Ivan Bekjarev

Acting

Ivan Bekjarev

Born — Died

1946-04-06 — 2020-11-16

Place of birth

Belgrade, Serbia

Known for

Acting

Credits

69 titles

Ivan Bekjarev is a Serbian theatre and movie actor. The first role played on film in 1967. year, in "Boxers Go To Heaven" (Serb: "Bokseri Idu U Raj"), where the leading role was Mija Aleksic. Gained fame as Vujkovic role in the TV series "Banjica" (1984) and Stevice Kurcubić in the TV series "Better Life" (1987, 1990) ("Bolji Život"). For many years Bekjarev is  a professor of the BK Academy of Arts , where in 2001. elected to the position of Associate and 2006. full professor.

Known for

Better Life poster
7.7

Trials and tribulations of the Popadic family, a typical family of five with everyday problems... BOLJI ŽIVOT is a Yugoslav TV series with mixed elements of soap opera, comedy and drama that aired from 1987 to 1991. Created by the Radiotelevision Belgrade it is considered to be the most successful TV show ever produced in Yugoslavia. Written by Siniša Pavić, most prolific Serbian screenwriter, the series helped jump start cinematic careers for many of its protagonists, most notably Dragan Bjelogrlić who went on to become successful actor, director, and producer.

Better Life

1987

More Than a Game poster
7.7

The story follows a ten-year period before WW2 in a fictional town of Gradina, Serbia and its residents, which went through the turbulent events like the Great Depression and the rise of fascism. But the most important segment of the story revolves around rivalry between two city's football clubs - Radnicki and Gradjanski.

More Than a Game

1974

Jelena poster
9.0

The story of Jelena is set to Serbia's capital Belgrad and it follows the life of an ordinary woman, who's not happy in love. She's married to Ratko and has two children Sasa and Lidija. Inspite of years that went by, Jelena never managed to forget Vuk, a love of her life she has been involved with in her youth. She was separated from Vuk under tragic and mysterious circumstances. After 3 decades in his wish to pursue justice, Vuk returns to his city bringing his daughter Helen with him. His attempt to clarify what happened and to prove the truth is sabotaged by Jelena's husband who keeps failing in business more and more. Even though he loves Jelena, he has a relationship with Sofija, the owner of a modeling agency. Nobody expects that the accidental encounter between Sasa and Helen will become fatal once they decided to start the life together.

Jelena

2004

The Written Off poster
8.7

"The Written Off" is a famous Serbian TV miniseries, that was very popular in former Yugoslavia, originally airing in 1974. Due to its popularity, Radio Television of Serbia has shown reruns of the series ten times, the last re-run starting in 2012. The series has achieved something of a cult status among its audience and still attracts an estimated 3 million viewers with its last rerun. Idea of series derives from exploits of freedom fighters in Belgrade during World War II, and all the characters and events are fictitious.

The Written Off

1974

Hot Wind poster
8.9

Vruć vetar is one of the most popular Yugoslav TV miniseries that aired in 1980. The show and movie cut from scenes of the show were popular in neighboring countries-also very popular in Czechoslovakia. Its main theme became very popular and enjoying a bit of a cult status. The story follows Shurda, a man in his 30s, who comes from a small town to Belgrade to get rich. However, as no job is good enough for him, he tries his luck in Germany, but this venture proves to be the same, so he returns to his native Yugoslavia.

Hot Wind

1980

Bitter Fruit poster
3.5

No synopsis available yet.

Bitter Fruit

2008

Film credits

2010s · 3 titles

2000s · 10 titles

Love Stars poster
3.2

"Love Stars" is a film about loneliness, growing up and search for love. Laza is a romantic 20 year-old, who after being isolated a long time, comes to the city. There he gets to know a group of young voyeurs, led by a 50 year-old, with classy attitude and manners (the Count). Laza joins them and during the course of film that simple group of voyeurs becomes a witness of the whole state of spirit dominating in our everyday life. By the irony of fate, on the end Laza's dreams still come through.

Love Stars

2005

The Theft of St. Peter's Treasure poster
8.0

Rome is on the thresh-hold of the Holy year 1925, the city wishes to present itself as 'spotless' to the outside world. The appearance of a child's corpse puts an end to these aspirations. The police arrest a small time crook who has committed a robbery but has nothing to do with the murder of the child.

