Slovak Director Juraj Jakubisko, ‘the Fellini of the East,’ Dies at the Age of 84
Zuzana Točíková Vojteková Guest Contributor Slovak director, screenwriter and cinematographer Juraj Jakubisko, who won more than 80 international film awards, has died at the age of 84 in Prague, according to Film New Europe. Jakubisko, who was given the nickname “the Fellini of the East“ due to his visual originality and magical realism, was born on April 20, 1938 in the eastern Slovak village of Kojšov. He studied photography at a secondary school for applied arts in Bratislava, and graduated in film directing from Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague. He began winning international acclaim with his experimental short films even before his directorial feature debut with “Crucial Years” (Kristove roky) (1967). The films “The Deserter and the Nomads” (Zbehovia a pútnici) (1968), which won the Little Lion award for young artist at the Venice Film Festival, “Birds, Orphans and Fools” (Vtáčkovia, siroty a blázni) (1969), and the tragicomedy “See You in Hell, Friends” (Dovidenia v pekle, priatelia) (1970, completed in 1990) were banned in the 1970s, so for years Jakubisko could only devote himself to documentary work.