The influential Serbian director Emir Kusturica, winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival on two occasions and an inescapable signature of European auteur cinema, closes his musical facet with The No Smoking Orchestra on a farewell tour that will stop this Monday at the Teatro Caupolican. In this interview, the director addresses one of his latest controversies as a result of the war in Ukraine and explains why he will move away from concerts.
(Q): Why did you decide to get away from the stage? Haven’t you regretted this decision during your farewell tour?
(A): During its 23 years of existence, the band played all over the world. We’ve excited audiences in Europe, Asia, South America, Australia and New Zealand, we’ve played in South Africa… Our mix of ethnic, pub and film music caused standing ovations wherever we performed. Now we have the impression that this adventure must end at the most cathartic moment, when it is best. I can’t say I’m not sorry, but sometimes it is. This gives me space to give something more to the audience.
(Q): What will you miss most about the No Smoking Orchestra’s live performances?
(A): Seeing 5,000 or 50,000 people overcome by the emotion that you are trying to convey to them is priceless. I think we have managed to satisfy our audience through something that is not commercial. And the public gave us the same back. That is what should be remembered, the emotion that united us all at the same moment.
(Q): In these last decades, where did you feel most comfortable? At a live concert or a movie premiere? Are there similarities in these facets?
(A): At the live shows, definitely. They allow the artists to transfer their energy to the audience, and the audience can recognize it and return that cathartic feeling. It is a unique circle and if you manage to close it, you have done the right thing. This can only be established through the spontaneity of a live performance.
(Q): Do you feel like you’ve lived a “rock star” life? For many, you are like a movie rock star…
(R): Yes, sometimes I feel like that. Although I don’t think it’s anything too strange. During our career, we received a lot of love, a lot of good energy, and our audience is special in many ways. We had great concerts, we met people we never would have met if we weren’t popular, so the answer is yes, I felt like a rock star.
(Q): What was the strangest, most surreal or extravagant concert or presentation that you performed in your career?
(A): That is a very difficult question. We had more than 1000 concerts, we played all over the world and there were many unusual ones. Many concerts in South America will remain in my memory for life, because of the incredible energy and temperament that the people of South America manifest in them. Without a doubt one of the best was our first concert at Luna Park in Buenos Aires. The last concert in Santiago was fantastic (2017, I don’t remember the date), but I know that the room was packed and that a man almost fell from the balcony by the crowd. Our biggest concert was in Montreal in 2010; official data says that there were more than half a million people. It’s an amazing feeling to play in front of so many people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKe41Kfx_QI
(Q): Why do you think Balkan music is so popular in Chile and South America?
(A): I think we are very similar in temperament, people from the Balkans and South Americans are passionate, not so burdened by materialism and consumerism, warm and friendly. Our music is a mixture of film music, pub music, jazz, but each chord carries an emotion and that is what is recognized.
Emir Kusturica: War in Ukraine and veto in Barcelona
(P): Throughout your career you have always expressed your political opinion. And recently he pointed out that the war in Ukraine was assimilating to what was experienced with Yugoslavia and NATO years ago. How do you think these situations are similar?
(A): My position in the Yugoslav conflict was always peaceful and everything I said to the journalist was intended to make contributions to peace, never to bring fire. Many times I have spoken to help avoid conflicts in the case of Yugoslavia, also in Ukraine. The parallel between the NATO bombing in Belgrade and the Russian intervention in Ukraine was made because both cases were not authorized by the UN. For us Serbs, who lost more than 3,000 civilians in 1999, it is the case that led to the ongoing war in Ukraine. My opinion went around the world, including my desire to work in the theater of the Soviet Army, and was always related to my identity as an artist and my love for film and theater music. I was never a director of the Russian military theater. Before the war, I was offered to work there.
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(Q): In Barcelona, Ukrainian residents protested against the concert by Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra at the Paulau de la Música, because they claimed that you had ties to the Central Academic Theater of the Russian Army and that you “justified” the acts of Vladimir Putin. Isn’t this true?
(A): As I said, I was offered to work there on various projects. I was never director of that institution, nor did they offer me any of that. Unfortunately, politics has become entangled in all spheres of life, including art. You are aware of the fact that many Russian artists are banned from performing all over the world, writers, lecturers, teachers… Everything is terrible. Art is something that brings beauty to the world. What is happening today is pure politicization, and it should not be like that.
(Q): Would you like to meet President Gabriel Boric, the world’s youngest president, during his visit to Chile?
(A): Of course, why not. It is always satisfying to come into contact with young people and see their point of view, especially if they have the courage to be in a position as important as yours.