Jat Is Part of My Life

Celebrated film director Emir Kusturica flies exclusively on Jat Airways to destinations covered by our national air company.

Text & Photo by Milorad St. Ilić

Emir Kusturica is unsurpassable in his simplicity. Casual and spontaneous in communication, he kindly responded to our request to answer several questions while waiting to board a flight to Paris on the YU- 240 scheduled Jat Airways line. At the same time, at 9:20 a.m., a French air company airplane took off for Paris from Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla airport, but there was no doubt that Emir Kusturica would be flying on Jat. What fascinated Serbia’s renowned film director was that it took the Jat check-in counter clerk just a few minutes using the most sophisticated AMADEUS global booking system to book him a seat on a foreign airline for a Paris-Lisbon flight. Smiling and in a good mood while comfortably seated aboard the Jat airplane, Kusturica’s manner was cordial and friendly as he spoke.

Your films feature flying but a special, surrealistic way of flying. People as well as objects fly. From where comes this motive to attribute such surreal traits?

– Because gravity is an onerous circumstance with respect to imagination in art, setting in motion this film-like mechanism implies a circus-like aspect. This circus dimension is tantamount to acrobatics that, in fact, serves as an opening act, and then the flying – like everything else – is just a matter of composition.

How do you feel being at an altitude of 9,000 metres? Do you experience fear, or perhaps watching the clouds from such short distance invites in you an image for a scene to be used in some future movie?

– There is no fear. At 9,000 metres I feel at home, like in the kitchen, staring through the window. I am already in the air so much that should I continue like this I would end up as a bird! Certainly the ‘up and above’ gets my imagination working. Many a time I came by inspiration, later realised in my movies, while flying.

You have travelled all over the world. Can you describe the feeling that you get when, on a connecting flight somewhere in Europe, you board the airplane and are met by Jat pilots and flight attendants?

– I always feel wonderful, because this is part and parcel of a package I have been carrying since childhood. Jat is our gigantic institution. It is certainly also part of my youth and part of my life.

Does Jat carry for you some other special meaning, apart from being our national air carrier?

– It carries immense meaning because it is deeply ingrained into my memory. It is simply a part of my personality, part of my development process and the structure of my life.

Do you feel safe as Jat captains pilot the plane and are you content with the service and conduct of the cabin staff?

– I am happiest when our pilots fly the plane because I think we are a people prone to generating these very, very skilled sprouts. I have nothing but praise as regards the service and conduct.

Is there something you would like to tell Jat travellers and employees?

– To Jat passengers – not to worry as they will be safe and secure on board Jat airplanes, and to employees – to succeed in preserving their company.

We thanked Emir Kusturica and bid him farewell. Many a time before, we welcomed him as he returned on board a Jat airplane bringing back major awards and recognitions from prestigious international film festivals. A master of sparkling humour and absurd situations, as well as highly serious and multi-layered thoughts about man and the world surrounding us, he flew off by Jat and will return also by Jat.