Kusturica: Serbs in Kosovo are a people in a ghetto, they don't protest out of spite, but to preserve their lives

The celebrated director and writer Emir Kusturica said that the Serbs in Kosovo did not set up barricades out of spite but to defend their own lives, Novosti reports.

Kusturica assessed that Pristina's ban on Patriarch Porfirije visiting the Patriarchate of Pec was shameless.

"If I were in the place of the patriarch, and I hope that was the case with him, it would never occur to me to question the people living in the ghetto and my compassion for them. Because these people are not protesting out of spite but drawing attention to their issue, which is no longer historical or emotional but existential. Anyone with at least some compassion must not give up on the people who have set up barricades to defend their own lives. If I could join them, I would do that out of compassion," Kusturica said.

As he added, since he was put on the list of undesirable people for entering Kosovo, he could not support them with his presence.

"I can stand by them with my word and everything I've done. What would happen if we had to protect Belgrade with barbed wire, how would those people treat us? Let me just remind you that what they are doing is because of great trouble, by no means comfort or out of spite," Kusturica stated.