Želimir Žilnik ( sr-cyr, Желимир Жилник; ; born 8 September 1942) is a
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
n film director best known as one of the major figures of the
Yugoslav Black Wave film movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
Early life
Žilnik was born in 1942 in the
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...
-run
Crveni Krst concentration camp near the city of
Niš
Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names in other languages) is the third largest city in Serbia and the administrative center of the Nišava District. It is located in southern part of Serbia. , the city proper has a population of 183,164, while ...
in southern
occupied Serbia.
Both of his parents were Communist activists who were executed.
His father was a
Slovene who was captured and killed by
Chetniks,
and posthumously honored as a
Yugoslav People's Hero. After his mother was executed, he was released and raised by his maternal grandparents.
As a youth he was editor of a communist magazine called ''Tribina Mladih''. As a student, Žilnik was chosen to take part in an international cultural exchange program in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, where he was first exposed to films that dealt with social and political criticisms. Upon his return to Yugoslavia, he took part in a cinema club and was hired as an assistant in a film by the director
Dušan Makavejev
Dušan Makavejev ( sr-Cyrl, Душан Макавејев, ; 13 October 1932 – 25 January 2019) was a Serbian film director and screenwriter, famous for his groundbreaking films of Yugoslav cinema in the late 1960s and early 1970s—many of wh ...
.
Career
Beginning in 1967, Žilnik became involved with the ''Neoplanta'' film production company. The company paved the way for a significant change of Yugoslav cinema with the production of films that explored socio-political criticisms, eventually leading to the
Yugoslav Black Wave of film-making.
By the time Žilnik made his third short film ''Nezaposleni Ljudi'' (''The Unemployed'') in 1969 he had already become a recognized filmmaker. ''Nezaposleni Ljudi'' was criticized by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia for its portrayal of workers and the unemployment situation in Yugoslavia.
In 1969 Žilnik released his feature film ''
Early Works'' (''Rani radovi'').
The film, which was an allusion to
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
's
early writings, critiqued the Yugoslav communist regime and depicted the murder of a young woman named Jugoslava by her comrades after their revolutionary ideals failed to be implemented.
In addition, it "portray
da direct association between sex and politics" with the utilization of the naked body for shock value, widely taboo at the time. After initially being screened to audiences, Žilnik and the production company
Avala Film were ordered by the authorities to stop production.
Žilnik refused and was taken to court, where he successfully defended the film. It was sent to the
19th Berlin International Film Festival where it received a
Golden Berlin Bear
The Golden Bear (german: Goldener Bär) is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival. The bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin, featured on both the coat of arms and flag of Berlin.
History
The win ...
Award.
The suppression of his third film, ''Crni Film'' (an ironic take on the Black Wave dubbing) in 1971 and subsequent works led Žilnik to exile for a brief period in
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
. There, he made films that were critical of the
Gastarbeiter
(; both singular and plural; ) are foreign or migrant workers, particularly those who had moved to West Germany between 1955 and 1973, seeking work as part of a formal guest worker program (). As a result, guestworkers are generally consider ...
and addressed sensitive German societal topics. The German response was negative and he was forced to return to his home country.
Back in
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
he briefly worked in
theatre production
Stagecraft is a technical aspect of theatrical, film, and video production. It includes constructing and rigging scenery; hanging and focusing of lighting; design and procurement of costumes; make-up; stage management; audio engineering; and pr ...
but soon returned to his previous work with documentaries. From 1977 to 1990, he primarily made television films but also two feature films along with a mini-series and several shorts.
In 1986 he made ''
Pretty Women Walking Through the City'' (''Lijepe žene prolaze kroz grad''), a
post-apocalyptic
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; ast ...
science fiction film which predicted that
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
tensions would eventually cause the disintegration of Yugoslavia. His 1988
black comedy
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discu ...
''
The Way Steel Was Tempered'' (''Tako se kalio čelik'') was nominated for the Golden St. George award at the
16th Moscow International Film Festival
The 16th Moscow International Film Festival was held from 7 to 18 July 1989. The Golden St. George was awarded to the Italian film '' The Icicle Thief'' directed by Maurizio Nichetti.
Jury
* Andrzej Wajda (Poland – President of the Jury)
* Ge ...
in the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
.
In 1994 he co-wrote (with the leading actor
Dragoljub Ljubičić
Dragoljub "Mićko" Ljubičić ( sr, Драгољуб "Мићко" Љубичић; born 3 January 1962) is a Serbian actor, humorist, and comedian, best known for his involvement with the television programs '' Indexovo radio pozorište'', ''Pozovi ...
) and directed ''Tito's Second Time Among the Serbs'' (''Tito po drugi put medju Srbima''). His 1995 feature film ''
Marble Ass
''Marble Ass'' ( sr-Cyrl, Дупе од мрамора) is a 1995 feature film by Serbian filmmaker Želimir Žilnik. It was screened at the Berlin Film Festival in 1995 and won a Teddy award as best feature. It was screened at many worldwide fes ...
'' (''Dupe od mramora'') was a look at the myth built around the masculinity of the male as a warrior and leader. It was entered into the
19th Moscow International Film Festival
The 19th Moscow International Film Festival was held from 17 to 28 July 1995. The Golden St. George was not awarded.
Jury
* Richard Gere (United States – President of the Jury)
* Friedrich Gorenstein (Germany)
* Aurelio De Laurentiis (Italy) ...
.
Legacy
Žilnik is considered one of most renown directors of the Yugoslav Black Wave movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
Mann (2010) says that Žilnik "stands freely and independently as a humanist not bound to any political system or state, not bound to the formalities of the industry, and not bound to any
conventional form of artistic expression" and that "from the beginning onwards, his films have been defiant, shameless, exaggerated, blatantly ironic, erotic, gory, anti-romantic, antiideal, whistle-blowing, highly taboo-breaking, low-budget, and highly controversial".. The scholar Roland Hsu of
Stanford University writes that "there is probably no filmmaker who has explored the dynamics of postwar European politics, economy and culture with more persistence and vigor" than Žilnik. His particular style of directing is recognized as pioneering the
docudrama or "docu-fiction" genre.
Many of his films are seen as a prophecy of future events, such as the
Breakup of Yugoslavia, economic transition from
socialism
Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...
to
neoliberalism
Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent fa ...
, erosion of workers' rights and wider issues related to labor and migration.
In 2019 Žilnik was given a major career retrospective at
Centre Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, which included a commission for a new work. Near the end of 2019 Žilnik was also given a late-career survey at
Close-Up Film Centre in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
.
Selected filmography
References
Sources
*
External links
*
Zilnik's Home Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zilnik, Zelimir
1942 births
Living people
People from Niš
Serbian screenwriters
Serbian film directors
Yugoslav film directors
Yugoslav screenwriters
Directors of Golden Bear winners