Milena Dravić

Milena Dravić (pronounced [mǐlena drǎːvit͡ɕ]; Serbian Cyrillic: Милена Дравић; born 5 October 1940) is a Serbian actress.

Born in Belgrade, Dravić was involved with the performing arts from the age of four: first with dance and later classical ballet. In 1959, while in high school, director František Čap saw her on the cover of a youth magazine in a ballet dancers group photo and decided on the spot to approach her about being in his film Vrata ostaju otvorena. After appearing in few more films she decided to pursue acting full-time and successfully enrolled in Belgrade's Dramatic Arts Academy.

Her big break came in 1962 when she won the Golden Arena for Best Actress award (which was the Yugoslav equivalent of Academy Award) for her role in Branko Bauer's film Prekobrojna. This was the moment that sent her on the way to becoming Yugoslavia's first and arguably the biggest female movie star.

Milena Dravić continued with long and prolific career during which she showed great talent and versatility. She was equally memorable and believable as the tragic heroine in state-sponsored World War II epics, eccentric protagonist of experimental arthouse films like WR: Mysteries of the Organism and romantic comedies. She especially excelled in the latter during the 1970s and 1980s. She won the Cannes Best Supporting Actress Award in 1980 for Special Treatment.

For her roles and contributions to domestic cinematography, she received the prestigious Pavle Vujisić Award in August 1994.

Selected filmography

• The First Fires (1961)
• Kozara (1962)
• Destination Death (1964)
• Man is Not a Bird (1965)
• The Camp Followers (1965)
• Looking Into the Eyes of the Sun (1966)
• Rondo (1966)
• Touha zvaná Anada (1969)
• W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (1971)
• The Role of My Family in the Revolution (1971)
• The Battle of Sutjeska (1973)
• Acting Hamlet in the Village of Mrdusa Donja (1974)
• Special Treatment (1980)
• Three Summer Days (1997)
• Cabaret Balkan (1998)
• Sky Hook (1999)
• Love and Other Crimes (2008)
• St. George Shoots the Dragon (2009)

Personal

Milena Dravić has been married three times. Her current husband is Dragan Nikolić, a Serbian actor with whom she had co-hosted the popular 1970s television program Obraz uz obraz.

External links

• Milena Dravić at the Internet Movie Database
• Complete filmography at the Complete Index to World Film
• Dean Sinovčić (3 March 2008). "Milena Dravić - novi uzlet srpske glumačke zvijezde" [Milena Dravić - New rise of Serbian star actress] (in Croatian). Nacional (weekly). Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 22 July 2012.