Nicoline van Harskamp - DeLVe | Institute for Duration, Location and ...

Želimir Žilnik (1942, živi i radi u Novom Sadu), autor brojnih igranih i dokumentarnih filmova,
jedan od začetnika žanra doku-drama, nagrađivan na internacionalnim filmskim festivalima. Od
samog početka profesionalnog rada na filmu, okrenut je savremenim temama, koje uključuju
društvenu, političku i ekonomsku kritiku svakodnevice Studentske demonstracije 1968. godine,
tema su i Žilnikovog prvog igranog filma Rani radovi (1969) nagrađenog Zlatnim medvjedom
na Berlinskom filmskom festivalu. Nakon problema sa cenzurom u Jugoslaviji, te zaustavljanja
rada na narednom igranom filmu Sloboda ili strip (1972), Žilnik sredinu sedamdesetih godina
provodi u Nemačkoj, radeći za nezavisnu filmsku industriju. Po povratku u zemlju osamdesetih
godina režira seriju dobro primljenih televizijskih doku-drama koje u fokusu imaju nagoveštaj
nadolazećih nacionalističkih tenzija te raspad Jugoslavije. Tokom devedesetih, u nezavisnim
filmskim i medijskim produkcijama realizuje niz igranih i dokumentarnih filmova na temu kataklizme
na Balkanu (Tito po drugi put među Srbima, Marble Ass, Do jaja, Kud plovi ovaj brod i dr.). Slom
sistema vrednosti u post-tranzicijskim zemljama Centralne i Istočne Evrope, problemi izbeglištva
i migracija u novonastalim okolnostima „proširene Evrope”, okvir su tekućeg tematskog ciklusa
započetog filmovima Tvrđava Evropa (2000), Kenedi se vraća kući (2003), Gde je Kenedi bio dve godine?
(2005), Evropa preko plota (2005), Dunavska sapunska opera (2006) i Kenedi se ženi (2007).
Želimir Žilnik (born in 1942; currently living and working in Novi Sad) has written and directed
numerous feature and documentary films which have reaped many awards at domestic and
international film festivals. From the very beginning his films have focussed on contemporary
issues, featuring social, political and economic assessments of everyday life.The student demonstrations
of 1968 are at the centre of Žilnik’s first feature film Early Works (1969) which was
awarded the “Golden Bear” at the Berlin Film Festival. After facing problems with censorship in
Yugoslavia while working on his next feature film Freedom or Cartoons (filmed in 1972, never finished),
Žilnik spent the mid-seventies in Germany, where he independently produced and made
seven documentaries and one feature film, Paradise (1976). Following his return to Yugoslavia,
he directed a substantial series of television films and docudramas. By the end of the eighties
Žilnik was making films through a cooperative structure of television and cinema production.
All these works foreshadowed the growing tensions and looming political and social changes that
were to affect the country. Turning to independent film and media production in the nineties,
he went on to make a series of feature and documentary films centring around the cataclysmic
events befalling the Balkans (Tito among the Serbs for the Second Time, Marble Ass, Throwing off the
Yolks of Bondage, Wanderlust and other). The breakdown of the system of values in post-transitional
Central and Eastern European countries and the problems facing refugees and immigrants
within the new circumstances of an extended Europe became the focus of Žilnik’s most recent
films: Fortress Europe (2000), Kenedi Goes Back Home (2003), Kenedi, Lost and Found (2005), Europe Next
Door (2005), Soap in Danube Opera (2006), Kenedi is Getting Married (2007).