- Drvengrad
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Drvengrad
Дрвенград
Küstendorf/Мећавник— Village — Ethno village - Drvengrad
Location within Serbia
DrvengradCoordinates: 43°47′44.25″N 19°30′29.1312″E / 43.795625°N 19.508092°ECoordinates: 43°47′44.25″N 19°30′29.1312″E / 43.795625°N 19.508092°E Country 
SerbiaDistrict Zlatibor District Municipality Užice Founder Emir Kusturica Time zone CET (UTC+1) Website mecavnik.info Drvengrad (Serbian Cyrillic: Дрвенград, meaning Wooden Town, pronounced [dř̩v̞ɛngrad]), also known as Küstendorf and Mećavnik (pronounced [mɛ̌tɕaːv̞niːk]), is a traditional village that the Serbian film director Emir Kusturica built for his film Life Is a Miracle. It is located in the Zlatibor District near the city of Užice, two hundred kilometers southwest of Serbia's capital, Belgrade. It is located near Mokra Gora and Višegrad, best known for Yugoslav Ivo Andrić's Nobel-winning novel, The Bridge on the Drina. Kusturica was the 2005 recipient of the Philippe Rotthier European Architecture award.[1]
Contents
The idea
Emir Kusturica stated:
“ I lost my city [Sarajevo] during the war. This is why I wished to build my own village. It bears a German name : Küstendorf. I will organize there seminars for people who want to learn how to make cinema, concerts, ceramics, painting. It is the place where I will live and where some people will be able to come from time to time. There will be of course other inhabitants who will work there. I dream of an open place with cultural diversity which sets up against globalization.[2] ” Village
Overview of the entire Drvengrad village
Drvengrad is also known as Küstendorf, as a word play on German "dorf" (village) and Kusturica's nickname, "Kusta". Kusturica has also been known to call it Mećavnik, which is the name of the neighbouring village.
Drvengrad has a library, named the Ivo Andrić Library; an artist gallery named Macola in honor of sculptor Dragan Jovićević (it was previously known as Anika, after a character from Ivo Andrić's prose); Cinema Stanley Kubrick; a main house which houses a cinema-hall in the cellar, a living room, a guest room, a closed yard, a swimming pool, a gymnasium, a sauna and private rooms for the Kusturica family; a sports hall; a restaurant; a cake shop, as well as a souvenir shop; and finally, a Church dedicated to St. Sava.
Nearby is also a ski slope with four trails, as well as a hotel named Mladost ("Youth).
The streets in the village bear the names of various individuals that Kusturica holds in high esteem or finds to be personally significant: Nikola Tesla, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Diego Maradona, Miodrag Petrović Čkalja, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Joe Strummer, Novak Đoković and of course, Ivo Andrić, after whom the main street is named.
Film and music festival
Since 2008, the village hosts the annual Küstendorf Film and Music Festival[3], which showcases films and music from all around the world. The festival is known for not having a red carpet as well as none of the popular Hollywood festival artifacts.
In 2010, it was visited by famous actor Johnny Depp. During his visit, a statue dedicated to him was unveiled.
Gallery
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St. Sava church in Drvengrad
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One of the restaurants in Drvengrad
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Drvengrad houses
See also
- Kamengrad, another town built by Kusturica, currently under construction
References
- ^ Movie-maker, musician, architect: Emir Kusturica is coming to London, The Sunday Times
- ^ Küstendorf at kustu.com
- ^ INTERNATIONAL FILM AND MUSIC FESTIVAL KUSTENDORF/
External links
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