Rajko Grlić director

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Birth: 2. 9. 1947., Zagreb

Along with Lordan Zafranović, Rajko Grlić is the most prominent Croatian director of the 1970s and 1980s. He took a degree in film directing from FAMU in Prague in Elmar Klos’s department. He was a member of the so-called Prague School, which influenced Yugoslav cinematography of 1970s and 1980s. Direct social critique characterizes most of his work, which is often humorous and ironical. Critics usually single out his film Samo jednom se ljubi (1981), a love story set in the time immediately following WW II, about a young Communist and a ballerina from a bourgeois family. He achieved his biggest international success with the idyllic and anxious WWII story Ðavolji raj (1989). The film won the Grand Prix and an award for Best Director at the festival in Tokyo. He collaborated with Serbian filmmaker Srđan Karanović, who was another member of the Prague school, as a screenwriter on two of Grlić’s and three of Karanović’s films, as well as Karanović’s cult TV series Grlom u jagode. With Igor Mirković he made the feature documentary Novo, novo vrijeme (2001), depicting the political atmosphere surrounding the elections in 2000. He is one of the founders of the film school in Grožnjan, called Imaginary Academy, art director of Motovun film festival, and a professor at the University of Ohio.

Awards:
Pula 74' - Jury’s award for the contemporary film exploration; magazine Studio’s Golden wreath for the debutant director; magazine Mladost’s award for the contemporary direction
Pula 78' - magazine Mladost’s award for the best director
Vrnjačka banja 78' - 2^nd award for the screenplay (co-screenwriter Srđan Karanović)
Vrnjačka banja 81' - 1^st award for the screenplay (co-screenwriter Branka Somen)
Pula 84' - Golden arena for the director
Vrnjačka banja 84' - 1^st award for the screenplay (co-screenwriter Dubravka Ugrešić)
Tokio 89' - Award for the director