but into several parts. Today’s “high-tech” man is more inclined towards the biological rather than the spiritual life. He is only interested in material values, he is a heathen of technology. And this pagan is today opposed to the divine man of whom Dostoevsky had spoken. The Americans conducted an interesting study. They chose the best writer of all times and nations. Leo Tolstoy was in first place. Dostoyevsky is not on their list at all. They are hindered by Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s deep view of the human soul. I don’t want to say anything bad about Tolstoy, but Dostoevsky opens up the human soul, its inexhaustible possibilities. He talks to us even today, in the modern and necessary language of every person. It calls for spirituality. The modern “high tech” heathen is a consumer and he does not ask himself questions. He loses his individuality and becomes part of the ruled crowd. He has no soul. Today, most Serbs and Russians are turning into “high-tech” heathens. It becomes a copying of Western cultural samples, and by far not the best ones. There are also many good things there, but the youth choose the worst – the paganism of “hai theka”. I hope that in the West there will also be great changes, because without spirituality you cannot live.
CORRESPONDENT: You often come to Russia, you have many friends here. What do Serbs and Russians have in common? Why did our countries experience so many human tragedies in the 20th century? What have we done to deserve such suffering?
Emir Kusturica: The peoples of our countries have experienced many tragedies. Russia is a country where the occupiers from Napoleon to Hitler have always aspired. Your country, with its vast territory and natural resources, has always been a “greedy piece” for all who came to war. The suffering of the peoples of Russia is a huge historical enigma. Did the people of Russia have to suffer like this? He truly experienced as much as no other people on the planet has experienced. Serbia has also experienced quite a few human tragedies. We lost 2/3 of our working population. If there was no World War I, there would be 40 million people in Serbia today, not 9. Historical circumstances constantly involve us in these human tragedies, in these wars. The other Slavic peoples managed to adapt to the historical circumstances. The same Czechs managed to find a compromise with the occupiers. The fascists were much more merciful to them than to the Russians or the Serbs. And Yugoslavia during the Second World War fell into a historical trap. And Britain took advantage of that. Serbs took to the streets and protested against Hitler, Churchill ordered all Europeans to fight against the fascists, to prevent Hitler from conquering Europe. And we did not listen to him, and on March 27, 1941, the people took to the streets. All this was organized by British special services, who carried out Churchill’s orders. Hitler then ordered the bombing of Yugoslavia. We are constantly being bombarded: both the allies of the anti-Hitler coalition in 1944 and the members of NATO in 1999. Today’s world is such that it constantly needs wars. Although war is condemned in literature and most people are against it, modern warfare has become a profitable business. It is an eternal enterprise that thinks only of how to profit from human suffering. And the main hypocrisy of the modern world is that those who organize the wars also finance the anti-war movements. The fate of mankind is intertwined in a strong knot that cannot be untied: from war to profit, from profit to war. This is how capital and huge fortunes are accumulated. Modern wars are fought under the slogan “Democracy and humanity”. The war in which we lost Kosovo was called “Mercy Angel”. And no one asks – why? In Vietnam 4.5 million people died, in Iraq – one million, in Afghanistan people die every day and we will never know the true numbers. This means that capitalism is the main military enterprise. If an angel came down from heaven and told Bush that there would never be any more wars, everyone would be out of a job. Wars give impetus to new technologies, make people move forward. I am against wars, but it is an integral part of human history and its tragic development.
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