Aleksandar Petrović
Director, Screenwriter, Musical composerYugoslavia
Details
- >Birth :14 January 1929 (Paris, France)
- >Death :20 August 1994
- >Career :24 years
- >Age :65 years
Aleksandar Petrović was a Serbian-born film director and screenwriter, born in 1929 and died in 1994 in Paris. He was one of the first directors of his generation to break free from the stereotypes and propaganda codes that plagued Yugoslav cinema. He studied at the Prague Film Academy and the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, where he earned a degree in Art History.
In 1957, he directed his first short film, “Flight Above the Marshes“. His films “Dvoje” (1961) and “Dani” (1963) marked the beginning of the modern sensibility of the new Yugoslav cinema. He was appointed professor of directing at the Academy of Cinema, Theatre and Television in Belgrade. “Tri” (1965), nominated for an Oscar, was a worldwide success. “I Even Met Happy Gypsies” (1967) won the Grand Prix and the FIPRECI at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1968, he directed “It’s Raining in My Village“, inspired by Dostoyevsky’s The Possessed. In 1973, the communist government forced him to leave his chair as professor of cinematography. From then on, he worked abroad.
“The Master and Margarita” (1973) won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, among other awards. In 1977, he made “Group Portrait with a Lady“, based on Heinrich Böll. His last film was “Migrations“, made in 1989.
Photos in festival
Filmography
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1957 – The Only Way Out (Jedini izlaz)
Role : DirectorSynopsis : A group of partisans prepares to destroy a German gas warehouse in Postojnska Jama. One of them distrusts the new commander, and this distrust spreads to the rest of the group. The situation culminates when the partisan in question finds himself isolated in a cave.
Synopsis : A group of partisans prepares to destroy a German gas warehouse in Postojnska Jama. One of them distrusts the new commander, and this distrust spreads to the rest of the group. The situation culminates when the partisan in question finds himself isolated in a cave.
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1961 – Elle et Lui (Dvoje)
Role : Director / ScreenwriterSynopsis : A young man falls in love with a girl he meets by chance.
Synopsis : A young man falls in love with a girl he meets by chance.
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1963 – Les Jours (Dani)
Role : Director / ScreenwriterSynopsis : A married woman struggles to find her place in the world or the meaning of her life. She meets Dragan, a young man who has just learned of his father's death. Together, they spend an afternoon trying to find new meaning in their lives.
Synopsis : A married woman struggles to find her place in the world or the meaning of her life. She meets Dragan, a young man who has just learned of his father's death. Together, they spend an afternoon trying to find new meaning in their lives.
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1965 – Three (Tri)
Role : DirectorSynopsis : Episodic World War II drama that follows a Yugoslavian man through the war as he goes from witness to victim to perpetrator.
Synopsis : Episodic World War II drama that follows a Yugoslavian man through the war as he goes from witness to victim to perpetrator.
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1967 – J'ai même rencontré des tziganes heureux (Skupljaci perja)
Role : Director / Screenwriter / ComposerSynopsis : Many Gypsies live in the vast plain of Vojvodina, Serbia, where they work at odd jobs. A living from his goose feather trade, the young and carefree Bora wants to be free, but he is married to an older woman. He meets Tissa, a young wild girl, and falls in love with her. But Mirta, Tissa's stepfather, already his rival in business, also becomes his rival in love.
Synopsis : Many Gypsies live in the vast plain of Vojvodina, Serbia, where they work at odd jobs. A living from his goose feather trade, the young and carefree Bora wants to be free, but he is married to an older woman. He meets Tissa, a young wild girl, and falls in love with her. But Mirta, Tissa's stepfather, already his rival in business, also becomes his rival in love.
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1968 – Il pleut dans mon village (Bice skoro propast sveta)
Role : Director / ScreenwriterSynopsis : A strange and tragic love story between a pig farmer, the village madman, a teacher, and an agricultural pilot. The story takes place in a remote village in communist Yugoslavia, at the end of the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
Synopsis : A strange and tragic love story between a pig farmer, the village madman, a teacher, and an agricultural pilot. The story takes place in a remote village in communist Yugoslavia, at the end of the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
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1972 – Le maître et Marguerite (Il maestro e Margherita)
Role : Director / ScreenwriterSynopsis : In Moscow in 1920, two Russian writers, including Nikolai Maksudo, are discussing God when Woland, a magician who is in reality the devil, appears to them...
Synopsis : In Moscow in 1920, two Russian writers, including Nikolai Maksudo, are discussing God when Woland, a magician who is in reality the devil, appears to them...
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1977 – Portrait de groupe avec dame (Gruppenbild mit Dame)
Role : Director / ScreenwriterSynopsis : The war and its tragic consequences had a profound impact on forty years of a woman's life.
Synopsis : The war and its tragic consequences had a profound impact on forty years of a woman's life.
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1989 – Migrations (Seobe)
Role : Director / ScreenwriterSynopsis : Based on the famous novel by Milos Crnjanski, the story follows Serbian migrations from the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the 18th century.
