Kusturica begins construction of stone city for new film

Award-winning director Emir Kusturica this week launched the construction of a historic town in Visegrad, a set for his forthcoming film based on a novel by Nobel prize laureate Ivo Andric.

The epic Bosnian work The Bridge over the Drina – for which Mr Andric was awarded a Nobel prize for literature in 1961 – is set in Visegrad.

“I am certain that Andric, if he was alive, would like to see a city that creates an image of continuity which links different steps in the history of Visegrad, the eras of paganism, early Christianity, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires,” Mr Kusturica said during a ceremony broadcast live on the Bosnian Serb public TV station.

Two-time Golden Palm winner Mr Kusturica said the film set, modelled on the historical town Kamengrad, near the famous bridge in Visegrad, could later serve as a tourist attraction.

The project, which has an estimated cost of about €12 million, will see the construction of more than 50 stone houses as well as a church, hotels, theatre, shops and small dock for boats.

“This is a demanding project, but it will be successful as Emir Kusturica will direct all the work,” said Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik, whose government has fully supported the construction.

The work began with the arrival of several diggers and bulldozers to the sounds of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. Mr Andric, the only Nobel prize laureate from the former Yugoslavia, was raised by his mother’s family in Visegrad on the river Drina, crossed by the Ottoman Bridge, later made famous in his novel.

Bosnian-born Mr Kusturica was awarded the Golden Palm for Underground (1995) and When Father Was Away on Business (1985). Since the end of the 1992-1995 interethnic war Bosnia has been split into two semi-independent entities, Serb-run Republika Srpska and Muslim-Croat Federation. The entities are linked by loose central institutions.