Russians were persecuted like Jews before planet War II, and Ukraine did not be before Khrushchev," said the Serbian director.
“The future of Europe is in large danger,” said the celebrated Serbian manager Emir Kusturica, who spoke to the media at the 'Kustendorf' festival.
Although in 2022 he had to quit his cooperation with the Moscow Theatre of the Russian Army due to large pressure, Kusturia plans a trilogy based on Gogol's work and does not hide sympathy for Russia and the Russians.
For Russian media, Kusturica compared the situation in Crimea with the issue of Kosovo.
"The Albanian issue, like everything else in the world, is linked to geography, the spread of power and access to large waters. For 200 years the Anglo-Saxon power prevented the Russians from approaching the warm seas. The Crimean War, reduced this problem to the size of the territory that later russian Russia passed on to Ukraine. The same is actual of Albania's problem. If individual asks why Romania and Bulgaria are in the EU and Serbia is not, then the answer is clear: due to the fact that these 2 border countries with Russia on the another side of the Black Sea. Therefore, they rapidly joined NATO, the European Union. These 2 institutions are surely the same.”
On the French-German plan for Kosovo, which the EU imposes on Serbia, the manager stated that it is an ultimatum which Serbia will surely not accept.
This, as he stated, is the minute erstwhile the conflict in Ukraine, together with Russia's progress, takes on a fresh character. “The West wants to set the Balkans on fire and lead them to a point where it will only be either-or. This is an ultimatum, not a deal. Even if the Serbs agree, which they surely won't, the question is, what's next? Voivodine's next. The eventual will have no end if you agree to the first." “ Now we are witnessing a fresh war called “political correctness. ” It inhibits combativeness and opposition and imposes tolerance," he added.
Kusturica pointed out that the improvement of European culture is unthinkable without Russian influence.
"The thought of banning Russian culture should be abandoned, and worse, the Russian people. European culture and its improvement are unthinkable without Russian influences," the award-winning Serbian manager believes. Kusturica does not consider Gogol to be a Ukrainian author and, he claims, Ukraine does not appear in his tracks.
"Little Russia is repeatedly mentioned in his works: Poltava, Mirgorod and another cities. So if we turn to Gogol and his works, from which I read almost all, Ukraine is not mentioned there. It is mentioned in the introductions of these books, but not even in the books of the author himself," Kusturica said. The manager and screenwriter pointed out that Gogol wrote in Russian about the territory of Malorussi. “ The Soroczyński Fair ” quotes old folk songs that are said to be tiny Russian. Gogol wrote in Russian about the territory that was Malorussia. He didn't compose in russian times. They turned the area into Ukraine under Khrushchev, and previously there was no specified country," Kusturica concluded.
Jacek Mędrzycki
