Emir Kusturica

I have mentioned Emir Kusturica before on this blog, be it on the sideline (here, and here). I don't believe Kusturica himself ever wears a beret...

I saw Arizona Dream the night before I went to Bosnia, in 1993, and it had an enormous impact on me. Kusturica's only Hollywood production was a box office disaster in the US, but a huge success in France and Eastern Europe. And everywhere in war-torn Bosnia, I heard the music from the film... Magical music (by Goran Bregovic and Iggy Pop).

Over the years I have become a collector of all his films (which sounds a lot easier than it was; they are hard to get and then often illegal copies), admiring the director until his later films Underground and Life is a Miracle came out, with a bit too much Serbian nationalism to my taste. 

Either way, despite political messages, Underground is a memorable film and it shows some berets as well!

If you have the chance to ever see (or rent) Time of the Gypsies, Black Cat - White Cat or Arizona Dream: do it. They're fantastic.