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<\/a>Born in Paris on January 14th, 1929<\/strong>, Sasha always considered himself cosmopolitan, not due to his Serbian origins, but from his ancestors\u2019 close relationship and roots in France.\nReading and writing were his passions from a young age. He imagines characters, their tragedies, and the scenery of his make-believe screenplays.<\/p>\n
His older brother dies in 1947<\/strong>, twelve years after his younger brother. These deaths become anchored in Sasha\u2019s memory forever. Death appears in all his films, even the shortest ones. Despite his family\u2019s tragedy, he successfully passes the baccalaureate his final year of high school. He goes to the Academy of Film in Prague (FAMU), but\u00a0is forced to interrupt his studies in\u00a01948 for political reasons\u00a0(Soviet-Yugoslav tensions) ,<\/strong>\u00a0and returns to Belgrade . Three months later his father dies.<\/p>\n Feeling he was now responsible for his family, he starts working as an assistant director, then director, screenwriter, and art and cinema critic. He continued his studies at the Belgrade Philosophy Faculty and obtained a degree in Art History. In 1955<\/strong>, his father\u2019s ex-colleagues from the Parisian Ecole des Ponts et Chauss\u00e9es procured him a scholarship for six months. He then met Luis Bu\u00f1uel.<\/p>\n 1955:<\/strong> produced with Vicko Raspor the documentary Uz druga je drug<\/em>\u00a0(C\u00f4te \u00e0 c\u00f4te)<\/em><\/strong>. He received his first directing award at the Pula Festival in 1956.<\/p>\n In 1957<\/strong> he writes and produces his first short film, Flight above the marshes<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(French: Entre le ciel et le marais<\/strong><\/em>, Serbian: Let nad mo\u010dvarom<\/strong><\/em>). The film represents Yugoslavia at the Cannes Film Festival, a first, and is well received by critics. Petrovi\u0107 released another short film in 1957<\/strong>, Petar Dobrovi\u0107<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0with Vicko Raspor, about the life and works of the Serbian painter.<\/p>\n In 1958<\/strong>, Petrovi\u0107 produces The last exit\u00a0<\/strong>(Posladnji izlaz)<\/strong><\/em> with Vicko Raspor. This becomes his only movie that he does not appreciate.<\/p>\n Beginning in 1958<\/strong>, Aleksandar Petrovi\u0107 will work on the synopsis, script, scenario, dialogue, musical choice, and the scenery. From then, he was a complete author for all his movies.<\/p>\n In 1961<\/strong>, Petrovi\u0107 produces Two-\u00a0When love has gone<\/strong>\u00a0(French: Elle et Lui<\/strong><\/em>) (Serbian: Dvoje<\/strong><\/em>). This film marks the beginning of Yugoslav modern film. Aleksandar Petrovi\u0107 intimately and poetically presents the tormenting relationship of a couple. It is the first socialist cinematographic work that, in Petrovi\u0107\u2019s own manner, matches the developments in movies of the new global cinematographic school of thought (the \u201cnouvelle vague\u201d). French and Italian write rave reviews in 1962 when the film is projected as an official selection of the Cannes Festival.<\/p>\n July 25, 1961: his only son Dragomir (Dragan) is born. Shortly after his birth, Dragan suffers from encephalitis, that left him handicapped for the rest of his short life. Petrovi\u0107 dedicates his life to his son, ensuring a relatively normal childhood. With his wife Branka, Petrovi\u0107 brings Dragan across the world to find the best treatments. His dedication to his son affected his career decisions multiple times.<\/p>\n In 1962<\/strong>, Aleksandar Petrovi\u0107 is named Professor at the Belgrade Academy of Cinema, Theater, and Television. He sits as the head of direction.<\/p>\n 1963<\/strong>: The Days\u00a0(Dani)<\/strong><\/em> is a meditative film on solitude, suddenly broken by the brief encounter of a young wife and a student. After When love has gone<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0and The Days,<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0the first films to undermine Yugoslav socialist cinematography, Petrovi\u0107 is called the \u201cspokesperson of new cinema in Yugoslavia\u201d by the western press. Yugoslav newspapers see his works as capitalist decadence and an intrusion by conniving western behavior. Petrovi\u0107 did not believe he could easily film another full-feature film, and therefore returned to documentaries and shorts.<\/p>\n 1964<\/strong>: Record<\/strong>–\u00a0The Data<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>(French: Proc\u00e8s verbal<\/strong><\/em>, Serbian: Zapisnik<\/strong><\/em>), is a film inspired by multiple current events.<\/p>\n 1965<\/strong>: Fairs<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(Sabori)<\/strong><\/em>: Aleksandar Petrovi\u0107 films different characters, the church, frescos, a wedding, a baby breast-feeding. This short film inspires Petrovi\u0107 and acts as an exercise for his films that followed.<\/p>\n \n \u201cAlexander Petrovi\u0107\u2019s masterpiece is the most beautiful homage to personal liberty\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Le Combat- Henri Chapier<\/p>\n \u201cA great and beautiful film, poetic, melancholic, heartwarming, tender, and strong. Pardon me for the string of epithets, but I could add another twenty or so\u2026\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Le Nouveau Candide \u2013 Michel Aubriant.