BIOGRAPHY OF THE DIRECTOR
Bobo Jelčić was born in Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina on 12th March 1964. After graduating from high school in his hometown, he studied directing at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. He has worked as a director for all the major theatres in Croatia, as well as with theatres in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, and the Croatian National Theatre in Mostar. He is also a professor of acting at the Academy in Zagreb. In 1995, he and his associate Nataša Rajković began working in Croatia with their new method, which positions the actor in the role of the author. They devised several stage plays using this method, including Observations (1997), Slowing Down (1998), Uncertain Story (1999), Heimspiel (2002 Hannover), X Wohnungen (2002 Duisburg, 2004 Berlin), On the Other Side (2006), Fast sicher (2007 Zürich) and The Store Window (2010). Their theatre projects have received many awards, from, among others, the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, the Wiener Festwochen, and the International Theatre Festival in Sarajevo. In 2005 Jelčić and Rajković co-directed their first experimental film, Black Coffee, which had its premiere at the Motovun Film Festival in Croatia. Jelčić’s latest theatre project, based on Chekov’s play The Seagull, had its premiere on 26 January 2013 at the Zagreb Youth Theatre.
Jelčić lives and works in Zagreb. A Stranger is his first feature film.
BIOGRAPHY OF THE PRODUCER
Zdenka Gold was born in 1975 in Zagreb. She studied literature and languages at the University of Zagreb, and completed a postgraduate programme in cultural management, Balkan cultural policies and interculturalism at the University of Arts in Belgrade. She took part in the Berlinale Talent Campus in Berlin (2006) and Sarajevo (2007), and developed Bobo Jelčić’s feature A Stranger at a workshop organized by EEFA Training Network (2010). She attended EURODOC 2011 with Marko Stanić’s documentary project Slave to the Rhythm. In 2011 she also participated in EP2C, and in 2012 took part in training sessions for local producers in Croatia, organized by EAVE; the European Postproduction Challenge by Focal and Film Marketing Workshop organized by EAVE. In 2013 she will develop a new feature film, Family Dust by Nina Violić at the EAVE Producers’ Workshop.
Zdenka began her producing career with two stage plays: Nina Violić’s dramatized monologue The Borosana’s Work on a Role (2002) and Three Sisters, based on Anton Chekov’s play, directed by Dario Harjaček (2006). She earned her first professional film credit as a director’s assistant on Dalibor Matanić’s award-winning feature Fine Dead Girls in 2002. Soon after, she teamed up with Nataša Rajković and Bobo Jelčić as the producer of their first experimental film Black Coffee, which premiered in 2005.
She has also worked as an event organizer for film festivals and educational programs, as a TV producer for EPH TV and as a production coordinator for Mainframe Production. In 2009, she started revitalizing her own production company Spiritus Movens Production, and has worked there ever since, developing a slate of feature films and documentaries. Zdenka Gold is a member of the Croatian Association of Producers and the Croatian Association of Film Workers.
BIOGRAPHIES OF THE CREW
Dubravko Petrović Baja – executive producer
Over the past three decades, Dubravko Petrović-Baja has worked as a film director, location manager, production assistant and assistant director. He has worked on over 30 feature films – both international productions and locally produced films – and a TV series. His filmography includes many movies that enjoyed notable success at the box office and international film festivals, including White Lightning, directed by Dominic Murphy; Spring Break in Bosnia, directed by Richard Sheppard; Behind Enemy Lines, directed by John Moore; and Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott.
Erol Zubčević – DOP
Erol Zubčević was born in Sarajevo in 1976. He graduated from the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF). As a cinematographer, he has worked on several feature films and documentaries. His best-known films include Aida Begić’s award-winning festival hits Snow (Snijeg), which won the International Critics’ Week Grand Prix at the 2008 Cannes International Film Festival, as well as 25 other awards from festivals around the world; and Children (Djeca), which was awarded a Special Distinction in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes International Film Festival in 2012.
Ivana Fumić – film editor
Born in Vukovar in 1976, Ivana Fumić graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb, where she studied film and television editing. Her debut as a feature-film editor was on Mondo Bobo, which won the Golden Arena for Best Film Editing at the 1997 Pula Film Festival. She has edited 11 feature films to date.
Ranko Pauković – sound designer
Ranko Pauković was born in Zagreb in 1960. After graduating from the Academy of Dramatic Art he worked as an assistant editor on large international co-productions filming in Croatia. In 1991 he moved to The Netherlands and worked as a sound editor with important Dutch directors including Frans Weisz and Hans Hylkema, before setting up his own sound studio. Since it was founded in 1993 Editson Studios has specialized in sound design, sound editing and sound mixing for films with artistic merit and high production values.
Based in Amsterdam, Pauković now operates internationally, working with directors from Croatia, Ireland, Belgium, Great Britain, France, Lithuania, Armenia, Colombia and of course, The Netherlands. He has built up an impressive body of work ranging from feature films, through to high-end TV drama and documentaries. Many of these films have been shown at prestigious film festivals including the Berlinale, Cannes, Sundance and Toronto.
Mario Ivezić – production designer
Born in Dubrovnik in 1954, Mario Ivezić graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at University of Zagreb. He began his career as an assistant production designer in the late 1970s, and has worked as an art director and production designer since the late 1980s. He has worked on more than 80 projects: films, TV series, and domestic and international theatrical productions. His filmography includes two winners of the Golden Arena award at Pula Film Festival: Two Players from the Bench (Dva igrača s klupe, 2005) by Dejan Šorak and Vinko Brešan’s Will Not End Here (Nije kraj, 2008).