Synopsis : Based on the famous novel by Milos Crnjanski, the story follows Serbian migrations from the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the 18th century.
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1989 – Migrations II (Seobe II)
Role : Director / ScreenwriterSynopsis : Screening of Milos Crnjanski's poetic novel, recounting the tragedy of the Serbian people, dispersed from the Dnieper to Lotharingia from the 17th to the 19th centuries. The major theme of Serbian migration is addressed through the military campaign of Major Vuk Isakovic (Avtandil Makharadze), at the head of the Slavonian-Danube Regiment, from the spring of 1744 to the spring of the following year. The second theme traces the tragic but passionate relationship between Vuk's younger brother and his wife, which ends in a long illness and her death.
Synopsis : Screening of Milos Crnjanski's poetic novel, recounting the tragedy of the Serbian people, dispersed from the Dnieper to Lotharingia from the 17th to the 19th centuries. The major theme of Serbian migration is addressed through the military campaign of Major Vuk Isakovic (Avtandil Makharadze), at the head of the Slavonian-Danube Regiment, from the spring of 1744 to the spring of the following year. The second theme traces the tragic but passionate relationship between Vuk's younger brother and his wife, which ends in a long illness and her death.
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1955 – Keep in Step, Comrade (Uz druga je drug)
Role : DirectorSynopsis : Photographs, rare films and dynamic editing illustrate the triumph of socialist ideas and how Yugoslavia is symbolically moving towards the future dreams of generations.
Synopsis : Photographs, rare films and dynamic editing illustrate the triumph of socialist ideas and how Yugoslavia is symbolically moving towards the future dreams of generations.
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1956 – Flight Above the Marshes ( Let nad mocvarom)
Role : Director / ScreenwriterSynopsis : A magnificent poem about the tragic love between two wild ducks. The male's suicidal sacrifice for his female takes us not to a hunting scene, but to a true ornithological tragedy, that of Romeo and Juliet.
Synopsis : A magnificent poem about the tragic love between two wild ducks. The male's suicidal sacrifice for his female takes us not to a hunting scene, but to a true ornithological tragedy, that of Romeo and Juliet.
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1957 – (Petar Dobrovic)
Role : Director / ScreenwriterSynopsis : Documentary about the painter Petar Dobrovic.
Synopsis : Documentary about the painter Petar Dobrovic.
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1958 – (Roads)
Role : Director / ScreenwriterSynopsis : Short documentary.
Synopsis : Short documentary.
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1960 – (War to War)
Role : Director / ScreenwriterSynopsis : Short documentary.
Synopsis : Short documentary.
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1964 – Minutes (Zapisnik)
Role : Director / ScreenwriterSynopsis : Another documentary by Aleksandar Petrovic, made for Dunav Film in 1964. It is a kind of road movie through socialist Yugoslavia, depicting many strange sights and events, with a strong irony in both the selection of scenes and the narration. Originally filmed on 16mm.
Synopsis : Another documentary by Aleksandar Petrovic, made for Dunav Film in 1964. It is a kind of road movie through socialist Yugoslavia, depicting many strange sights and events, with a strong irony in both the selection of scenes and the narration. Originally filmed on 16mm.
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1965 – Councils (Sabori)
Role : Director / ScreenwriterSynopsis : The film compares scenes from frescoes in medieval Serbian monasteries to scenes from religious councils held in churches. Drawing on his pictorial sensibility (a graduate in art history), using symbols and real-life landmarks, without a narrative thread but accompanied by sound and original music, Petrović's short film Sabori, which is also a documentary, becomes a timeless film.
Synopsis : The film compares scenes from frescoes in medieval Serbian monasteries to scenes from religious councils held in churches. Drawing on his pictorial sensibility (a graduate in art history), using symbols and real-life landmarks, without a narrative thread but accompanied by sound and original music, Petrović's short film Sabori, which is also a documentary, becomes a timeless film.
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1970 – Terrorists (Teroristi)
Role : Director / ScreenwriterSynopsis : Documentary about Croatian Ustasha terrorists and their attacks in Yugoslavia.
Synopsis : Documentary about Croatian Ustasha terrorists and their attacks in Yugoslavia.
Awards
Press
…Tackling such a dense work and adapting it for the screen was a difficult undertaking. Aleksandar Petrović. has succeeded masterfully. Mixing the everyday and the fantastic is not easy, but with him we are like fish in water. …Petrović's film exists. It is there, and a little there. Robust, strong, dazzling in its mastery, clarity, irony and tenderness. It is of a rare beauty and a force of testimony which are also an accusation… A very high-class film worthy of the novel which inspired it."
Michel Duran, Le Canard Enchaîné, about the film "The Master and Margarita".
Reviews
"Some may believe in the existence of the devil. Others, if they wish, may say that the Master, Bulgakov, and I simply dreamed of him. I cannot say what the Master and Bulgakov would have said, but I am more inclined to believe in the devil than not to believe in him."
Aleksandar Petrović, about the film "The Master and Margarita".
“If you don’t love Man, you can’t make films.”
Aleksandar Petrović.
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