When I Am Dead and Gone

When I Am Dead and Gone

Živojin Pavlović, Serbia (Yugoslavia), 1967, 75’

In what is perhaps the most iconic film of the Yugoslav New Wave, a charming twenty-year-old with no job and few ambitions wanders through the crumbling outskirts of Yugoslavia.

Džimi Barka (Dragan Nikolić), a young seasonal worker of questionable moral principles, sets on a long journey to find his place in society after losing his job. The journey takes him through the entire social structure and the outskirts of socialist Yugoslavia.

Pavlović’s most iconic film is a black comedy, musical, coming-of-age drama, and Sartre-Camus-style existentialist manifesto all rolled into one.

“It seems to me that the sense of impending moral collapse perceived in every facet of this society is most clearly reflected in the spiritual profile of the generations that are just stepping in. The protagonist of my new film, Džimi Barka, is a young man with a healthy zest for life, yet he doesn’t know what to do with himself…” – Živojin Pavlović

“The foundation of the New Yugoslav Cinema lies primarily in subordinating formal aspects to the psychological substance of the ethical and metaphysical drama of modern man. And this ‘new cinema’ does not seek to dazzle, but to hurt.” — Živojin Pavlović

Živojin “Žika” Pavlović (1933–1998) was a theorist, writer, and filmmaker, one of the most important figures in the history of Serbian and Slovenian cinema. He was one of the leading figures of the New Yugoslav Cinema of the late 1960s, a movement to which he belongs both for the themes and the formal innovations of his films. Pavlović received numerous awards for his films and literary works, including the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for directing the film The Rats Awakening (Buđenje pacova, 1967).

Before the screening, at 7 p.m., join us for a jam session with the tutors of the “Zgrabi zvok!” summer school.

In collaboration with the MareziJazz International Big Band Festival.