Danilo Bata Stojkovic
Encyclopedia
Danilo Stojković (August 11, 1934 - March 16, 2002), commonly nicknamed Bata (Бата), was a Serbia
n theatre, television and film actor
. Stojković's numerous comedic portrayals of the "small man fighting the system" made him popular with Serbian and ex-Yugoslav audiences, most of them coming in collaborations with either director Slobodan Šijan
or scriptwriter Dušan Kovačević
- or both.
born and bred Stojković, a well-known theatre
actor by the mid-1960s, started his film
career with the 1964 feature Izdajnik (lit. "The Traitor"). A string of TV and minor film roles ensued, with the most important ones coming in guise of being a father figure to the main protagonist - Čuvar plaže u zimskom periodu (Beach Guard in Winter, 1976), Pas koji je voleo vozove (The Dog Who Loved Trains, 1977) being the most recognizable ones - as well as the part in critically well-received Majstor i Margarita (Il Maestro e Margherita, 1972). He also fulfilled the fatherly role in an immensely popular TV show Grlom u jagode
. The show originally aired in 1975 and kept finding its audience through numerous reruns in the 1980s and the 1990s. Most notably, he almost stole the show as the minor antagonist
in Goran Marković's urban classic Nacionalna klasa do 750 cm³ (National Class Category Up to 750 ccm, 1979).
with a special gift for biting satire
, had a knack for writing characters which Stojković could perfectly translate to screen. The combination of those three creative talents yielded some of Serbia's most memorable cinematic efforts to date.
Šijan, who previously worked with Stojković on a several TV productions, made his big screen debut with Ko to tamo peva
(Who's Singing Over There?, 1980), a farcical comedy
set at the beginning of World War II
in then Yugoslavia
. In a strong cast ensemble, Stojković distinguished himself with role of a Germanophile
bus passenger on the way to Beograd in the eve of 6th April 1941 - the day that Belgrade was bombed by the Axis Powers
marking Yugoslavia's entry into the war. Ko to tamo peva was released to great critical and commercial success, and has won two awards at the Montreal World Film Festival
in Canada
. To this date, it is considered one of the finest Yugoslavian films ever.
The success of Ko to tamo peva opened new doors for Stojković, who then established his film star status with a string of critically acclaimed roles. He appeared in Goran Paskaljević
's dark comedy about rehab from alcoholism
, Poseban tretman (Special Treatment
, 1980), and then reunited with Šijan for another high watermark of Serbian film, the black comedy
Maratonci trče počasni krug (Marathon Family). The film, a humorous piece about a family whose undertaking business is being threatened by the local mobster was another smash success for Šijan and Stojković, and it retains its cult status to this day. Stojković again delivered a strong performance in a star-studded production, flawlessly portraying the head of the family in waiting: Laki Topalović.
First was his portrait of a homeless wannabe revolutionary Babi Pupuška, in Šijan's Kako sam sistematski uništen od idiota (How I Got Systematically Destroyed by an Idiot, (1983), a story about a man who embarks on a soul-searching journey after hearing the, for him at least, shattering news of Che Guevara
's demise. Building momentum from this film onward, Stojković fused his father figure persona he honed in the 1970s with the Marxist nut of Babi Pupuška, and delivered another bravura performance in Goran Paskaljević's elegiac Varljivo leto '68 (The Elusive Summer of '68, 1984). Stojković's character of a hardline Marxist father, who cannot bear to witness the events of the 1968 unfold before his very own eyes, struck a chord with audiences.
Again uniting his talents with those of Dušan Kovačević, Stojković delivered his ultimate film performance - that of the staunch Stalinist and a full-time paranoid in Balkanski špijun (Balkan Spy, 1984), which was jointly directed by Božidar Nikolić and Kovačević himself. With Kovačević at his sharpest, Stojković made the role of ex-political prisoner
Ilija Čvorović completely his own.
(The Collective Center), and had a memorable cameo
in Balkan Express 2 (1989). His most famous theatrical role was that of Luka Laban, in another Kovačević play, Profesionalac (lit. "The Professional"). He played the role until a few days before his death. In an interview in 2007 his wife told that she drove him from the hospital to his last plays and returned him to the hospital bed after the play.
In the nineties, Stojković cameoed in an ambitious, yet somewhat disappointing Crni bombarder (The Black Bomber, 1992), and had minor roles in movies such as Emir Kusturica
's Underground (1995) and Darko Bajić's Balkanska pravila (The Rules of Balkan, 1997).
Ironically enough, one of his final theatrical roles was one of an orthodox
priest - a character who Babi Pupuška and Ilija Čvorović would probably despise - in Lazar Ristovski
's 1999 effort Belo odelo ("The White Suit"). After that, he appeared in an omnibus feature called Proputovanje (Traveling, 1999) and starred in a TV adaptation of the August Strindberg
's play The Father for Serbian TV (Otac, 2001). He died in Belgrade on March 16, 2002, after a lengthy bout with cancer.
