
Živojin Pavlović
Directing
Biography
Živojin "Žika" Pavlović (15 April 1933 – 29 November 1998) was a Yugoslav and Serbian film director, writer, painter and professor. In his films and novels, Pavlović depicted the cruel reality of small, poor and abandoned people living in the corners of society. He was one of the major figures of the Black Wave in Yugoslav cinema in the 1960s, a movement which portrayed the darker side of life rather than the shiny facades of communist Yugoslavia. Pavlović was born in Šabac in 1933. When he was 19, he started writing about film and art for Belgrade newspapers. He graduated in painting at the Academy of Applied Arts, University of Belgrade, and directed his first professional film, Žive Vode (Living Water) in 1961. The film received a special jury award at the Pula Film Festival. He died in Belgrade. Pavlović received numerous awards, including the Andrić Prize, two NIN Prizes for his novels, Isidora Sekulić Award, one Silver Bear of the Berlin International Film Festival and several Golden Arenas of the Yugoslavia's most prestigious Pula Film Festival.
Known For

The story about Jimmy Barka, a young vagabond who works as a seasonal worker. Having been sacked from the job, his dreams are to become a singer. As most of the things in the Balkans happen, he is destined to failure.
When I Am Dead and White

Yugoslavia, 1979. Jugoslav is an ambitious reporter in a country that strictly controls the media. Blagoje is a colonel of UDBA before retirement, broken by health problems. Their paths cross when a brutal murder shakes a town in Serbia. They both go to investigate the case, for different reasons.
Trail of the Beast

During the Yugoslav break-up, Federal Army officer is fed up with war and takes some leave in Belgrade. However, it turns out that he is less haunted by war horrors than with some sentimental skeletons in the closet. He meets his former comrade and best friend who is AWOL, but can't report him because he had an affair with his wife.
Deserter

Through the conversation with Yugoslav film authors and excerpts from their films, this documentary film tells a story of a film phenomenon and censorship, and its focus is, in fact, a painful epoch of Yugoslav film called “a Black Wave”, which was the most important and artistically strongest period of Yugoslav film industry, created in the sixties and buried in the early seventies by means of ideological and political decisions. The film tells a great “thriller” story of the ideological madness which characterised the totalitarian psychology having left multiple consequences felt up to our very days. It stresses similarities between totalitarian regimes defending their taboos on the example of the persecution of the most important Yugoslav film authors. Those film authors have, however, made world careers and inspired many later authors. The film is the beginning of a debt pay-off to the most significant Yugoslav film authors.
Censored without Censorship

An unsuccessful attempt of a lonely guy to change his pointless life. In search for a job and money he falls in love with a girl next door believing that she will change his life.
The Rats Woke Up

Due to misunderstanding and hard life, a man divorces his wife and leaves the city. He comes to a new environment, meeting new people and new wife. Crucified between two worlds, he does everything to bring her two sons on the right track, and getting on with his own life. Lost in that space, powerless to change things significantly, he commits murder.
Body Scent

Idealistic young man supports the party and the new Yugoslavia's communist regime, but soon gets involved in various political and criminal machinations becoming more and more confused about what's right and what's wrong.
The Ambush

August 1943, Europe. The tentacles of the German octopus have begun to recoil. As the Nazis retreat, their concern focuses on the supply of oil from the refineries of Romania. Without the flow of "black gold", Germany's doom is sealed. Armadas of American bombers from bases in North Africa have begun to assault Pioesti - and there is another threat from the Partisans across the border of Yugoslavia. Against the tableau of spectacular events, the dramatic story of WILD WIND unfolds.
Wild Wind

One week in life of Branimir Mitrovic "Floyd", a young rally driver from the National class (up to 785cc), dreaming of promotion to the higher category. He lives a carefree life of a Belgrade dandy boy, neglecting his girlfriend, avoiding his draft calls, and refusing to deal with any life responsibility in general. The decisive race on Saturday is only what he cares about.
National Class Category Up to 785ccm

The leftover disbanded partisan battalion draws Chetniks' attention, who push their plans of attacking the partisan headquarters aside and start hunting them instead.
Manhunt

An ex-soldier named Slobodan Antic, referred to by a friend as one of the last idealists, finds himself losing control over his own life when a man identical to him starts following him around, claiming to be a friend but behaving suspiciously. Before long his dealings with this doppelganger begin to cost him and his professional and romantic life grow more and more confused.
The Enemy

The story interleaves the destinies of two families, a Serbian from Bosnia and a Hungarian, in a village on the border.
The Border

A young woman leaves her older husband, the owner of a village mill, for a truck driver whom she met while he was in their village by business. While trying to find him, she experiences the life in suburbia, and gets back to her husband disappointed, disgraced and humiliated.
The Bet

Three stories (Love, Heart, The Hoop) set in the urban, alienated world of a big city. It tells how thin is the line between melancholy and depression.
The City

A railway worker moves to another city and experiences a love affair with a suburban prostitute. Their encounter disturbs his solitude, and the two begin their life together.
Traces of a Black Haired Girl

A contemporary story of the film crew who visits the site in order to prepare for the shooting, where they fall into many situations that reflect local mentality.
The Warrior's Talent

An ex-partisan and current political activist sets out to Styria region in Slovenia to buy out the wheat from peasants and convince them to form the farming collective. His ostensible success (based on blackmailing rather than convincing), as well as his love defeat, make him disturbed and he kills an innocent man while performing a social mission.
Red Wheat

The two enemies from war, Slovenian partisan Berk and German soldier Bitter, meet each other during holidays in Spain. Recalling the war through conversation, Berk remembers Anton, his fellow comrade he had spend the most time with.
See You in the Next War

An-ex convict nicknamed Al Capone, who spent six years in jail, tries to adapt in new environment. Members of the two rival gangs try to engage him in their new ventures, but he wants to make a new start with the girl he loves. At the same time, a young criminal who shares the same nickname replaces him in these actions.
The Return

After a quarrel with his wife, a man leaves their apartment with one suitcase only. Having slept in a train station, the police legitimates him and found him suspicious. Soon he'll find himself locked in a prison with several other, mostly innocent people. The true horror begins only then.