Srđan Dragojević

Infobox Celebrity
name = Srđan Dragojević


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birth_date = Birth date and age|1963|1|1|mf=y
birth_place = Belgrade, Serbia
death_date =
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occupation = Film director and screenwriter
salary =
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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.

Career

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", which has since then become a camp classic. 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 series "Otvorena vrata".

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".

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 [ [http://www.kinoeye.org/03/06/dewit06.php 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 Warner Bros.' "Ocean's 11" remake, which Miramax thought would jeopardize its box-office run. [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0276394/trivia IMDb] ]

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. [ [http://www.pressonline.rs/page/stories/sr.html?view=story&id=28970&sectionId=39 Aždaha ubiva anđela, "Press", February 1, 2008] ]

Return to Serbia

By 2003, Dragojević returned to his homeland. He also returned to making Serbian films, including "Mi nismo anđeli 2", the sequel to his greatest commercial hit. Released in early 2005, "Mi nismo anđeli 2" broke box office records in Serbia despite being widely panned by the critics.

Right afterwards, Dragojevic started working on the third installment of the "Mi nismo andjeli" franchise. This resulted in "Mi nismo andjeli 3: Rokenrol uzvraca udarac" that he co-wrote with Dimitrije Vojnov, but left directing duties to Predrag Pasic.

Filmography

Directing

*"St. George Shoots the Dragon" (2008)
*"Mi nismo anđeli 2" (2005)
*"The Wounds" (1998)
*"Pretty Village, Pretty Flame" (1996)
*"Otvorena vrata" (1995) (TV series) (directed a few episodes)
*"Dva sata kvalitetnog programa" (1994) (TV movie)
*"We Are Not Angels" (1992)

Writing

*"After" (2008)
*"Mi nismo anđeli 3: Rock & roll uzvraća udarac" (2006) (with Dimitije Vojnov)
*"Mi nismo anđeli 2" (2005)
*"The Wounds" (1998)
*"Pretty Village, Pretty Flame" (1996) (with Vanja Bulić, Biljana Maksić and Nikola Pejaković)
*"Dva sata kvalitetnog programa" (1994) (TV)
*"Slatko od snova" (1994) (with Aleksandar Barišić)
*"We Are Not Angels" (1992)

References

External links

*imdb name|id=0236729|name=Srđan Dragojević