Juraj Jakubisko

Versatile and highly esteemed Slovak director Juraj Jakubisko specializes in films that, within a variety of genres, reflect or comment upon Slovak culture. Before entering the film industry, Jakubisko taught still photography at a Bratislava secondary school for applied arts. He later worked for Czech television in Kosice before attending Prague's film school, studying direction under Vaclav Wasserman. After graduating in 1965, Jakubisko worked with Alfred Radok at the Laterna Magika theater in Prague and began winning international acclaim with his experimental short films before he made his first feature film, Kristove Roky/The Crucial Years, in 1967. As with many of his subsequent features, Jakubisko co-wrote the script. Following his feature debut, Jakubisko made three features, the last of which, Vtackovia, Siroty a Blazni/Orphans and Fools (1969), was only shown at Sorrento (Italy), and then shelved until 1991. After that, Jakubisko was banned from feature filmmaking for 15 years. During that period, he occupied himself by making a few short documentaries, though in 1976 he made Tri Vrecia Cementu a Zivy Kohut/Three Sacks of Cement and a Living Cock, which was not released until 1978. He made his official return to filmmaking in 1979 with Postav Dom, Zasad'strom/Build a House, Plant a Tree. Jakubisko earned international acclaim in 1983 with Tisicrocna Vcela/The Thousand Year Old Bee, and won further acclaim and international awards in 1997 for Nejasná zpráva o konci sveta/An Ambiguous Report About the End of the World.

~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide