Serbian Film Director Cuts Short Croat Interview

Emir Kusturica (archive; photo by vojvodinacafe.com)

Serbian film director Emir Kusturica cut short an interview with the Croatian national television HRT on Wednesday, in a spat after the TV crew allegedly questioned his relationship with former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

While the director claims that he walked away from the interview due to the ''cruel intentions'' of the interviewer, HRT says Kusturica got frustrated with the questions, ended the interview, confiscated the footage, and expelled the HRT team from his set.

The six-member HRT team came to the Mokra Gora mountain to make a previously agreed interview with Kusturica for the TV programme 'Nedjedjom u dva''. The team said that Kusturica did not like their questions regarding his relationship with Milosevic.

When asked why he drank whiskey with the former president during the Bosnian-Serb siege of Sarajevo, Kusturica allegedly said that he had no choice because at that time he had been awarded with Palme D’Or (Golden Palm) at the Cannes Film Festival.

According to local media, the interview reached breaking point when the interviewer reminded Kusturica how he once said that it was touching to see Milosevic sending kisses to his wife from the Hague based war crimes tribunal.

The journalist then asked him whether he asked children in Israel (where the director is making his new movie) if they found it touching to watch Hitler’s intimate moments with Eva Braun.

Kusturica’s answer on that was: "Why do we not talk a little about the Croatian legionaries who killed Serbs in Croatia?" The interviewer finally pushed him over the edge by asking him why he had mentioned the indicted Croatian war criminal Ante Gotovina in a positive context in one of his songs.

HRT says Kusturica abused and harassed the team members for about 45 minutes before they had handed him a tape with the footage.

In an interview with the daily Blic, Kusturica said that even though he acted as a traditional Serbian good host, he felt that Stankovic had cruel intentions.

"I figured out that he is making and interview with evil intentions and I ended the conversation," the daily quoted him as saying.