Tenth Kustendorf Opens
The Tenth International Film and Music Festival Küstendorf was opened tonight in the crowded Damned Yard Theatre in Mećavnik.
The ceremony began with a slapstick performance inspired by the motifs from this year’s Festival poster. It was followed by a retrospective film with footage, music and motifs from previous nine festivals.
The opening ceremony continued with professor Emir Kusturica’s speech. He pointed out that the Festival’s main idea is to create a meeting point for young and established authors, adding that “since I was a student myself, I remember what it meant for me to meet, for example, Forman. After that I thought whether he gave me the look or not, whether he really liked the short film I had shown him or not, but the idea of great authors remained the focal point of my work.”
Lav Diaz, director from the Philippines and Golden Lion winner at this year’s Venice Film Festival, was then presented with the traditional Award for Future Movies.
Vladan Vukosavljević, the Minister of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia, gave an opening speech, greeting the guests of the Festival and underlining the great value of the Festival’s struggle for auteur approach to cinema and said: “…to all those who have tried to make film into something ugly and defile what human talent has given birth to, I wish them to die hard.”
The opening ceremony was completed with a concert performance of The No Smoking Orchestra with Adam Stinga and Novi Sad Big Band Orchestra. The concert started with a number from the film The Woman Who Left, followed by film scores from Kusturica’s opus.
