Belarusfilm to work with Emir Kusturica on new film

Belarusfilm Studio will take part in a new project of Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica.

Head of the sales and advertising section of the national film studio Mikhail Katyushenko told BelTA.

“Belarufilm Studio and French CINEMA SOLEIL have concluded a memorandum of a joint production of a feature-length movie “If Not Now, When?” by Serbian producer Emir Kusturica. The script is written by Emir Kusturica jointly with Gordan Mihic after a namesake novel of Italian poet, writer and translator Primo Levi. The film is set in the WWII time on the territory of Belarus. The story follows the partisan fight and resistance to the Nazi lines. Primo Levi wrote the book in 1982. The book brought its author the Italian prestigious literature awards - the Campiello and Viareggio prizes,” Mikhail Katyushenko said.

According to Mikhail Katyushenko, the idea of a joint film production appeared during the work of the Belarusian pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival. The Belarusian delegation held talks with General Producer of the project Micky Zahar. “This is not the first international initiative put forward during the participation of the film studio in the world's biggest cinema forum,” he noted.

Emir Kusturica is a Serbian filmmaker, scriptwriter, producer, whose films have won the awards of Europe's biggest film festivals, including two Palme d'Or at Cannes. He is a member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republika Srpska. Emir Kusturica has been awarded by President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko for the preservation and development of traditions of spirituality in cinematography.

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