Dušan Kovačević

Dušan Kovačević
Dušan Kovačević at the Belgrade Book Fair, 22. October 2007.
Born	July 12, 1948 (1948-07-12) (age 63) Mrđenovac, FPR Yugoslavia (now Serbia)
Occupation	playwright and theatre director

Dušan Kovačević (Serbian Cyrillic: Душан Ковачевић, pronounced [dǔʃan kɔv̞ǎːt͡ʃɛv̞it͡ɕ]; born July 12, 1948 in Mrđenovac near Šabac, Yugoslavia, now Serbia) 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.

He graduated from a grammar school in Novi Sad, and received a Bachelor's degree in dramaturgy from the University of Belgrade in 1973. From 1973, he worked as a dramaturge at TV Beograd for five years. Since 1998, he has been the Artistic Director of Zvezdara teatar. In 2003 he directed his first movie, Profesionalac (The Professional).

His daughter Lena Kovačević is a famous jazz singer.

Kovačević's prolific work is well known and popular in Serbia. His comedies have been translated into 17 languages, but his work didn't become available in English until the mid-1990s. One of his plays, Balkan Spy was being rehearsed in Beijing at the time of Tiananmen Square protests, only to be cancelled by the authorities.

A declared royalist, Dušan Kovačević is a member of the Crown Council of Aleksandar Karađorđević^{[disambiguation needed ]}. He is also a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

Some of Kovačević's work includes:

Plays

• Radovan Treći - Radovan III (1973)
• Maratonci trče počasni krug - The Marathon Runners Run a Victory Lap (1973)
• Sabirni centar - The Gathering Place (1982)
• Balkanski špijun - Balkan Spy (1982)
• Sveti Georgije ubiva aždahu - St. George Shoots the Dragon (1984)
• Klaustofobična Komedija - Claustrophobic Comedy (1987)
• Profesionalac - The Professional (1990)
• Urnebesna Tragedija - Roaring Tragedy (also translated as Tragedy Burlesque; 1990)
• Lari Tompson, tragedija jedne mladosti - Larry Thompson, the Tragedy of a Youth (1996)
• Kontejner sa Pet Zvezdica - Five-Star Dumpster (1999)
• Doktor Šuster - Doctor Shoemaker (2001)
• Generalna proba samoubstiva - Dress Rehearsal for a Suicide (2009)
• U tesnim cipelama - In tight shoes (2011)
• Reinkarnacija - Reincarnation (2011)

Films

• Specijalno vaspitanje - Special Treatment (1978)
• Ko to tamo peva - Who's Singing Over There? (1980)
• Bila jednom jedna zemlja - Underground (Once Upon a Time was a Land) (1995)
• Profesionalac - The Professional (2003) by director and scriptwriter Dusan Kovacevic
• Sveti Georgije ubiva aždahu - St. George Kills the Dragon (2009)

Underground, directed by Emir Kusturica, won the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival. It was Kovačević's adaptation of an earlier play called Proleće u januaru (Spring in January). He has written film adaptations of Marathon Runners (The Marathon Runners Run a Victory Lap (1982)), The Gathering Place, Balkan Spy, and The Professional, as well.

See also

• List of Ambassadors from Serbia

References

• Barnett, Dennis. An interview with Dusan Kovacevic, Belgrade, August 1997.
• Kovačević, Dušan. Odabrane Drame I, Vreme Knjige:Beograd, 1994.
• Kovačević, Dušan. Odabrane Drame II, Vreme Knjige:Beograd, 1994.
• Kovačević, Dušan. Odabrane Drame III, Vreme Knjige:Beograd, 1998.

External links

• Zvezdara Theater
• Dušan Kovačević at the Internet Movie Database
• Intervju: Dušan Kovačević, Wine Style, March 12, 2009
• Srbiju trese pljačkaška groznica, Blic, May 3, 2009

Persondata
Name	Kovacevic, Dusan
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	July 12, 1948
Place of birth	Mrđenovac, FPR Yugoslavia (now Serbia)
Date of death
Place of death