Goran Paskaljevic



6.8 Beach Guard in Winter (1976)
6.8 The Dog Who Loved Trains (1977)
6.8 The Days on Earth Are Flowing (1979)
6.5 Poseban Tretman (1980)
5.0 Twilight Time (1982)
6.5 The Elusive Summer of '68 (1984)
6.9 Guardian Angel (1987)
6.5 Time of Miracles (1989)
7.0 Tango Argentino (1992)
5.0 Someone Else's America (1995)
7.2 Cabaret Balkan (1998)
6.4 How Harry Became a Tree (2001)
5.0 Midwinter Night's Dream (2004)
6.0 The Optimists (2006)
5.0 Honeymoons (2009)
5.5 When Day Breaks (2012)
5.8 Land of the Gods (2016)
Despite the Fog (2019)
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Goran Paskaljevic (Yugoslavia, 1947). studied at the prestigious FAMU in Prague in 1967-68, returning to Yugoslavia after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia (1968). He made a number of shorts and TV movies (30 documentaries) before venturing into feature films: the bleak Pan Hrstka/ Mister Hrstka (1969), about a melancholy lonely worker, Nekolik Slov o Lasce/ A Few Words about Love (1970), the magic Legenda o Lapotu/ The Legend of Lapot (1972), about a primitive pagan community in which old people are stoned to death, Deca/ Children (1973), Sluga/ Servant (1973), Teret/ Burden (1974), Kapetan Janko (1974), Iz Pobede u Pobedu/ From Victory to Victory (1975), etc.

He debuted with the tragicomedy Cuvar Plaže u Zimskom Periodu/ Beach Guard in Winter (1976), photographed by Aleksandar Petkovic, written by Gordan Mihic, scored by Zoran Hristic, and starring Irfan Mensur and Bata Stojkovic, Pas Koji je Voleo Vozove/ The Dog Who Loved Trains (1977), written by playwright Gordan Mihic, with the same cinematographer and the same composer, starring again Mensur and Stojkovic besides Bata Živojinovic and Pavle Vuisic, and Zemaljski Dani Teku/ The Days on Earth Are Flowing/ These Earthly Days Go Rolling By (1979), photographed by Milan Spasic, which employed only non-actors, about the people of a retirement home. These films relied on simple stories and a touching style, like a Yugoslav version of DeSica's humane neorelism.

Poseban Tretman/ Special Treatment (1980), adapted from a play by Dusan Kovacevic and starring Milena Dravic and Ljuba Tadic, was ostensibly a story about alcoholism, but actually a political allegory about the madness of tyranny.

After the English-language Suton/ Twilight Time (1982), another film about aging, he crafted some of his best films: the comedy Varljivo Leto '68/ The Elusive Summer of '68 (1984), scripted by Mihic, shot by Petkovic, with music by Zoran Hristic, set during the student protests of 1968; the terrifying social fresco Andjeo Cuvar/ Guardian Angel (1987), scored by composer Zoran Simjanovic, starring nonprofessional actors, about gypsy children sold into slavery; Vreme Cuda/ Time of Miracles (1989), an adaptation of Borislav Pekic's novel about persecution of priests by the communist regime at the end of World War II, starring Miki Manojlovic, Bata Stojkovic and Ljuba Tadic, scored by Simjanovic; and the moving melodrama Tango Argentino (1992), scripted by Mihic, another story of elderly people, scored by Simjanovic and starring Manojlovic.

He fled the Yugoslavian civil war in 1992 and made Tuda Amerika/ Someone Else's America (1995) in various European countries, scripted again by Mihic and starring again Manojlovic.

He returned to Yugoslavia to make the more significant Bure Baruta/ Cabaret Balkan (1998), from a play by Dejan Dukovski, photographed by Milan Spasic and scorred by Simjanovic, starring Miki Manojlovic, Nebojsa Glogovac, Dragan Nikolic and Bata Živojinovic, a merry-go-round of irrational violence that is another political allegory (this time for the Yugoslav civil war).

He then made Kako je Hari Postao Drvo/ How Harry Became a Tree (2001) in Ireland, an adaptation of Yang Zhengsung's story "Lao Dan". He was again in Serbia to direct the love story San Zimske Noci/ Midwinter Night's Dream (2004). Both films are indirect meditations on the breakup and the civil war of Yugoslavia.

Optimisti/ The Optimists (2006), which contains five episodes, was his reply to Voltaire's "Candide",

Medeni Mesec/ Honeymoons (2009) is another film about immigrants.

Kad Svane Dan/ When Day Breaks (2012)

Dev Bhoomi/ Land of the Gods (2016), set in India’s high Himalayas,

Nonostante la Nebbia/ Despite the Fog (2019)

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