Guest of Honour of jubilee 10th edition of Grossmann Fantastic Film and Wine Festival is Serbian writer and director Djordje Kadijević, author of numerous unforgettable cinematic masterpieces and pioneer of fantastic cinema in ex-Yu region. We will pay tribute to him at the festival's closing ceremony, where he will receive our Honorary Vicious Cat award for lifetime achievement. He took his place among the giants of cinema already with his debut feature, gloomy wartime drama A Festivity (Praznik). Among the fans of the fantastic he is most known for his cult TV film She-Butterfly (Leptirica), the first Yugoslavian horror film. He is 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 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 delaing with war. Very soon he also began working for television, his first TV film being medieval 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.
In a special retrospective we will show his films A Miracle, She-Butterfly, The Protected One and A Holy Place.
10th Grossmann Fantastic Film and Wine Festival will take place from the 15th to 19th of July in Ljutomer, Slovenia. Check out the festival website for detailed information on this year's program.