<\/p>\n I even met happy Gypsies<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0receives numerous awards, including the Grand Prix special du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1967, the FIPRESCI<\/strong> award in Cannes, which is to an international film by the International Federation of Cinematographic Press. The film is also nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign film and the Golden Globes in 1967<\/strong>.<\/p>\n It rains in my village<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is actually at odds with I even met happy Gypsies<\/strong><\/em>. The film depicts the problem of liberty in a world devoid of it, encased by traditions, its manners and social and psychological restrictions. The film is presented as an official selection at Cannes, prized at the Pula festival, but immediately taken out of theaters in Yugoslavia, primarily for political reasons. The Nouvel Observateur\u2019s Michel Maurdor called it \u201cAn authentic chef-d\u2019oeuvre.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Before filming his last movie,\u00a0Migrations<\/em>,<\/strong> Aleksandar Petrovi\u0107 considers It rains in my village<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0his best film. The film represents Yugoslavia at the Cannes Festival in 1969. It receives the Bronze Medal for best film and best director at the Festival of Pula in 1968.<\/p>\n In 1969<\/strong>, Aleksandar Petrovi\u0107 receives the medal of honor \u201cChevalier des Arts et des Lettres\u201d from the French government. He is the first Yugoslav artist to receive this award.At the end of the 1960s, other Yugoslav directors preferred to cover subjects such as the daily routine of current life or communist propaganda, which the Yugoslav authorities opposed. Amidst this new \u201cblack wave\u201d of Yugoslav producers in the 1960s, Petrovi\u0107could not find Yugoslav producer to support his project. Petrovi\u0107 is persuaded of the link between film and literature, and he decides to turn to Russian literature for his next work. The Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov\u2019s The Master and Margarita<\/em>,\u00a0<\/strong>one of the key literary works of the 20th century, attracts him, and Petrovi\u0107 produces the movie with Italians and Yugoslavs.<\/p>\n \u201cAll power is a form of violence exercised over people\u2026\u201d Mikhail Bulgakov<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The devil is in Moskow\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cSome can believe in the Devil\u2019s existence, others want to proclaim that the Master, Bulgakov and I dreamed of him. I do not know what the Master and Bulgakov would have to say about this topic, since they are dead, but I am more inclined to believe in the Devil\u2019s existence than not.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Aleksandar Petrovi\u0107<\/p>\n \u201cLyricism and magic. The film has the tranquil gravity of a masterpiece\u2026 A film one needs to watch and re-watch.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Claude Mauriac \u2013 L\u2019Express.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Master and Margarita \u2013 a master of a film. The Yugoslav director Aleksandar Petrovi\u0107 was not able to film in Moscow, where it was illegal. He instead filmed in Italy and lived in France. He has for a while now lived in disgrace in his own country, where he is nonetheless recognized as its greatest cinematographer. It has become increasingly dangerous to take artistic liberties against uncontrollable demands from authorities.\u201d France Soir<\/em> \u2013 Robert Chazal<\/p>\n \u201cHis success is more than just talent: he has the passion that is indispensable to make good films great.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Le Journal du Dimanche \u2013 Pierre Billard<\/p>\n The Master and Margarita<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is shown in Belgrade and quickly qualified as anti-communist. Two days after it is first released, the Yugoslav co-producers ban the film. It is the beginning of a long period of cultural repression.<\/p>\n Petrovi\u0107 is accused of crimes against the State and its People. The futile cause is the \u201cPlasti\u010dni Isus\u201d (Plastic Jesus) film made by his student Lazar Stojanovi\u0107. Petrovi\u0107 authorized his student to present his film to his final jury, under the condition that he remove all anti-Tito passages. Unfortunately, Stojanovi\u0107 disobeyed and kept those passages. Nevertheless, he receives the highest grade by the jury of the Academy. The film is watched by the Yugoslav authorities and the Academy, and his images and dialogues are deemed to be extremely politically provocative.<\/p>\n Stojanovi\u0107 is sentenced to a year in prison and Petrovi\u0107 is expelled from the Academy of Cinema. Authorities confiscate his passport and he becomes a public enemy of the Yugoslav state. He will remain in a state of disgrace in Yugoslavia for the following eighteen years. It isn\u2019t until the 90s that Petrovi\u0107 claims this expulsion to be a political and personal machination; a tribunal will officially reinstate him as a professor on ground of \u201cinacceptable political disqualifications.