MOSCOW, December 21 /TASS/. Emir Kusturica, the world famous Serbian film director and the winner of 2 Golden Palm Branches at the Cannes Film Festival, has said he plans to wrap up his career as a movie actor and will no longer participate in any films.
Kusturica stars in his new picture called "The Milky Way", which is going to be screened in Russia for the first time.
"This movie was very hard for me. Playing a role in it was a big problem. The work of an actor and a film director are two different things. When I saw the playback I understood that it was not quite what I should have done as a film director," Kusturica told journalists in Russian as he presented his new film in Moscow on Wednesday.
He noted that he would no longer act in movies and that being a film director suited him much better.
The film’s plot unfolds during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. The movie’s main character is a milkman who has to cross the frontline together with his donkey every day to deliver food to the soldiers. A meeting with a mysterious Italian woman changes his life. Kusturica and Italian movie star Monica Bellucci take the two leading roles in "The Milky Way".
"I never thought that I would work with Monica. We met each other not very long ago. She is a very good actress and I am happy that I had the chance to work with her," the film director said.
Emir Kusturica is one of the few people to win two top awards at the International Film Festival in Cannes. He received the Golden Palm Branch for his pictures When Father Was Away on Business, which was made in the former Yugoslavia in 1985 and his 1995 film Underground. Kusturica often appears in his own films predominantly in small episodes.