When I Am Dead and White
Named one of the most outstanding works of the Yugoslav Black Wave, “When I Am Dead and White” is a mischievous drama full of black humour and satire, depicting the moral degradation of various social classes under the oppressive Yugoslav regime. The protagonist, handsome and devious Janko, or Jimmy Barka, is a slippery vagabond who takes advantage of everyone whom he encounters. Unemployed, he finds himself on a strange odyssey through women and deceit and discovers he wants to become a pop singer.
Director Živojin Pavlović was one of the great figures of the Black Wave, who showed the darker side of life in his films, in contrast to the shiny façade of the communist Yugoslavia. He focused on characters at the margins of society. “When I Am Dead and White” was awarded at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival and the Pula Film Festival.
Kati Vuks
Živojin Pavlović (1933) died in 1998. He was a painter, writer and director. In his films and novels, Pavlović depicted the cruel reality of small, poor and abandoned people living in the corners of society. He was one of the major figures of the Black Wave in Yugoslav cinema in the 1960s, a movement which portrayed the darker side of life rather than the shiny facades of communist Yugoslavia. When he was 19, he started writing about film and art for Belgrade newspapers. He graduated in painting at the Academy of Applied Arts, University of Belgrade, and directed his first professional film, ""Living Water"" in 1961. The film received a special jury award at the Pula Film Festival. Pavlović received numerous awards, including Silver Bear of the Berlin International Film Festival and several Golden Arenas of Yugoslavia's most prestigious Pula Film Festival.
Filmography:
valik/selected: Kad budem mrtav i beo (When I Am Dead and White, 1967), Zaseda (The Ambush, 1969), Rdece klasje (1970), Zadah tela (Body Scent, 1983)