Želimir Žilnik
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| Želimir Žilnik | |
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| Born | September 8, 1942 Niš, Serbia |
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| Occupation | Film director, screenwriter |
| Website http://www.zelimirzilnik.net |
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Želimir Žilnik (Cyrillic: Желимир Жилник) is a Serbian film director. He is noted for his socially engaging style and criticism of censorship that was commonplace during the Yugoslav communist era. Subsequently, following the abolition of communist one-party system, he was an outspoken critic of Slobodan Milošević-led regime in Serbia.
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[edit] Career
He won his first awards, a Golden Berlin Bear and a Youth Film Award at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1969 for his feature film Rani radovi[1] (Early Works) which depicted the aftermath of the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
During the early 1970s he was criticized and his works were quite often banned due their[2] portrayal of student demonstrations and their advocacy of freedom of media and speech. Between 1973 and 1976 he found work for several independent German production companies. In conjunction with these companies he directed two documentaries dealing with anarcho-terrorism; Öffentliche Hinrichtung[3] and Paradies.[4] In Yugoslavia he found work in theatre production but returned to his previous work with documentaries.
In the 1980s his works began to garner more attention and were successfully presented on several television networks and at local and international festivals. In 1985 he made Pretty Women Walking Through the City which predicted that nationalistic tensions will cause the disintegration of Yugoslavia. His 1988 his black comedy Tako se kalio čelik[5] (The Way Steel Was Tempered) was nominated for a Golden St. George award at the Moscow International Film Festival in the Soviet Union.
In 1994 he wrote and directed Tito's Second Time Among the Serbs, and helped initiate one of Serbia's independent media outlets, b92 in Belgrade. His 1995 feature film Dupe od mramora (Marble Ass) was a look at the myth built around the masculinity of the male as a warrior and leader. That film also won a Golden Berlin Bear at the 1995 Berlin International Film Festival and received great amounts of attention around the world, being shown at festivals in the Americas and Europe.
Recently he has directed several documentaries dealing with the commonality of the Central and Eastern Europe and the problems with immigration to and from Europe[6] with the same style and narrative that had gained him recognition for many years.
[edit] Selected Filmography
- Kenedi se ženi (Kenedi marries) (2007)
- Kenedi se vraca kuci (Kenedi returns home) (2003)
- Tvrdjava Evropa (Fortress Europe) (2001)
- Kud plovi ovaj brod (Where this Ship Sails) (1999)
- Dupe od mramora (Marble Ass) (1995)
- Tito po drugi put medju Srbima (Tito's Second Time Among the Serbs) (1993)
- Tako se kalio čelik (The way Steel was Tempered) (1988)
- Sve zvezde (All Stars) (1985)
- Abschied (Farewell) (1976)
- Paradies (Paradise) (1976)
- Rani radovi (Early Works) (1969)
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Wolfram Schuette, "Critical and destructive: Zelimir Zilnik's 'Early Works'", in: ART IN SOCIETY, No. 3 (http://www.art-in-society.de/AS3/Schuette.shtml)
