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Emir Kusturica believes in arrival of new wave of quality Russian cinema

Kusturica will head the jury of the St. Petersburg International Film Festival

ST.PETERSBURG, September 24 (Itar-Tass) — Serbian film director Emir Kusturica believes that a new wave of top quality Russian cinema will arrive. Speaking at a news conference devoted to the St. Petersburg international film festival, Kusturica called on young film directors to stop copying Western “trash”.

Kusturica recalled that various directions seized leadership in the cinema industry in the postwar period: Italian neo-realism, fantastic cinema in Germany, “black cinema” in the Czech Republic and a cinematographic boom in South Korea. Modern cinema is being driven into the format of “reality-shows” which has a pernicious impact on the quality of films.

“You can see good films only at film festivals. These films are not released to broad public,” he said.

The Serbian film director spoke highly of Soviet and Russian films. He said he had learnt a lot from the classic of Soviet cinema Alexander Dovzhenko. Kusturica said he was concerned with the trend of many Russian film directors to copy the so-called “trash” from the West.

“Stupid characters from Hollywood often appear in modern Russian films,” Kusturica said. And yet, he expressed the hope that one day it would be possible to see a new wave of good Russian films. He believes that there are all grounds for that.

Kusturica will head the jury of the St. Petersburg International Film Festival. Fourteen films from Russia, Latvia, Iran, the Philippines, Turkey, Israel, Germany and other countries will run in the contest program.