Emir Kusturica has denied Russian media reports stating that his new film, On The Milky Road, was rejected from Cannes because of his support of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“I’m just really confused. I don’t know what is going on. I have absolutely not spoken to anybody, ” the world-famous film director and two-time Palme d’Or winner said in the exlusive interview to screendaily.com.
Earlier, the Russian agency ‘The National News Service’ said that the decision to turn down the new movie by Kusturica was politically motivated. According to the agency, the director submitted the film to Cannes the day after the deadline and that no one watched the film.
Kusturica does not hide his approval of presidents Putin and Lukashenka, whom he sees as friends of Serbia. But in this case, he stresses that it was the reason for rejecting his film.
“The Cannes Film Festival wanted the movie, but we have not finished. We have many things to do. We have to make special effects and we do some editing to do. And the film is to be shortened,” the filmmaker told ScreenDaily.
On The Milky Road unfolds as a three-part narrative recounting three periods on the life of a man, played by Kusturica himself. Monica Bellucci appears as his love interest. One period is dedicated to the war-torn Bosnia in 1992-1995.