, 1990) and cinematic (Pavle Vujisić
, 1998) efforts. He remains as popular in death as he was in life, as his characters have entertained numerous generations of Serbian and Serbo-Croatian
speakers. The modern Serbian slang is often permeated with the line
s from Stojković's most famous roles, and while one could argue that Kovačević's scripts were more important to this than Stojković, it is tremendously hard to imagine any of the above cited films without "Bata"'s colourful performances.
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n theatre, television and film actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. Stojković's numerous comedic portrayals of the "small man fighting the system" made him popular with Serbian and ex-Yugoslav audiences, most of them coming in collaborations with either director Slobodan Šijan
Slobodan Šijan
Slobodan Šijan is a Serbian film director.After graduating film direction and directing a handful of TV movies in the late 1970s, he caught a big break with his first full-length feature Ko to tamo peva in 1980...
or scriptwriter Dušan Kovačević
Dušan Kovacevic
Dušan Kovačević is a Serbian playwright and director best known for his theater plays and movie scripts. He also served as the ambassador of Serbia in Lisbon, Portugal....
- or both.
Early career
BelgradeBelgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
born and bred Stojković, a well-known theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
actor by the mid-1960s, started his film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
career with the 1964 feature Izdajnik (lit. "The Traitor"). A string of TV and minor film roles ensued, with the most important ones coming in guise of being a father figure to the main protagonist - Čuvar plaže u zimskom periodu (Beach Guard in Winter, 1976), Pas koji je voleo vozove (The Dog Who Loved Trains, 1977) being the most recognizable ones - as well as the part in critically well-received Majstor i Margarita (Il Maestro e Margherita, 1972). He also fulfilled the fatherly role in an immensely popular TV show Grlom u jagode
Grlom u jagode
Grlom u jagode is a 1975 Serbian TV series directed by Srđan Karanović and co-written by Karanović and Rajko Grlić. Depicting the life and times of a young man nicknamed Bane Bumbar, the series achieved huge popularity throughout SFR Yugoslavia....
. The show originally aired in 1975 and kept finding its audience through numerous reruns in the 1980s and the 1990s. Most notably, he almost stole the show as the minor antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
in Goran Marković's urban classic Nacionalna klasa do 750 cm³ (National Class Category Up to 750 ccm, 1979).
The breakthrough
Arguably, Stojković delivered some of his finest work while working with the director Slobodan Šijan, who was in turn most successful when working with Dušan Kovačević scripts. Kovačević, a talented playwrightPlaywright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
with a special gift for biting satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
, had a knack for writing characters which Stojković could perfectly translate to screen. The combination of those three creative talents yielded some of Serbia's most memorable cinematic efforts to date.
Šijan, who previously worked with Stojković on a several TV productions, made his big screen debut with Ko to tamo peva
Ko to tamo peva
Who's That Singing Over There is a 1980 Yugoslavian film written by Dušan Kovačević and directed by Slobodan Šijan. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:...
(Who's Singing Over There?, 1980), a farcical comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
set at the beginning of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in then Yugoslavia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
. In a strong cast ensemble, Stojković distinguished himself with role of a Germanophile
Germanophile
A Germanophile is a person who is fond of German culture, German people, and Germany in general, exhibiting as it were German nationalism in spite of not being an ethnic German or a German citizen. Its opposite is Germanophobia...
bus passenger on the way to Beograd in the eve of 6th April 1941 - the day that Belgrade was bombed by the Axis Powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
marking Yugoslavia's entry into the war. Ko to tamo peva was released to great critical and commercial success, and has won two awards at the Montreal World Film Festival
Montreal World Film Festival
The Montreal World Film Festival , founded in 1977, is one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF...
in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. To this date, it is considered one of the finest Yugoslavian films ever.
The success of Ko to tamo peva opened new doors for Stojković, who then established his film star status with a string of critically acclaimed roles. He appeared in Goran Paskaljević
Goran Paskaljevic
Goran Paskaljević is a Serbian film director. He was raised by his grandparents in Niš, following the divorce of his parents, and 14 years later returned to Belgrade where he worked in his stepfather's cinema....
's dark comedy about rehab from alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
, Poseban tretman (Special Treatment
Special Treatment
Special Treatment is a 1980 Yugoslavian drama film directed by Goran Paskaljević. It was entered into the 1980 Cannes Film Festival where Milena Dravić won the award for Best Supporting Actress.-Cast:* Ljuba Tadić - Dr...
, 1980), and then reunited with Šijan for another high watermark of Serbian film, the black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
Maratonci trče počasni krug (Marathon Family). The film, a humorous piece about a family whose undertaking business is being threatened by the local mobster was another smash success for Šijan and Stojković, and it retains its cult status to this day. Stojković again delivered a strong performance in a star-studded production, flawlessly portraying the head of the family in waiting: Laki Topalović.