The Theft of St. Peter's Treasure

2000

The Serbian Dane poster
5.0

Miniseries of 3 episodes of 50 minutes based on the bestseller by Leif Davidsen. Religious fanatics put a price on the head of the controversial Anglo-Iranian writer Sara Santanda. $ 4 million. Sarah decides to come out of hiding and face in Copenhagen. The uncomfortable visit for the government of Denmark triggered a great safety device. Meanwhile, somewhere in the troubled former Yugoslavia, a young man named Vuk (Serbian sniper does not kill for money but for ideology) accepted the task of killing the famous writer during his visit to Copenhagen.

The Serbian Dane

2001

The Optimists poster
6.7

Five scenarios in which people have trouble distinguishing truth from illusions. Each segment reflects the motto of Voltaire's Candide: "Optimism is insisting everything is good, when everything is bad."

The Optimists

2006

Inventors poster
10.0

A middle-aged couple go through emotional crisis. They cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel until a total stranger injects new energy and hope into their impoverished and restricted life.

Inventors

2000

The Secret of Family Treasure poster
6.2

Tihomir Stojkovic suspects that there's a hidden treasure in the property of his neighbors. Since this piece of land belongs to a man who has unmarried daughter, Tihomir persuades his friend Djosa to marry her so they could get in possession of that jar full of money. The characters are based on TV series "Family Treasure".

The Secret of Family Treasure

2000

Poor Little Hampsters poster
6.0

Two idle clerks who do senseless office job of punching cards, and who are not particularly fond of each other, decide to play the game "come up with the most stupid line possible" in order to break the boredom. Then they call random people over the phone and tell this line. Harmless game of theirs creates general confusion among people, which leads to anti-terrorist intervention, police interrogation, loss of state credit and the change of government. The two, of course, know nothing about the series of comic and incredible events that follow without stop.

Poor Little Hampsters

2003

Flirt poster
6.9

Two girls swear their former boyfriends and sent two demons Strahinja and Lola to take them. Strahinja must deliver the main heroes of this world or, by the decision of the judge of the Dark Vilayet, be returned to the unpleasant state of death. The four stories that make this omnibus film, follow main characters which Lola and Strahinja should pick up. Each of them tries to avoid death. You will see how the sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic and kolerik cope with the death officers.

Flirt

2005

A Present for Sanja poster
9.0

Having been ditched by his girlfriend Sanja for a Turk called Murat, a Bosnian refugee who lives in Germany reaches a decision to commit suicide on the New Year's Eve. To cheer him up, his boss sends him a prostitute called Jovanka, not knowing that Jovanka is a Serb. In consequence, Jovanka and the suicidal Bosnian are forced to spend the New Year's Eve together.

A Present for Sanja

2004

Honeymoons poster
6.6

'Honeymoons' shows us that the distance between Eastern and Western Europe is more than a question of kilometers. The films follows two couples, one is Albania, one in Serbia, who in the midst of wedding celebrations decide to leave their respective countries to realize their dreams in Western Europe. They soon find themselves trapped between their countries' past and their future lives together.

Honeymoons

2009

1990s · 16 titles

Cabaret Balkan poster
7.4

20 peoples paths crisscross one night in violent mid-'90s Belgrade.

Cabaret Balkan

1998

A Suspicious Character poster
5.5

The arrival of an unknown man wanted by the local authorities disturbs the small town. However, it turns out that the suspect is mayor's son-in-law who checked under his false name in order to hide his whereabouts from his girlfriend's parents.

A Suspicious Character

1990

Flashback poster
4.0

A boxer tries to recover from the memories he brought back from war.

Flashback

1997

Let's Make Love 3 poster
5.2

Wealthy guy from Australia travels to his birthplace in Bosnia so he'd make a giant wedding with Yugoslavia's biggest star Lepa Brena. Although it's a Brena doppelganger, media rush to publish the story so Lepa Brena must run across the country to stop the false wedding and tell everyone the true.

Let's Make Love 3

1990

Files No.128 poster
7.0

The plot of this television movie is located in Belgrade, the hometown of screenwriter Velimir Lukic, in the 1960s. It was the time of the party discipline, in which the free thinking and free behavior of individuals meant heresy. This is a drama about political showdown, about the metamorphosis of high-level intellectuals ready to do anything to defy the authorities and retain their privileges. At the same time - this is also a love story that, under the political circumstances that accompany it, is misused precisely because of those well-known higher goals.

