Emir Kusturica screened his latest “frantic two-hour Balkan vanity project” (Screendaily) at Venice last week, giving Putinist wino Gerard Depardieu an opportunity to voice his opinion about the unwashed director from Sarajevo. In an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Depardieu called Kusturica a fraud and said some other very nasty things. The French actor also said that he’d warned Monica Belucci against ever working with Kusturica, advice which she ignored. In his new film On the Milky Road, Kusturica cast himself in the role of a milkman, while Bellucci stars as his Serbo-Italian love interest; the two of them are on the run somewhere in rural Bosnia.
Kusturica fired back at the Frenchman while in Venice, calling him an alcoholic conman and accusing him of hating all Serbs. The little feud was funny because Kusturica and Depardieu are part of the same circle of celebrities who’ve been temporarily banned from entering Ukraine by the SBU for visiting Crimea. Kusturica also questioned the depth of Depardieu’s devotion to Putin, accusing him of faking his interest in Russian culture in order to obtain citizenship for tax purposes. Depardieu, who recently told the Guardian he drinks more than a dozen bottles of wine each day, had a good laugh about Kusturica’s “identity issues”.
So whose side are you on? Are you #TeamKusturica or #TeamDepardieu? Or team “let them devour each other”? Let us know in the comments.