Marxists, spies and revolutionaries
After a couple minor roles, from which his turn as the school principal in comedy Idemo dalje (lit. Moving On, 1982) deserved some mention, Stojković delivered a trio of performances which would ultimately cement his place in the Serbian acting hall of fame. Oddly enough, all three of those roles would involve him portraying a character closely related to the communist ideals - or better said, satirizing a stereotype of "party men" or "marxist revolutionaries".First was his portrait of a homeless wannabe revolutionary Babi Pupuška, in Šijan's Kako sam sistematski uništen od idiota (How I Got Systematically Destroyed by an Idiot, (1983), a story about a man who embarks on a soul-searching journey after hearing the, for him at least, shattering news of Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
's demise. Building momentum from this film onward, Stojković fused his father figure persona he honed in the 1970s with the Marxist nut of Babi Pupuška, and delivered another bravura performance in Goran Paskaljević's elegiac Varljivo leto '68 (The Elusive Summer of '68, 1984). Stojković's character of a hardline Marxist father, who cannot bear to witness the events of the 1968 unfold before his very own eyes, struck a chord with audiences.
Again uniting his talents with those of Dušan Kovačević, Stojković delivered his ultimate film performance - that of the staunch Stalinist and a full-time paranoid in Balkanski špijun (Balkan Spy, 1984), which was jointly directed by Božidar Nikolić and Kovačević himself. With Kovačević at his sharpest, Stojković made the role of ex-political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
Ilija Čvorović completely his own.
Late years
His role in Balkanski špijun was one of the last major theatrical roles for Stojković. After his major successes of the early eighties, Stojković concentrated mainly on television and theatre, with an odd supporting role here and there. He was effective in both Vreme čuda (lit. Time of the Miracles, 1989) and Sabirni centarSabirni centar
Sabirni centar is a 1989 Yugoslavian fantasy/comedy film directed by Goran Marković, starring Rade Marković, Bogdan Diklić, Dragan Nikolić, Mirjana Karanović and Anica Dobra. It is based on Dušan Kovačević's play of the same title translated in the U.S. as The Gathering Place...
(The Collective Center), and had a memorable cameo
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
in Balkan Express 2 (1989). His most famous theatrical role was that of Luka Laban, in another Kovačević play, Profesionalac (lit. "The Professional"). He played the role until a few days before his death. In an interview in 2007 his wife told that she drove him from the hospital to his last plays and returned him to the hospital bed after the play.
In the nineties, Stojković cameoed in an ambitious, yet somewhat disappointing Crni bombarder (The Black Bomber, 1992), and had minor roles in movies such as Emir Kusturica
Emir Kusturica
Emir Nemanja Kusturica , is a Serbian filmmaker, actor and musician, recognized for several internationally acclaimed feature films...
's Underground (1995) and Darko Bajić's Balkanska pravila (The Rules of Balkan, 1997).
Ironically enough, one of his final theatrical roles was one of an orthodox
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
priest - a character who Babi Pupuška and Ilija Čvorović would probably despise - in Lazar Ristovski
Lazar Ristovski
Lazar "Laza" Ristovski is a Serbian actor, director, producer and writer. He has appeared on stage about 4000 times, and starred in over 40 films, TV series and TV dramas, mostly in lead roles.-Biography:...
's 1999 effort Belo odelo ("The White Suit"). After that, he appeared in an omnibus feature called Proputovanje (Traveling, 1999) and starred in a TV adaptation of the August Strindberg
August Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg's career spanned four decades, during which time he wrote over 60 plays and more than 30 works of fiction, autobiography,...
's play The Father for Serbian TV (Otac, 2001). He died in Belgrade on March 16, 2002, after a lengthy bout with cancer.
Awards and legacy
Throughout his lifetime, Stojković was the recipient of the Serbian Lifetime Achievement Award for both theatrical (Dobričin prstenDobricin prsten
The Dobričin prsten award is the life-achievement award for theatrical acting, considered the most distinguished one in the Serbian theater....
, 1990) and cinematic (Pavle Vujisić
Pavle Vujisic
Pavle Vuisić Pavle Vuisić Pavle Vuisić (Serbian Cyrillic: Павле Вуисић, also known by his nickname Paja; (10 July 1926 - 1 October 1988) was a Serbian actor, known as one of the most recognisable faces of former Yugoslav cinema....
, 1998) efforts. He remains as popular in death as he was in life, as his characters have entertained numerous generations of Serbian and Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
speakers. The modern Serbian slang is often permeated with the line
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
s from Stojković's most famous roles, and while one could argue that Kovačević's scripts were more important to this than Stojković, it is tremendously hard to imagine any of the above cited films without "Bata"'s colourful performances.