Srđan Dragojević (, , born 1 January 1963) is a Serbian film director and screenwriter, who emerged in the 1990s as a significant figure in Serbian cinema.
From 2010 until 2017, he was affiliated with the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). In late August 2013 he became an SPS MP in the Serbian National Assembly.
Early life and career Born to a journalist father Anđelko Dragojević (1934-2017) hailing from Srbica and a French translator mother Ljiljana, Dragojević once described himself as a "child of middle-level communist nomenklatura in Serbia".Conversations with three filmmakers;World Socialist Web Site, 8 May 1999 His father worked as a staff writer at Belgrade-based daily newspapers Borba and Večernje novosti, including a managerial stint at OOUR Novosti media company. In his early youth, Dragojević played bass guitar in the punk/new wave band TV Moroni. He also dabbled in journalism, writing for newspaper and Start magazine.
He obtained a degree in clinical psychology from the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Philosophy.
In parallel, Dragojević was active in poetry, publishing a book of poems called Knjiga akcione poezije (The Book of Action Poetry) in 1986 and winning the prestigious for it. By his own admission, much of his poetry was inspired by the 1920s Soviet art and poets like Vladimir Mayakovsky:Srđan Dragojević: Moji filmovi mogu da budu opasni;Blic, 31 October 2011 In 1987, Dragojević passed the entrance exam for the film and TV direction program at the University of Arts' Faculty of Dramatic Arts (FDU) where he studied under the tutelage of . He subsequently published one more book of poetry, Čika kovač potkiva bebu, in 1988 before devoting fully to film. He briefly came back to poetry in 1995 as an already established film director to release Katkad valja pročitati poneku knjigu da ne ispadnete glupi u društvu.
Cinematic career
Debut and early period Dragojević made his directorial debut at the age of twenty-nine with 1992's Mi nismo anđeli whose screenplay he had previously written as well. What was essentially his FDU graduate thesis project, an irreverent youth comedy set in Belgrade about a geeky teenage girl who gets impregnated by a local lothario, turned out to be a huge cinema box-office hit in FR Yugoslavia and eventually in the rest of the former Yugoslav countries. During the film's promotional cycle in 1992 in FR Yugoslavia, young and telegenic Dragojević talked about not approaching Mi nismo anđeli artistically, i.e., consciously attempting to make a commercial movie via gambling on the teen comedy sub-genre that had no prior root in Yugoslavia. The upstart director further described his general approach to filmmaking as "trying to deliver professional cinematic offerings that resemble those from the West". Revealing a future career goal of continuing to direct but also to branch out into film production, he proudly stated his opposition to the "hideous" European auteur cinema while talking of his openness to commodification of film by wanting to work as a producer that oversees all aspects of a film in production, including hiring of a director as a contractor—a practice usually looked down upon in Europe. In his numerous media appearances, Dragojević talked up his movie by expressing a personal opinion that with Mi nismo anđeli he "delivered a solid product that could hardly have been better than it is considering the circumstances it was made in". In order to market the movie easier and more effectively in Yugoslavia, Dragojević even came up with a term "[Yugoslav] pink wave" as an anti-reference to the critically acclaimed and film-festival-celebrated social problem films of the Yugoslav Black Wave movement.
With his cinematic profile raised, in 1993, Dragojević was set to begin shooting a campy Almodóvaresque project tentatively titled Devedesete (The Nineties) about loyalty, jealousy, infidelity, and intimacy, with the original plan to shoot three separate endings and distribute three versions of the film. However, the financial implosion of the state-owned production studio Avala Film amid galloping inflation in FR Yugoslavia put an end to that project.Srđan Dragojević: Reakcije na "Paradu" su istovjetne u Hrvatskoj i Srbiji, nismo mi toliko različiti;Novi list, 26 December 2011
He was next hired along with to co-write a star vehicle for turbo-folk star Dragana Mirković that eventually became 1994's widely panned, romantic musical comedy .
The year 1994 also saw Dragojević write and direct a made-for-TV musical comedy Dva sata kvalitetnog TV programa ("Two Hours of Quality TV Programming") that aired on RTS television's third channel (3K) as part of their New Year's Eve 1995 programming. During next year, 1995, he directed a couple of episodes of the RTS series Otvorena vrata ("Open Doors").
