Krsto Papić (7 December 1933 – 7 February 2013)[2] was a Croatian screenwriter and film director whose career spanned over five decades. He is generally considered among the best directors of former Yugoslavia, and counted among the Yugoslav Black Wave.
Biography
Papić was born in Vučji Do, near Nikšić in today's Montenegro.[3] His early feature films and documentaries were part of Croatian and Yugoslav New Cinema, and often regarded as Croatian echo of the Black Wave artistic movement that mostly took place within Serbia. Additionally, Papić himself was connected to the Croatian Spring political movement during the early 1970s. He was the member of the Zagreb filmophile circle influenced by the French New Wave, so-called "Hitchcockians", along with film-makers and critics Ante Peterlić, Zoran Tadić, Branko Ivanda, Petar Krelja and centered on film critics Vladimir Vuković and Hrvoje Lisinski. Papić's two best-known early feature films, Lisice and Predstava Hamleta u Mrduši Donjoj, were often attacked from the government sources. Lisice did not get permission to represent Yugoslavia in the Cannes Film Festival, so it entered the Quinzaine program in 1970.[4]Izbavitelj was heavily criticised by Stipe Šuvar, who alluded that film's allegory about fascism actually also refers to the communism.[5]
Papić's subsequent feature films were more classical in their narration, but again politically controversial. Particularly My Uncle's Legacy, a critical film about Yugoslavia's political situation under Titoism during Informbiro period, (nominated for the Golden Globe in 1989)[6] was surrounded by controversy and political attacks from traditional Party circles and especially Partisan Veterans' organisations, leading to a delay of production.
Papić was awarded with Croatia's highest Vladimir Nazor Award for live achievement in cinema in 2006,[7] and with Grand Prix Special des Amériques (for exceptional contribution to the cinematographic art) in 2004.[8]
He died in Zagreb on 7 February 2013 after a battle with stomach cancer, aged 79.[9]
1976 – The Rat Savior (Izbavitelj) – also known as "The Redeemer" - first prize at the Trieste International Science Fiction Film Festival in 1977 and at Fantasporto in 1982
^Quoted in Predratna psihoza: slike 30-tih u Izbavitelju Krste Papića, an article by Nikica Gilić (in Croatian) "I would say that among creative forces in our /i.e. Yugoslav/ cinema we have two tendencies. One is oriented on apologetics and self-censorship; it is of course sterile.... Another orientation manifested in so-called Black Wave, indeed in showing how here we are on the dead end of world's events.... Sometimes that is reduced to a primitive pamphlet, like in films The Rat Saviour and Acting Hamlet in the Village of Mrdusa Donja, which are then regarded as works of art in our community."