Files No.128

1998

No artwork available
8.0

A New Year’s Eve musical short.

Love Is a Bread of Nine Crusts

1990

A Night at My Mother's House poster
5.0

A love story of a couple coming from different social backgrounds set in the context of Yugoslavian reality, its social and state decline. Their quest for the meaning of life proves to be nothing but failure.

A Night at My Mother's House

1991

People Will Reward All This poster
8.0

A story about war-disabled combatants that fought in Serbo-Turkish wars in 1876-1878. Left on their own and without limbs, they became beggars – a burden for the state that doesn’t pay attention about them. Their destiny depends exclusively on people who feel sympathy.

People Will Reward All This

1995

The First Matins with My Father poster
5.5

An eminent and respected merchant has a problem with gambling, alternately winning and losing until the fateful night when he loses everything. He decides to kill himself, but his wife stops him. Kind words make him go with his son to the church to pray and start new life from the beginning. Based on a novel by famous Serbian writer Laza Lazarevic.

The First Matins with My Father

1993

The Battles of Simeon the Student poster
8.0

Thematically diverse stories written by Petar Kocic are bond by the thread, creating the basis for a dramatic story of the events surrounding the student Simeun. In the foreground there's a summary of Simeun's features, some patriotic, but some arrogant as well. These Simeun's actions are manifesto of the complexity of his nature, acting like a tyrant and patriot who displays bravery for the sake of freedom of his people.

The Battles of Simeon the Student

1999

The Serbian Girl poster
10.0

The naive 18 year old Dobrila leaves her little Serbian village to travel to Hamburg, Germany, where her boyfriend lives. The trip is not easy. Finally in Hamburg she has to realize her boyfriend is not very interested in a relationship. She doesn't tell him she's pregnant and starts on her way home to Serbia, which turns out to be even more exhausting.

The Serbian Girl

1991

Plum Noodles poster
7.0

Three families who live in a shared backyard wait their problems to be solved by others. Drama develops when owner of the house comes back from America with his rich pension. His family starts to fantasize what will they do with all this money once he passes away, but old man dies after a month without leaving a written testament behind.

Plum Noodles

1992

See You in Chicago poster
5.1

In this spoof of gangster and crime films, two veteran detectives get involved in mafia world. One of them is hired by a kingpin to follow his wife who seems suspicious.

See You in Chicago

1996

The Little One poster
6.4

In the suburban environment of 1960s Belgrade, thieves and vagabonds were first who escaped from poverty, while simple individuals who believed in ideals, paid a costly price for their misconceptions. Life is very difficult to a family of a pilot who spent 14 years in prison on the basis of false testimony. Her husband's prosecution is his wife's fate, while his daughter doesn't even know that her father is alive. After many migrations and wanderings, the mother meets a soft-spoken yet unscrupulous man who'll promise her marriage, and rape her daughter. The mother eventually ends up at asylum, and the father returns from prison at the right time to help their daughter in life which crucial lessons she already mastered.

The Little One

1991

No artwork available
9.0

Milka is a state employee in the office for approval of the applications for registration of political parties. Her problem is how to make his escaped husband back, while her clients are only worried how to seize power.

Attack Against the Assembly

1992

Desire Named Streetcar poster
8.0

In a rough time, Serbian people in Belgrade travel by a streetcar and serious things happen in a comic way.

Desire Named Streetcar

1994

1980s · 15 titles

Better Life poster
7.0

A film based on the highly popular Yugoslav TV series Better Life. Dragiša 'Giga' Popadić, the head of the Popadić family, organizes a Women's Day shopping trip to Thessaloniki, Greece, for his female coworkers.

Better Life

1989

Life Is Beautiful poster
7.4

After a train breaks down and the passengers are forced to spend a day at a remote country tavern, the mix of seasonal farm workers, transients, musicians, and would-be party kingpins heads toward some explosive moments. A truckload of chickens arrive to be killed and cooked for the unruly group of passengers, and when a few boorish men harass a female singer, their actions lead to unexpected violence.