\u201d<\/p>\n During these difficult years, Petrovi\u0107 must go on without directing. Dragan needs intensive specialized physical rehabilitation, and the Petrovi\u0107 family leaves to Budapest (the Yugoslav Police finally return his passport) Petrovi\u0107, who is also French, then moves to France, where his sister and mother live, and works from there. He splits his time between Hungary and Paris, and is aided by the French cinematographic milieu and his family. He writes scripts, including Heart of a Dog<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0from the Bulgakov novel, or Benia The King<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0based on Isaac Babel\u2019s \u201cThe Odessa Tales\u201d \u201cThe King\u201d.<\/p>\n \n In 1977<\/strong>, German producers push the project, which becomes a reality. Along with Romy Schneider, Petrovi\u0107 directs a crew of international stars such as Michel Galabru, Brad Dourif, and other excellent Yugoslav and German Actors, such as Rudiger V\u00f6gler.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to highlight the kindness and human warmth of a certain Germany, represented by Leni Gruyten, a woman who knows how to give and love when everyone else is taking. I believe that B\u00f6ll wanted to show his compatriots, who acted selfishly for 10 years, that there was another way to live; Leni Gruyten is calm and smiling, despite the horrors surrounding her. Yesterday, at the press conference, a woman who was detained and tortured in a concentration camp told me that when seeing the film, she discovered something unknown to her, a new Germany, which gave her the feeling of being reborn. This testimony was a gift to me.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Aleksandar Petrovi\u0107<\/p>\n Romy Schneider receives a best German actress award from the German government; Group Portrait with Lady<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0represents Germany at the Cannes Festival in 1977<\/strong>.<\/p>\n While living in Paris, Petrovi\u0107 continued to communicate with Belgrade. However, every screenplay he sent was systematically refused by Yugoslav producers. In 1975-76<\/strong>, Petrovi\u0107 writes the screenplay for\u00a0Banovi\u0107 Strahinja<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(Soko), based on a medieval poem, which receives an award at the Pula Festival. The film was produced by Vatroslav Mimica. He produces two plays – Heart of a Dog<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0in 1979<\/strong> and\u00a0The Master and Margarita<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0in 1981<\/strong>, both based on Bulgakov\u2019s novels.<\/p>\n Aleksandar Petrovi\u0107 continues to fight for cinema. He is the founder and member of the European Academy of Cinema and Television. He presides or is a jury member for multiple international film festivals, is a member of SACD, and co-founds \u201cFEST\u201d, an international film festival in Belgrade.<\/p>\n \u201cMigrations exist. Death does not!\u201d<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Milo\u0161 Crnjanski<\/p>\n The movie is inspired by a famous novel by Yugoslav writer Milo\u0161 Tsernianski, which received the award for best foreign novel in France in 1986<\/strong>. Petrovi\u0107 has been working on this project since 1957<\/strong>, when he first contacted Crnjanski who was exiled in London. After long years of waiting, Petrovi\u0107 could now direct Isabelle Huppert, Richard Berry and Avtandil Maharadze (the Georgian actor from \u201cRepentir\u201d) who are the main trio in the movie. Petrovi\u0107 is finally happy!<\/p>\n This spectacular productionis one with two ends: one full feature film is the first part of the work, and the second is a eight episode television series.<\/p>\n \u201cI always thought that Migrations was a seminal work\u201d, Petrovi\u0107 said. I always wanted to adapt it for the screen. First of all, because it is a wonderful story whose heroes epitomized the margins of Central Europe in the 18th century \u2013 and what is marginalized is always interesting.<\/em><\/p>\n Second of all, I find it very relevant to the present day. There is a striking parallelism between this time and our own; a time of migrations and population mixing, where the old rules have fallen without giving rise to new ones, where values have been lost and where people live in disorder and indiscipline, looking for something that has not yet been born. It is this time of change and confusion during important moments of mutation that I want to express, all the while conserving a writer\u2019s rhapsodic tone.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>Aleksandar Petrovi\u0107 \u2013 Figaro Magazine \u2013 G. Suffert<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>In 1958<\/strong>, he releases The roads (Putevi)<\/strong><\/em>, a film about the life and works of Serbian painter Sava Sumanovi\u0107. It receives the Grand prix of the Pula Festival and the Grand Prix of the ville de Tours.