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 gruesome issues related to the ongoing Yugoslav Wars with a controversial drama containing elements of dark comedy, Lepa sela lepo gore, set in war-torn Bosnia. In addition to critical praise, the movie made a measurable commercial impact with more than 700,000 tickets sold domestically during its theatrical run.I u najskupljem srpskom filmu zvijezda Splićanka ; Jutarnji list, August 20, 2007 It also raised plenty of controversy across Europe over its ideological aspects: while many saw it as a powerful denouncement of war, others viewed it as "fascist cinema". The movie was even refused entry at the 1996 Venice Film Festival in addition to splitting the jury at the 1996 Thessaloniki International Film Festival that ultimately denied it the main prize despite being an overwhelming hit with the festival's audience.Vox Populi ;28 November 1996 In North America, the film received more or less universal critical praise as Dragojević started getting courted by Hollywood almost immediately following the film's notable run on the festival circuit across the continent. He signed with William Morris Agency in late summer 1996 and got flown to Los Angeles where he had meetings with different studio heads.:Gerald Peary, April 1998 However, deeply dissatisfied with the scripts he was being offered, the director decided to come back home and do another film in Serbia. Therefore, the only tangible result of his brief flirtation with Hollywood on this occasion was the deal with Fox Lorber for the North American limited theatrical and home video distribution of Lepa sela lepo gore.
Back home on the political front, Dragojević supported the 1996-97 anti-government demonstrations by speaking at rallies and taking part in protest walks.
In 1998 Dragojević gave a bleak and critical portrayal of life in Slobodan Milošević's Serbia in Rane, which was another critical success for the young director. Loosely based on a true story, its plot follows the descent of two Belgrade youngsters from youthful exuberance into juvenile delinquency and hard criminality amid economic sanctions in FR Yugoslavia as their personal relationship transforms from close friendship to impulsively vicious rivalry. Released in May 1998 and, like most local productions, funded in large part by state institutions such as the state-run broadcaster RTS, the film elicited a stern response from the government elements that did not appreciate the director's brutal portrayal of Milošević's Serbia. Though they didn't ban the movie outright, they severely impacted its promotional cycle by refusing to run the film's ads in the state-run print and electronic media outlets.Dark Balkan Comedy and Black-Sheep Directors;The New York Times, 24 September 1998 During the film's promotion on the festival circuit in North America, Dragojević expressed concern that he wouldn't be allowed to continue making films in Serbia under Milošević.
Those fears didn't turn out to be unfounded as his attempts to raise funds for the film adaptation of Dušan Kovačević's 1984 theater play St. George Slays the Dragon quickly got shot down.
Hollywood years By 1999 Dragojević had enough of Serbia as the realization set in that he wouldn't be allowed to make films the way he wants to. He thus called on his Hollywood connections in order to once again explore his options across the pond and soon opened negotiations with Miramax as he again started to get some interest from America including a January screening of Rane at the Sundance Film Festival.1999 Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Lineup;indieWIRE, 3 December 1998
In late March 1999, a week into NATO's bombing of Serbia, Dragojević boarded a bus to Budapest with his wife and their two kids and went to New York City where he had a scheduled screening of Rane organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center at the Museum of Modern ArtOne Filmmaker's View from Yugoslavia;indieWIRE, 31 March 1999Growing Up in Belgrade With Suitably Black Humor;The New York Times, 22 August 1999 as part of its annual 28th New Director's/New Films series.1999 New York's New Director's/New Films Series Lineup Set;indieWIRE, 4 March 1999 The arrival to the country that's bombing his homeland put him in an odd and uncomfortable position and he acknowledged as much in interviews.After Anticipated New Directors Debut, Yugoslavian Filmmaker Discusses U.S./Serbian "Propaganda";indieWire, 5 April 1999 He remained in the United States, travelling across the country with Rane that had several more festival screenings (including the San Francisco International Film Festival) while simultaneously negotiating terms with Miramax.
New York City
From July 1999, with his Miramax deal announced,Dragojevic, Miramax Sit 'pretty';The Hollywood Reporter, 29 July 1999 Dragojević would end up spending the following two years living and working in the United States, initially in New York City. He was under the so-called first-look deal that obligated him to offer everything he's interested in developing (either his own work or someone else's work the rights for which could be bought) to Miramax first and then if Miramax refuses it, he was free to shop it around elsewhere. The deal also functioned in the other direction whereby Miramax would offer him scripts, books, stories or re-make ideas they thought fit his sensibility and he'd have the right of refusal.Obračun sa sobom;Vreme, 1 January 2000
However, Dragojević experienced major problems persuading the studios to sign-off on his suggestions, and did not like the ideas being offered to him.