Pancho Villa by Kusturica

Emir Kusturica, our renowned director, is slowly gathering collaborators for his new film about the legendary revolutionary Pancho Villa,
with a working title “Seven friends of Pancho Villa and a woman with six fingers”.

The acting crew currently including Javier Bardem, Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz could soon be joined by the great Hollywood star Johnny Depp. Kusturica is soon leaving to Puerto Rico to negotiate with Depp in order to renew their collaboration after 18 years from shooting of the film “Arizona Dream.”

Kusturica spent last weekend in Venice at the wedding of the Mexican actress Salma Hayek and the French multimillionaire Francois-Henri Pinault. On this occasion, he met Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz who will have roles in his film about Pancho Villa. Shooting is planned to start until the end of this year. The script is written by Kusturica’s regular collaborator Gordan Mihic, but it is based on “The Friends of Pancho Villa”, James Carlos Blake's fictional account of Pancho Villa’s life from the point of view of his lieutenant with a lot of true details from the Mexican Revolution.

Kusturcia has been fascinated by this powerful figure from his students’ days.
“Pancho Villa is a man with an idea of justice, equality and anti-imperialism. Reasons for shooting this film are coming from the inside, as a strong feeling to show his life,” Kusturica has recently said for “Blic” and added that the film will be shot in several locations including Spain, Mexico and Serbia (Mokra Gora).
Considering the fact that the film will unites reality and fiction, it is understandable why Kusturica decided to choose Johnny Depp. Their film from 1991 “Arizona Dream” gained great success and it was awarded by the “Silver Bear” in Berlin.

“Emir is not a typical director. He is more of an ethereal one. Working with him is my best collaboration so far. I would even jump from the Eiffel Tour for him,” Johnny Depp once described his collaboration with our famous director.

Eurovision 2009 Moscow

Jelena Tomasevic supports Marko Kon

Serbia: "Camp, kitch and chaos" for Cipela presentation
Jelena Tomasevic, the Serbian 2008 Eurovision Song Contest participant, feels certain that her successor's style and personality will attract Europe's attention. The Serbian star, who finished sixth last year with Oro, offered some advice to Marko as well as her warmest wishes for good luck.

"Marko is full of positive energy. He is an interesting and funny person with exquisite professional and human qualities. I have already advised him to stay calm and dedicate himself fully to his performance. Under no circumstances should he allow himself to be affected by trivialities. He should enjoy the beauties of Russia and get acquainted with other contestants. I wish him to qualify for the final and finish in the top ten", stated Jelena.

The promo materials for Cipela are now ready and have been presented in a press conference held at the RTS headquarters where the concept of this year's presentation was also discussed. "The presentation of the song Shoe is called 'The Shoe, Love, Live and Leave'. It consists of various gadgets which tell a story about a vagabond who is scared of ordinary life. Wherever his shoe touches the ground, that's where his world is", says Boris Miljkovic, Art Director responsible for the visual identity of the Serbian 2009 Eurovision entry.

"The presentation is a mixture of kitsch, camp and chaos which are, as Terry Wogan described it, the essential characteristics of the Eurovision Song Contest." says Mr Miljkovic who is the man behind last year's sub logo as well as the postcards, the traditional videos used to introduce each competing entry. "I think that we shall achieve a great success, despite everything", concludes Miljkovic.

Fiat pays in EUR 1.5mn

KRAGUJEVAC -- Fiat has paid EUR 1.5mn into the account of Fiat Automobiles Serbia that will be spent on enhancing production processes at the Kragujevac plant.

Fiat experts are working intensively on bringing production standards at the former Zastava plant up to world standards, and the money will be used to relace outdated production equipment and machines, a source told FoNet.

According to the Italian auto giant, there is no problem with the vehicles being produced in Kragujevac, but its engineers, together with their Serbian colleagues, will continue daily monitoring and analysis of the production process to “reach the planned level and balanced production dynamic as soon as possible.“

Time in Serbia

Serbia Fed Cup team in World Group

Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic took Serbia Fed Cup team to the World Group after three years of hard work. Alongside Ukraine, Serbia will be debutants in the elite tennis competition, but will also stand good chances of winning the trophy.

