TULA, October 20 Serbian director Emir Kusturica said that he would make “Crime without Punishment” based on the novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, this will be his first film in Russian.
Previously, Kusturica said that he was thinking about making films based on the works of Dostoevsky and Yevgeny Vodolazkin.
“There will be “Crime without Punishment” and there will be “Laurel” (based on the novel by Vodolazkin — ed.) … I wanted to make this film in Serbia, but I think that I will make Raskolnikova, Sonya Marmeladova here (in Russia — ed.). Script I'll finish. Good Russian actors and actresses will star in this film. This will be my first film in Russian,» Kusturica told reporters at the Yasnaya Polyana House of Culture.
According to him, the idea to make this film came to him 20 years ago. Then Johnny Depp wanted to star in it, but Kusturica refused him.
«When I met Johnny Depp, he said that he wanted to play Raskolnikov. I told him that this was impossible because I wanted to do it in Serbian. He was upset and did not understand why I said that. He said that he was ready play in any language I want. But I have always believed that the root of film and literature is where they grew,” the director noted.
The first school of film criticism is held at the Yasnaya Polyana museum-estate. from October 19 to 23 with the support of the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives and the Kino TV channel.
In turn, Evgeny Vodolazkin announced that he would write a script for Kusturica’s film based on his novel “Laurel.”
“I really avoid writing a script, at least for my works. But “Laurel” is perhaps the only novel that at some point I understood how to film. I have no ambitions to express myself in cinematography, This is absolutely not my field. But there are cases when, even on foreign territory, you sometimes understand how it should look,» Vodolazkin said as part of the events of the school of film criticism.
According to him, the main incentive for writing the script was Kusturica’s idea to make a film based on “Laurel”. “I decided that, probably, if such a great director is directing, then I should at least try to write a script. I sent the first third of the script to Emir so that I knew everything exactly. We even translated this part. Then Emir called me and said that he liked it and he understands how to make this film. Then, with peace of mind, I wrote the rest of the script. If Emir likes it, then we will work with this script and make a film,» the writer emphasized.
Kusturica said that he liked the timelessness of the Lavra, but at the same time the “historical, Russian perspective.”
“I think that if it works, and I think only the Emir will succeed, to combine laughter and tears, then I will be happy,” concluded Vodolazkin.
The novel “Laurel” also received the Yasnaya Polyana Award in the 21st Century category in 2013. The novel takes place in the 15th century. The main character of the book lives, as it were, four different lives — he was a doctor, a holy fool, a pilgrim in Jerusalem, and finally became a hermit.