Lordan Zafranović director

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Birth: 11. 2. 1944., Maslinica na Šolti

Lordan Zafranović is the most controversial Croatian cineaste, both for political and poetic reasons, as well as a radical leftist and eroticist. He is a talented stylist, but is incompetent in his narration. He devoted himself to questioning individual and collective (political) evil and the power of Eros. He took a degree in literature and art history from the Academy of Pedagogy in Split, and later studied film direction at FAMU in Prague, where he graduated in 1981. He started his opus in 1961 with amateur, mostly feature-length, experimental films with themes stretching from existentialist romanticism to the grotesque and absurd. In 1965 he made his first professional films, such as Poslije podne/Puška and Ave Marija/Moje prvo pijanstvo (1971), in which he dealt with violence and human evil. He made his feature-length debut as a student with the film Nedjelja (1969), and started his consistent feature-length opus in 1975 with the film Muke po Mati (in 1973, he made a feature film, Kronika jednog zločina, from three separate short films). His opus can be divided into existential-metaphysical-erotic films (Muke po Mati, Ujed anđela, Haloa - praznik kurvi, Lacrimosa/Osveta je moja) and historical-political ones that concentrate on WW II and the time immediately after the war (Okupacija u 26 slika, Pad Italije, Večernja zvona). His works are characterized by the so-called highly esthetic style with expressive naturalist-grotesque elements, and a thematic synthesis of Eros and Thanatos. Representative of all his works is the feature documentary Zalazak stoljeća/Testament L.Z. (1994) in which he combined archival shots of Nazi-Fascists and Ustashas (as a symbol of human evil) with the pretentious mystification of art and history. He is the author of a documentary Krv i pepeo Jasenovca (1983).

Awards:
Pula 75' - Film critics' award Milton Manaki as the director of the film Muke po Mati
Pula 78' - Silver arena as the director of the film kupacija u 26 slika; Film critics' award Milton Manaki as the director
Pula 81' - Great golden arena as the director of the film Pad Italije (together with the producer)
Pula 86' - Golden arena as the director of the film Večernja zvona; magazine Studio’s award Studio’s deer as the best director