Filmmaker

When and where was he born: 1955, in Sarajevo.

Nationality: Yugoslav.

Filmography and international awards: "Guernica" (diploma film, 1st. award at the International Students' Festival in Karlova Vary), "The Brides Are Coming" and "Buffet Titanic" (television dramas), "Do You Remember Dolly Bell" (the "Gold Lion" at the Venice festival, 1981), "When Father Was Away On A Business Trip (the "Golden Palm" at the Cannes festival, 1985), "Dom za vesanje" (award for Best Director at the Cannes festival, and the "Roberto Rossellini" Award, 1989), "Arizona Dream" (the "Silver Bear" at the Berlin festival, 1993), "The Underground - There Once Was A Beautiful Country" (the "Golden Palm", 1995).

Important domestic awards: The "Gold Arena" in Pula, 1981 and the AVNOJ award in 1989.

Family and upbringing: Born and grew up in a Partisan family. Father Murat was the B-H Minister of Information for a spell. Emir is married and has two children.

What was he like as a child: "I was something of a highwayman. I liked to fight, and even took money from kids for a while. But it all got mixed up in my head when I started reading books in third grade secondary school."

What did he read: Camus' "Stranger" and "Stories from Odessa" by Issak Babel.

His attitude towards film critics: He likes to beat them up, regardless of their religious, national and political convictions. In Sarajevo he beat up Senad Avdic (a Muslim) and Miljenko Jergovic (a Croat) and in Belgrade Dragoslav Bokan and Nebojsa Pajkic (turbo-Serbs).

His attitude towards politicians: He doesn't like them as rule. Tito was the "greatest criminal in the Balkans" and the "generator of all our crisis", former SFRY Prime Minister Ante Markovic is a "bastard who abused the Yugoslav idea", B-H President Alija Izetbegovic is a "fundamentalist", Croatian President Franjo Tudjman is a "German waiter", and the Slovenian leaders are "Austrian stable-boys", etc.

Is there anyone who is any good: "I agree a lot with one who really gives his all when doing his job. That's Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, whom many abhor because they'd like to see a Western European Catholic-type of democracy in Serbia. Sloba's going to beat them all because he's a strong man" ("Mladost", 1988). He didn't change his stands after war broke out, and in return, Belgrade approved significant financial and technical aid during the filming of "The Underground".

However: In April 1993, after meeting with Rasim, a refugee compatriot who had survived the tortures of Serb POW camps, he wrote a letter to the Sarajevo daily "Oslobodjenje" and tried to justify himself, admitting that he had "repressed the picture of his childhood, his city, the people he loved", and that this meeting had "dispelled all his political and historical illusions" and that the "Muslims were being killed today not as cotton-pickers, but because they were Muslims... Others were also being killed, but the Muslims most of all".

However, after unfavorable reactions (he was accused of fundamentalism in Belgrade, and of insincerity in Sarajevo), he wrote another letter, this time to the Belgrade weekly "NIN" and said that the "unfortunate Rasim hadn't inspired a new political view or stand" and that the meeting with him "hadn't changed anything except that it had resulted in strong emotions".

About the Muslims: That which I can't understand in this war is the opting of the Muslims for the weaker side, because, as Ducic says - war is a battle between the weaker and the stronger. Obviously their estimates weren't good, because it was necessary to make an alliance with the winning side. And this is the Bosnian Serb side. ("Borba", August, 1993).

Why he didn't keep quiet and make films: "My aunt was a guerilla fighter, my father a Partisan, I was infected with the need to observe all that was happening in society. This is why I watched very intensely all that was happening around me, and felt the need to react. And after all the awards I have received, I gained the illusion that what I was saying could have some effect. It proved to be an illusion, just like everything else."

Why an illusion: "Every time when I tried to help Yugoslavia, I thought that it was the people, and that's where I was wrong. Because behind that which is called the people in Yugoslavia, hide beasts, butchers, good-for-nothings and the occasional human being."