Famed Croatian Film Director Dies

One of Croatia’s most famed film directors, Krsto Papic, has died in Zagreb aged 79. Papic enjoyed a career that spanned over several decades, leading to him being awarded with Croatia’s highest Vladimir Nazor Award for live achievement in cinema in 2006, and the Grand Prix Special des Ameriques at the Montreal Film Festival in 2012. His work also screened at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

Papic’s early feature films and documentaries often regarded as the Croatian echo of the Serbian Black Wave, while Papic himself was connected to the Croatian Spring. He was the member of the Zagreb filmophile circle influenced by the French New Wave. Papic’s two best-known early feature films, Lisice and Predstava Hamleta u Mrduši Donjoj, were often attacked from government sources.

Papić’s subsequent feature films were more classical in its narration, but again politically controversial in the last decade of Yugoslavia. Particularly My Uncle’s Legacy, a critical picture of Yugoslavia’s political situation under titoism, which won a nomination for a Golden Globe in 1989.

Papic is the only Croatian director to win a Golden Arena three-times at the Pula Film Festival.