Ana Bulajić Črček – make-up designer
In the last two decades Ana Bulajić Črček has worked as a make-up artist for more than 40 domestically produced and foreign feature films, as well as TV movies and commercials. She has won two Golden Arena awards at Pula Film Festival for best film make-up: Silent Gunpowder (Gluvi barut), directed by Bahrudin Čengić (1989), and Seventh Chronicle (Sedma kronika), directed by Bruno Gamulin (1994). She has also worked on major Hollywood productions including Mimi Leder’s The Peacemaker, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator and Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down.
Sanja Džeba – costume designer
Sanja Džeba was born in Banja Luka. After graduating from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade, she attended the Jacques Lecoq International School of Theatre in Paris, where she studied stage design. She worked as a set designer and costume designer in theatre, film and TV in the former Yugoslavia until 1992. She then moved to Paris, where she worked as a costume designer, creating costumes for more than 40 stage productions. She returned to Sarajevo in 2005. To date, she has worked on 15 feature-length and medium-length films as a costume designer.
Radivoje Andrić – first assistant director
Radivoje Andrić was born in Sarajevo in 1967. He graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts at Belgrade University in 1994 with an MA in film and TV directing. He has over 20 years’ experience of working as a 1st AD for renowned ex-Yugoslav directors, including Zivojin Pavlovic, Srđan Karanovic, Rajko Grlic and Srđan Dragojevic. He has also directed several short films and documentaries for B92, the Serbian independent TV and radio station, many of which have been screened at international film festivals, including Rotterdam, Thessaloniki, Tinklai and Huesca.
He directed his first feature film in 1998 – Three Palms for Two Punks and a Babe (Tri palme za dve bitange i ribicu), which was a great box-office success in Serbian cinemas and was also screened at festivals in Cottbus, Sofia, Prague, Moscow, St Petersburg and London. His second feature Thunderbirds (Munje, 2001) was the number-one box-office film in Serbia in 2001. His 2004 feature When I Grow up I’ll be a Kangaroo (Kad porastem biću Kengur) won awards at Motovun and Thessaloniki film festivals. Andrić is also the author of a book for children How to Make a Movie, which has been translated into Indonesian, Chinese and Polish.
Oriana Kunčić – casting director
Born in 1971 in Šibenik, Oriana Kunčić graduated from the Ca ‘Foscari University of Venice, where she studied history of theatre and from the acting department at the Academy of Performing Arts at the University of Sarajevo. She has worked as an assistant director and casting director on a number of feature films and short films, many of which went on to win awards at international festivals, including: On the Path (Na putu), directed by Jasmila Žbanic; Snow (Snijeg), directed by Aida Begić; Grbavica, directed by Jasmila Žbanic; and Miss (Gospođica), directed by Andrea Štaka.
BIOGRAPHIES OF STARRING ACTORS
BOGDAN DIKLIĆ in the role of Slavko
Bogdan Diklić is one of the leading actors from the former Yugoslavia, with an impressive résumé both on stage and on screen. His performances on film are an indispensable part of Yugoslav and later Serbian, Bosnian and Croatian cinema. He was born in 1953 in Bjelovar (now in central Croatia), where he first discovered his love of acting. In 1972 he enrolled in the Belgrade Faculty of Dramatic Arts. Just three years later he joined the Belgrade National Theatre, where he stayed until 1995, playing a number of notable roles. He went on to work at the Yugoslav National Theatre, Belgrade Drama Theatre, Theatre Kult and Zvezdara Theatre.
In addition to his stage career, Diklić has also worked tirelessly in front of TV and film cameras, and has appeared in more than 130 films and TV series. Without question, his most successful and popular role was in the 1982 film The Marathon Family (Maratonci trče počasni krug), directed by Slobodan Šijan. Yet, memorable as it is, his portrayal of the youngest, most determined and craziest member of the Topalović clan has not overshadowed the rest of his film career, which includes a wide range of extremely popular and successful films such as National Class (Nacionalna klasa), Balkan Express, Collection Centre (Sabirni centar), The Jaws of Life (U raljama života), We Are Not Angels (Mi nismo anđeli), Powder Keg (Bure baruta), No Man’s Land (Ničija zemlja), Fuse (Gori vatra), Grbavica, Border Post (Karaula), Trap (Klopka), and 72 Days (72 dana).
Diklić has received numerous awards for his acting achievements, one of the most recent being the award for Best Supporting Actor in the film 72 Days at the Pula Film Festival (2010). He is a true artist, without whom it would be hard to even imagine the film industry in the Balkans.
NADA ĐUREVSKA in the role of Milena
A champion of Sarajevo’s National Theatre, Nada Đurevska was born in 1958 in Skopje. She moved to Sarajevo when she was one year old: a city that has influenced her, as much as she has influenced it. She graduated with a degree in acting from the local Faculty of Arts in 1979, and became a member of the ensemble at the Drama Sarajevo National Theatre – an honour she still holds today. Throughout her long and prolific theatre career Đurevska has received several awards, and her most significant performances include the roles of Masha in Chekhov’s Three Sisters (Tri sestre), and Filomena in Moliere’s The Learned Ladies (Učene žene). During the war she played in all Sarajevo’s theatres, and after the war, she played numerous iconic roles in theatres throughout Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Đurevska has left a deep mark on cinema and on TV. She first appeared before the cameras in a TV film Source (Izvor) in 1978. Just like her movie partner in A Stranger, Bogdan Diklić, her performances have enriched numerous Yugoslav, Bosnian and now, also, Croatian films. Especially noteworthy are the films Igman March (Igmanski marš), Golden Apple (Od zlata jabuka), Well Tempered Corpses (Dobro uštimani mrtvaci), Days and Hours (Kod amidže Idriza) and Grbavica. Nada Đurevska certainly is the First Lady of Bosnian theatre.
