Srđan Dragojević

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Srđan Dragojević
Image:Srdjan Dragojevic.jpg
Born January 1, 1963 (1963-01-01) (age 45)
Belgrade, Serbia
Occupation Film director and screenwriter

Srđan Dragojević (Serbian: Срђан Драгојевић, born January 1, 1963 in Belgrade) is a Serbian film director and screenwriter, famous for his 1990s films that achieved considerable commercial success and critical acclaim.

Contents

[edit] Career

[edit] Debut and early period

After obtaining a degree in psychology and film direction from the University of Belgrade, Dragojević made his directorial debut at the age of 29 with 1992's Mi nismo anđeli whose screenplay he wrote as well. An irreverent youth comedy set in Belgrade about a teenage girl who gets impregnated by a local playboy turned out to be a huge hit in FR Yugoslavia and eventually in the rest of the former Yugoslav countries.

With his cinematic profile raised, Dragojević initially stayed close to the genre that put him on the map. He was next hired along with Aleksandar Barišić to co-write the star vehicle for turbo-folk singer Dragana Mirković that eventually became 1994's widely panned romantic musical comedy Slatko od snova. The year 1994 also saw him write and direct a TV musical-comedy Dva sata kvalitetnog programa that premiered on RTS television on New Year's Eve 1995. Next year, in 1995, he directed a couple of episodes of the RTS TV series Otvorena vrata.

[edit] Critical acclaim

Four years after his debut Dragojević finally returned to directing feature films, this time completely breaking out of the youth genre to tackle the issues related to the Yugoslav Wars with a controversial dark comedy Lepa sela lepo gore set in war-torn Bosnia.

In 1998 Dragojević gave a very bleak and critical portrayal of Serbia under the Milošević regime in Rane.

[edit] Hollywood years

He received a Hollywood deal from Miramax off the strength of these movies, and spent two years living in the United States. However, he was unable to persuade the studio to fund any of his projects[1] such as the heist-comedy The Payback All-Star Revue whose production was cancelled in 2001 due to an impending SAG strike threat and the release of Ocean's Eleven remake, which the studio thought would jeopardize its box-office run.[2]

While in America, Dragojević also worked on various Miramax pictures during their development phase such as Frida and View from the Top. He was by his own admission particularly interested in directing either of those two, however in the case of the former, the movie's producer and star Salma Hayek wanted a female director so the job went to Julie Taymor while in the case of the latter, the film's producers as well as its star Gwyneth Paltrow didn't like Dragojević's ironic take on the screenplay and Bruno Barreto got the job instead.[3]

[edit] Return to Serbia

By 2003, Dragojević returned to his homeland. He has also returned to making Serbian films, including Mi nismo anđeli 2, the sequel to his greatest commercial hit.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Directing

[edit] Writing

  • After (2008)
  • Mi nismo anđeli 3: Rock & roll uzvraća udarac (2006) (with Dimitije Vojnov)
  • Mi nismo anđeli 2 (2005)
  • Rane (1998)
  • Lepa sela lepo gore (1996) (with Vanja Bulić, Biljana Maksić and Nikola Pejaković)
  • Dva sata kvalitetnog programa (1994) (TV)
  • Slatko od snova (1994) (with Aleksandar Barišić)
  • Mi nismo anđeli (1992)

[edit] External links

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