Putin hosted Emir Kusturica in the Kremlin

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Serbian film director Emir Kusturica in the Kremlin, saying that Kusturica's approach to history can be „very interesting and productive.“.

„Art reflects the reality of life, and today it is just a forgotten past. Your appeal to history, it seems to me, can be very interesting and productive,“ Putin told Kusturica, RIA reports.

He called the Serbian director's ideas about making films in Russia interesting.

„These ideas are very interesting and we need to discuss them,“ said the Russian president.

Kusturica, on the other hand, thanked Putin for what he called „historical justice.“.

„I want to thank you for your personal historical justice, which we Slavs have always had. What is happening in Ukraine now is a fight for us. We saw what happened with Bandera in Croatia when they expelled 230,000 Serbs. I think this analogy is very important for everyone,“ said the director.

He added that he plans to shoot a „Russian triptych“ of three films based on the writers Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Gogol, and Leo Tolstoy.

„I have an idea to make a triptych in the New World, a Russian triptych, three films. The first is called The Engineer of Light Walks – that is my contemporary version of Dostoevsky. Then my version of Gogol's How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich – very funny and I think it is important to do that now. And the third film is Leo Tolstoy's The Cossacks, Kusturica stated.

He said that he plans to end his career after working on the „Russian Triptych“ and the film „Laurus“ based on the work by Yevgeny Vodolazkin.

SOURCE: RTV PHOTO: SCREENSHOT