Director Emir Kusturitsa admitted that he is glad he doesn't belong in Hollywood. He shared this during his speech at the "Aleksandrovskaya Fortress" festival in Ussht-Labinsk, Krasnodar Krai.
At the event, he recalled his first English-language film, Arizona Dream, which was shot in Hollywood. The film was released in 1993 and starred Johnny Depp, Jerry Lewis and Faye Dunaway.
"I think in this film my dream was to protect me from that, to be myself. It was a European film made in America with American actors. Well, I made a dream. I'm a very happy person because I didn't become a Hollywood director," Kusturitsa said.
He also noted that providing leading roles for the LGBT community is now mandatory in Western cinema. However, the most important issues in his work for him are those of dreams and love, Earlier at this festival, Kusturica said that the denial of Russia's culture cannot last long and that the Western countries' ban on Russian culture can be compared to the Nazi persecution of the Jews during the Great Patriotic War.
The festival "Aleksandrovskaya Fortress" is held over two days in Ust-Labinsk. It is the largest festival of Cossack culture in the Russian Federation, combining music, theater, literature, cinema, gastronomy and crafts.
Izvestia/Roz
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