\nWar Against the war\u00a0(Rat ratu)<\/em><\/strong>, another short film, is produced in 1960<\/strong> and describes the workers\u2019 struggle in Serbia before World War Two.<\/p>\n<\/a>In 1965<\/strong>, Petrovi\u0107 uses Yugoslav author Antonije Isakovi\u0107\u2019s works as an inspiration for his third film, Three (Tri)<\/strong><\/em>. Instead of glorifying anti-Nazi patriotism, which is the Yugoslav state\u2019s favorite theme, Petrovi\u0107 depicts the horror and absurdity of war. Petrovi\u0107 said: \u201cThe film is one man\u2019s view on war and his views on death caused by war.\u201d<\/em>
\nHis film received critical acclaim worldwide:
\n\u201cA chef-d\u2019oeuvre\u201d<\/em> \u2013 La Stampa
\n\u201cOne of the most stimulating surprises from the New York Festival\u201d<\/em> \u2013 World Journal Tribune
\n\u201cThis beautiful film elevates Petrovi\u0107 as one of the best modern-day directors. Calling \u201cThree\u201d a chef-d\u2019oeuvre and Petrovi\u0107 a master of cinema would not be an exaggeration\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Geneva Tribune
\nThree<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0becomes a global hit. Aleksandar Petrovi\u0107 is invited to all major festivals and receives numerous prizes.\u00a0Three<\/em>\u00a0is nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1966<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>1967<\/strong>: I Even met happy Gypsies<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(Skupljaci perja<\/strong><\/em>) is the first movie that presents the existence of Roma people in society and in everyday life. It is also the first full-feature film where Roma speak their own language. The majority of roles are interpreted by real Roma people; this is their movie. \u201cAs a child, I observed them and saw in these people faith and irrationality,\u201d<\/em> said Petrovi\u0107.<\/p>\n<\/a>After I even met happy Gypsies<\/strong><\/em>, Aleksandar Petrovi\u0107 becomes a world-class director in the eyes of American and European filmmakers. The French production company \u201cArtistes Associ\u00e9s\u201d wants to produce a movie with him. Petrovi\u0107 proposes It rains in my village<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(French: Il pleut dans mon village<\/strong><\/em>, Serbian: Bi\u0107e skoro propast sveta nek propadne nije \u0161teta<\/strong><\/em>), a film about a father who takes the blame instead of his son for an assassination, and Dostoyevsky\u2019s \u201cThe Possessed.\u201d Petrovi\u0107 discovers that the subject and its elements are mirrors of the political events of his time.<\/p>\n<\/a>The Master and Margarita<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is extremely well received in Europe and the United states, and receives multiple prizes, including: at the Venice Festival in 1972 the Silver Lion<\/strong>, or best adaptation of a literary work from the Chicago Film Festival, as well as best male leading actor for Alain Cuny; nominated for Best Film at the Vienna festival; the \u201cElle\u201d Grand Prize for Cinema 1973-74 (a survey done by the magazine to determine the best films of the year); the Grand Prix for best directorand best male leading actor at the Pula Festival.<\/p>\n<\/a>When Henrich B\u00f6ll\u2019s \u201cGroup Portrait with Lady\u201d<\/strong> appeared (Nobel Prize for Literature), Petrovi\u0107 made sure to obtain adaptation rights. After seeing The Master and Margarita<\/strong><\/em>, B\u00f6ll accepted to collaborate with Petrovi\u0107. The Artistes Associ\u00e9s tell Petrovi\u0107 that if Romy Schneider agrees to star in the film, they would finance it. Petrovi\u0107 approached Schneider, and Romy accepted.<\/p>\n<\/a>Finally, in 1987<\/strong>, Aleksandar Petrovi\u0107 films\u00a0Migrations<\/em>\u00a0(Seobe)<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n