Danis Tanović

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Danis Tanović as a member of the jury at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival

Danis Tanović (born February 20, 1969) is an acclaimed Bosnian film director and screenwriter.

Tanović is best known for having directed and written the script for 2001 Bosnian movie No Man's Land.

1 Biography
2 Filmography

[edit] Biography

Danis Tanović was born in the central Bosnian city of Zenica, to Bosniak parents. Tanović was raised in Sarajevo where he also received his primary and secondary education. He also finished Music school, piano department.

As a young adult, Tanović decided to study at the Academy of Theatre Arts in Sarajevo. However, due to the Siege of Sarajevo, Tanović was forced to stop his studies in 1992.

Immediately after, Tanović joined a film crew that followed the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, going on dangerous missions. The material that Tanović and the film crew produced has since been used in numerous films and news reports about the Siege of Sarajevo and the Bosnian war.

In late 1994, Tanović left the film crew he had worked with for over two years. A year later, Tanović decided to resume his studies, this time in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. In 1997, Tanović completed his studies in Brussels with excellent marks. During the studies he made several critically acclaimed documentary films.

Shortly after, Tanović began his first movie project, entitled No Man's Land. He wrote the script and directed the movie, which was completed in 2001 and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival that year. No Man's Land went on to win Prix du scénario at Cannes, followed by numerous awards, including the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2001, while in competition with French Amélie. Tanović was presented the Oscar by John Travolta and Sharon Stone. Briefly after, Tanović thanked everyone who worked with him on the film and supported its creation. He ended his acceptance speech by saying, "This is for my country, Bosnia", expressing his devotion and patriotism to his country.

In total, No Man's Land won 42 awards, including the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, the European Film Academy Award for Best Screenplay, the César for the Best First Feature film in 2001 and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2002. Upon international theatrical release, the film was embraced by critics and those who went to see it, for its darkly humorous and gripping tale on the absurdity of war. It is probably the most awarded first feature film in a history of film making

Tanović's second feature project was L'Enfer, completed in 2005, from the screenplay by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz. The film marked the second installment in the Polish duo's projected trilogy Heaven (filmed by Tom Tykwer in 2002), Hell and Purgatory. Inspired by Euripides' Medea, L'Enfer explores the lives of three sisters, "each locked in her own unhappiness, nursing a secret flower of misery, the seed for which was planted by their late father with a terrible incident in their girlhood" (from a review by Peter Bradshaw).