Director and writer Djordje Kadijević, pioneer of Yugoslavian fantastic cinema and our dear guest and Lifetime Achievement award receiver, has passed away. Among the fans of the fantastic, he was most known for his cult TV film She-Butterfly (Leptirica), the first Yugoslavian horror film. He was also an art critic, essayist, publicist and art theorist.
Djordje Kadijević was born in Šibenik, Croatia in 1933. An art historian by education, he started making films in the late 1960s. He made a name for himself already with his award-winning first film A Festivity, a multi-layered masterpiece set in World War 2. His following films The Trek (Pohod, 1968), The Fiery One (Žarki, 1970) and The Colonel's Wife (Pukovnikovica, 1971) were also dealing with war. Very soon he also began working for television, his first TV film being drama A Miracle (Čudo, 1971). In 1973 he made three groundbreaking fantastic films for the TV series entitled Tales of Mystery and Imagination: She-Butterfly, which was initially received with shock and panic, grim gothic romance A Maiden's Music (Devičanska svirka) and metaphysical dark fantasy The Protected One (Štićenik). He continued his career on televison with splendid movies such as The Oath (Zakletva, 1974) and The Death of Karadjordje (Karađorđeva smrt, 1983), and award-winning TV series Vuk Karadžić (1987-1988). Gothic horror A Holy Place (Sveto mesto, 1990) was his long-awaited return to a film made for cinemas.
We were blessed to have the joy and honour to have him as our guest twice, first in 2014, when he received our Lifetime achievement award, and again in 2017, when he was presenting the book More Than the Truth. On both occasions, he delighted the audience with his larger-than-life personality, philosophical depth and irresistible honesty. All this has now passed, we will never meet again, but the memoires will remain forever, as will his rich and unique body of work, which will continue to bring joy to new generations of film enthusiasts all over the world.
