Film director addresses fortress controversy

Famed Serbian film director Emir Kusturica said on Wednesday that Trebinje "might be the most beautiful but that it was not the only old town". “There are run-down guard towers in other towns, too,” Kusturica said and added that he would try to get stones for a tower in Andricgrad he is building in the Bosnian town of Visegrad elsewhere. Film director addresses fortress controversy “We bought entire stone houses in Bileca, Trebinje and in the area and we took almost all stones because towers in Andric’s town need to be made of old stone,” the director explained. He said that although the Trebinje fortress was not a cultural monument protected by the state and was not in any of the registries, “there is always a mob that advocates the other, false aspect of the story”. Kusturica, who has been fiercely criticized by media in Bosnia-Herzegovina for “destroying Trebinje’s cultural heritage” after he took stone blocks off the tower, says that everything has basically been turned into a “meaningless, paradoxical political story”. Kusturica believes that Republic of Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik’s opponents are responsible for it and that they wanted to make him and his team look like thieves. The director, who is a two-time winner of the Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or and other international film awards, noted that he did not know whether those who attacked him were a majority or a minority in Trebinje, adding that he was not interested and that he did not even want to know. When asked whether he would accept the stone from the Trebinje Fortress if the town assembly confirmed Mayor Dobrosav Cuk promise and allowed him to use it, Kusturica said that the question implied that those were good people, “but they are not, however, and I do not expect something like that”. “When you bring him a paper that says it is not a historical monument and he still does not believe it, then it is a serious fixation and it is not a joke,” he stressed and added that it was a “psychopathological phenomenon”. According to earlier announcements, Andricgrad in Visegrad should be opened in June 2014. It is being built in honor of Nobel Prize winner Ivo Andric and represents a 17,000 square-meter plaza. The RS government and Kusturica are building Andricgrad which was inspired by Andric’s Nobel Prize winning-novel The Bridge on the Drina. Andricgrad will have streets, gates and towers made of stone, a library, a theater and a monument to the writer. Emir Kusturica (Tanjug, file) Tanjug

Film director addresses fortress controversy

“We bought entire stone houses in Bileća, Trebinje and in the area and we took almost all stones because towers in Andrić’s town need to be made of old stone,” the director explained.

He said that although the Trebinje fortress was not a cultural monument protected by the state and was not in any of the registries, “there is always a mob that advocates the other, false aspect of the story”.

Kusturica, who has been fiercely criticized by media in Bosnia-Herzegovina for “destroying Trebinje’s cultural heritage” after he took stone blocks off the tower, says that everything has basically been turned into a “meaningless, paradoxical political story”.

Kusturica believes that Republic of Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik’s opponents are responsible for it and that they wanted to make him and his team look like thieves.

The director, who is a two-time winner of the Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or and other international film awards, noted that he did not know whether those who attacked him were a majority or a minority in Trebinje, adding that he was not interested and that he did not even want to know.

When asked whether he would accept the stone from the Trebinje Fortress if the town assembly confirmed Mayor Dobrosav Ćuk promise and allowed him to use it, Kusturica said that the question implied that those were good people, “but they are not, however, and I do not expect something like that”.

“When you bring him a paper that says it is not a historical monument and he still does not believe it, then it is a serious fixation and it is not a joke,” he stressed and added that it was a “psychopathological phenomenon”.

According to earlier announcements, Andrićgrad in Višegrad should be opened in June 2014.

It is being built in honor of Nobel Prize winner Ivo Andrić and represents a 17,000 square-meter plaza.

The RS government and Kusturica are building Andrićgrad which was inspired by Andrić’s Nobel Prize winning-novel The Bridge on the Drina.

Andrićgrad will have streets, gates and towers made of stone, a library, a theater and a monument to the writer.