If we take into account the teams’ past performances in the Fed Cup and the players’ individual rankings, Serbia’s toughest oppositions will be Russia and the USA. The former because thy have as many as five players in the top 10 – Safina, Dementieva, Zvonareva, Kuznetsova and Petrova – and they have also won the Fed Cup on four occasions since 2004. We should also not forget that former number one Maria Sharapova is sometimes in the team when she is not out injured. As for the USA team, they have been without Serena Williams and Venus Williams in the past couple of years, but nonetheless they have survived in the World Group. What’s more, they will be playing in the final against Italy this season. The USA team also boast the best doubles partnership of Liezel Huber (world’s No 1 doubles player) and Lisa Raymond (ranked No 3), and if needed, coach Mary Joe Fernandez can always fall back on calling up the Williams sisters for the doubles match, as they share the number 11 spot in the doubles rankings.

The draw for the Fed Cup takes place on 3 June in Paris during the French Open and the procedure will produce the opponents Serbia will take on in Round 1.
- “We have realistic chances of winning the Fed Cup next year. We have an outstanding line-up and I believe we have a bright future ahead of us. However, all of the teams competing in the World Group are tough. All we can do is to get ready as best as we can for the first round, which will most likely be played in February,” said Serbia Fed Cup team coach Dejan Vranes.
The seeded teams at the draw for the 2010 edition of Fed Cup World Group will be Italy, USA, Russia and the Czech Republic, while the unseeded teams will be France, Germany, Ukraine and Serbia. The domestic national team comprise two former No 1 WTA players, who are now ranked fourth and seventh.
- “I don’t have any special wishes ahead of the draw. I just wouldn’t like to see us drawn against the toughest of teams, and by that I mean the USA or Russia. We have plenty of time before 3 June to prepare and monitor the performances of our future rivals, and I hope we enter the tie in high spirits and fine form,” said Vranes.
What could prove to be one of the major assets of the Serbia team is the atmosphere and the winning mentality on the team. One player to fit in perfectly with the philosophy is youngster Ana Jovanovic – Serbia’s number three – who beat Maria Jose Sanchez in the Fed Cup play-off tie to achieve one of the finest results of her career.

- “By beating Sanchez in Spain, Jovanovic once again proved she is a player we can count on. I am confident the win will have a very positive effect on her confidence and eventually improve her current ranking (237th), because I believe her WTA rankings position does not reflect her quality and that she can be much better than that. I wish to congratulate all of the players on excellent performances against Spain, as well as on great dedication during the tie,” concluded Serbia team coach Vranes.

Swine Flu Alert !!!

BELGRADE -- The airports in Belgrade and Niš are on high level alert after swine flu broke out in Mexico and spread to America and New Zealand.

A member of the Health Ministry’s pandemic flu work group Branislav Tijodorović told daily Blic that all passengers coming from abroad, especially America and Mexico, will have to be checked out and interviewed by the sanitary inspection.

He said that the Institute for Infective and Tropical Diseases in Belgrade and the Infective Clinic in Niš, Novi Sad and Kragujevac will be accepting all patients that believe they may have gotten the virus.

“What has happened is something everyone in the world of epidemiology fears, and that is that pigs are a source of the virus. After the mutation of the virus, the infection can now be passed from person to person. The World Health Organization declared it as the fourth phase of flu transmission,” Tijodorović explained.

Serbia has prohibited the import of pork from Latin America since the flu broke out.

President of the Health Ministries Flu work group, Predrag Kon, said that the group is constantly working and that there will be an evaluation of the epidemiological situation by the end of the week.

He recommended to Serbs in Mexico and America to follow the recommendations of local health officials, adding that if people come back to Serbia from one of those countries and have a high temperature or are breathing with difficulty, to go and see a doctor.

Kon said that Serbia is not directly at risk and that it is good news that the virus is reacting to some existing medicine.