
Miroslav Mandić
Directing
Biography
Miroslav Mandić (1955), born in Sarajevo, graduated from the Columbia University School of the Arts, New York. After a brief film career in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he emigrated to the Czech Republic during the 1990s Yugoslav Wars and directed numerous documentaries. Currently, he lives and works in Slovenia. His films have been screened at many renowned international film festivals – Locarno, Chicago, Santa Barbara, Munich, Sarajevo, Melbourne, Krakow, Cairo – and have won several awards. These works include I Act, I Am (2018, fiction feature), Stairway (2015, fiction short), Adria Blues (2013, fiction), Searching for Johnny (2009, documentary), and Borderline Lovers (2005, documentary), Adria Blues (2013, fiction feature), I Act, I Am (2018, fiction feature) and Sanremo (2020, fiction feature).
Known For

Black marketeers Marko and Blacky manufacture and sell weapons to the Communist resistance in WWII Belgrade, living the good life along the way. Marko's surreal duplicity propels him up the ranks of the Communist Party, and he eventually abandons Blacky and steals his girlfriend. After a lengthy stay in a below-ground shelter, the couple reemerges during the Yugoslavian Civil War of the 1990s as Marko sees the opportunity to exploit the situation.
Underground

Sitcom about the staff, patients, guests and all kinds of different events in a small clinic.
Our Little Clinic

Ever since he was a child, the seventeen-years-old Edoardo has suffered from a malformation of the foreskin that stops him from masturbating and makes him insecure and ill at ease with girls. Shut up in his sexless microcosm, Edoardo reacts with irritation to the pressures of the outside world, which do nothing but exacerbate his insecurity. Forced against his will to emerge from the shadows in which he has hidden for years, Edoardo will initially try to solve his problem by clumsy stratagems before finding, at last, the courage to face his own fears.
Short Skin

Breza, a country boy from a godforsaken Prekmurje village, wishes to perform at the village festivities playing his electric guitar, but is faced with fierce competition in the form of a traditional Roma band entertaining the villagers by playing popular folk music. Nevertheless, his music seems to be the key to the heart of Silvija, a village beauty and the daughter of a wealthy gastarbeiter from Switzerland, who was sent home to find a healthy Slovene husband. However, the story of Breza and Silvija only marks the beginning of the plot whose main character is actually Düplin, an eccentric outsider, a deaf-and-dumb tramp or, as Breza's mother, the old Popovka, a farm owner and a fortune-teller also referred to as Strina, called him "a lad from a citrus producing country".
Tractor, Love and Rock'n'roll

Belgrade in 2041 is a deserted city that looks like a dump yard. A few old men try to bring up a group of young girls in the old, traditional way of their Yugoslav ancestors.
Pretty Women Walking Through the City

Story about a forty-something Sarajevo taxi driver named Fudo (Saša Petrović) who decides to take control of his own destiny. Fudo doesn't earn much, so he supplements his income by offering tips to the local criminal syndicate and turning a blind eye to their nefarious dealings. One day, after offering a particularly bad bit of advice to a violent gangster, Fudo is badly beaten. When Fudo's wife Azra (Daria Lorenci) discovers what has happened, she decides to take the couple's infant son and move out. Now determined to win his wife back and restore peace in the home, Fudo decides to go straight. But cleaning up his act isn't going to be easy, because after borrowing enough cash from black market dealer Sejo (Emir Hadžihafizbegović) to purchase a van and then refusing to aid him in any underhanded dealings, the only person willing to cut him any slack is the sympathetic Azra.
It's Hard to Be Nice

While researching or playing a role, an actor decides to quit acting and live the life of their character instead.
I Act, I Am

The history of Bosnian cinematography over 75 years of existence.
Scenes from the Life of BH Film

In the center of this docudrama are the events and tensions of the shooting of a feature film about Belgrade in the future. The director sets up unrealistic requirements to the producer, who breaks the law by overstepping the budget. During a court trial where the crew members are at the witness stand, we follow up the drama of how a film is made.
Good Morning, Belgrade

Bruno lives at a home for the elderly and is in love with a co-resident named Dusa. Their love story is fragmented, as they tend to constantly forget each other. Thus, they can always meet for the first time.
Sanremo

A widow grieves, discovers her deceased spouse's secret, and builds a relationship with a talented boy who used to play the violin with her husband in a local bar.
Estrellita

A three-part documentary about the Yugoslav most popular comedy sketch show.
Documentary Series About the Surrealists' Top Chart

A teenager arrives from Germany to his grandparents in Novi Sad. He can't adjust to Yugoslavian schools, system or slow way of life, so he asks his folks to go back, but his parents insist on him staying. What now?
Second Generation

An acknowledged and proven factory worker gets fired after workers' strike.
The Worker's Life

Aging Bosnian rocker Toni Riff hasn’t written a single song in twenty years; suffering from depression, he relies on financial support from his wife Sonia. The latter decides to make a last-ditch attempt to salvage Toni’s talent – and their marriage.
Adria Blues
There is a farm somewhere in Koroska region. This farm treasures something precious - a table that can lift itself up and answer questions. The table has been in the family for more than centuries, and nobody knows who manufactured. The table needs quite some energy to be set into motion; therefore Grandma Marija and granddaughter Simona place their hands on it. The table won't answers any questions about death. It freely admits to occasionally telling lies. What is more, if asked whether it is all-knowing, it raises itself particularly high. Miroslav Mandic embarks on a journey because he wants to see this wonder with his own eyes.
Table, That Also Tells Lies

The nature has caressed us into being, has even taught us how to pet her back as we grew up. We then started hitting her hard, using her goods in order to progress at her expense. She stares at us reluctantly yet tolerates us as a mom would. But occasionally she freaks out, warns us with an earthquake, a pandemic, or a tsunami. shall we ever learn not to take advantage of our mom, but humbly share her goods with respect and appreciation?
Hug

When you are away from an environment which evokes intense memories, especially if those are memories from your childhood, your imagination makes that environment larger and more beautiful. When you return to the place you craved for, you are often disappointed - that room is not all that nice and big, that street is empty or rainy, etc.
Stairway

Film about a provincial worker's life.