08/03/2005

Pam Engel head of UK distribution company Artficial Eye is relieved: the release of Emir Kusturica’s Life Is A Miracle will go ahead as scheduled this Friday 11 March, and no cuts will have to be made to the scene of a dead pigeon in the film.
A controversy around the UK release of the Cannes 2004 competition film Life Is a Miracle arose last Friday following an interview given by the Serbian director to UK newspaper The Guardian in which he threatened to pull his film from British cinemas because he didn’t want to comply with the British censors’ request to have a two-seconds scene removed from his film. According to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the compulsory cut concerns “a single shot of a cat attacking an apparently live pigeon”. But in the newspaper’s interview, the hot-tempered Kusturica expressed his outrage to the request: “I just don’t get it”, he said. “The pigeon was already dead, we found it in the road, and no other censor has objected. What is the problem with you English? You killed millions of Indians and Africans and yet you go nuts about the circumstances of the death of a single Serbian pigeon. I am touched you hold the lives of Serbian pigeon birds so dear, but you are crazy. I will never understand how your minds work”, he told the Guardian. And contrary to Lars von Trier who last Thursday accepted to get rid of a dead donkey scene in his film Manderlay [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Kusturica insisted he would keep his dead pigeon scene in Life Is a Miracle.

To cool the situation, the UK distribution company Artificial Eye yesterday had to send a letter of reassurance to the BBFC, stressing the fact that the pigeon was already dead when the scene was shot and agreeing to take responsibility on any potential legal action against the film. Although at press time, Artificial Eye was still waiting for the BBFC’s final decision, Pam Engel, managing director of the company was very optimistic: ”With this letter of reassurance, the BBFC will be OK and will certainly accept the film without cuts”, she said. ”We’ll go ahead with the release and are very happy to show the film in our London cinemas the Renoir and Chelsea Cinema as well as in another London venue”.

The UK art-house specialist previously released two Kusturica films: Underground and Black Cat, White Cat. Future European titles released by Artificial Eye include the Italian films Le Chiavi di casa (The House Keys) and Le consequenze dell’amore (The consequences of love), the German Heimat 3, the IT/UK co-production Tickets and the French films De battre mon Coeur s’est arrêté (The Beat That My Heart Skipped) and Rois et reine (Kings and Queen).