Life Is Beautiful

1985

Women in Prison poster
5.5

After graduation, a young woman gets his first job in the women's prison in the province. The story follows her struggle to survive in a small town with her small child, alcohol addiction, and the battle with the prisoners and prison brutality and other schemers who wanted to remove her from working spot.

Women in Prison

1985

Hotshot poster
6.1

A story of a young man from the suburb, who gets his experience on the street and in bars. His girlfriend belongs to the same environment. When he goes to army, she tries to get away, giving the only thing she has - her good looks. She poses nude for some magazine. Seeing that photo, the young man escapes from the army, demanding an explanation. His return to a place where he once belonged, causes questioning of himself, discussions with so-called friends, and finally with the girl...

Hotshot

1986

A New Year's Tale poster
NR

What happens when you find documents and compromising feminine items belonging to an unknown young woman in a taxi on New Year's Day, and you forget to inform your wife about it?

A New Year's Tale

1988

Mister Dollar poster
7.0

Based on the work of the same name by Branislav Nušić. The film satirizes societal obsession with money through eccentric characters vying for wealth in a lighthearted setting.

Mister Dollar

1989

Battle of Kosovo poster
6.3

In 1389, the Serbian prince Lazar Hrebeljanović refused to submit to the Turkish Sultan Murat, who was invading Serbia with a large army, in order to continue conquering Europe through it.

Battle of Kosovo

1989

Happy New '49 poster
6.3

The story of two brothers of different orientation and fate. The drama takes place in an atmosphere of tension and fear, during the conflict of Yugoslav Communist Party with the Stalinism, during the Cominform. Older brother Dragoslav, a returnee from Russia, was unjustly accused of being a Russian spy and subsequently arrested. Younger brother Kosta is not interested in politics, but he's attracted by a brother's wife Vera and underworld mafia. In the end, it turns out that a young woman belongs to the Soviet spy agency.

Happy New '49

1986

No artwork available
4.8

A satirical story about small town forester who finds himself in trouble when the local authorities announce the visit of a high state official, who is supposed to go on bear hunt as a sign of welcome. The trouble is, no bears were around for decades...

Bear 007

1986

Marija, Where Are You? poster
8.0

A TV adaptation of Veljko Petrovic novel.

Marija, Where Are You?

1983

Volunteers poster
4.2

In this amusing antiwar comedy, seven inept and reluctant soldiers land on a desert island to carry on with the fighting. Just after their parachutes have collapsed behind them on the beach, helicopters approach and land nearby. Out pops a bevy of beautiful women sent to entertain the troops, which they do, and then they leave. From that point onward, there are a series of misadventures

Volunteers

1986

The Red and the Black poster
6.0

This film is the true story of the creation of Labin Republic in 1921. When Italy annexed Istria, Labin area that is very rich in coal became strategically important for the new government. Domestic Croatian and Slovene population were disappointed by the method of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia of selling foreigners. Accumulated social problems and the growing terror of Italians lead to great miners' strike, led by favorite union leader Ivan Pipan. The strikers will be join young miner Ive Blazina, who as commander of the Red Guard workers struggles for the mining republic and the love of beautiful Mary Brezac. The sudden intervention of the Italian army destroys their dreams, and resigned Pipan surrenders. But not everyone agrees with his behavior.

The Red and the Black

1985

No artwork available
9.0

Life and work of Saint Kliment of Ohrid, a medieval Slav saint, scholar, writer and patron saint of the Republic of Macedonia.

Clement of Ohrid

1986

Bishop vs. Rook poster
6.7

State security inspector Ivan reveals an inserted terrorists in Yugoslavia, sent there by Croatian emigrants, enemies of the above socialist state. Their mission is to select the appropriate places on Adriatic coast which they would later blow up. The terrorists are expected to set a series of explosions that would cause a public disturbance and uncertainty in the Yugoslavia's position in Europe. Ivan follows Pavle and Elsa who are staying in Croatia as tourists, stepping into action in a crucial moment.

Bishop vs. Rook

1986

Frivolous Branislav Nusic poster
7.0

The frivolous Branislav Nusic is a 1986 Yugoslav television drama. It was directed by Aleksandar Djordjevic, and the screenplay was written by Miodrag Djurdjevic based on the person of Branislav Nusic.

Frivolous Branislav Nusic

1986

1970s · 11 titles

No artwork available
9.0

After his wife’s death, a widower gathers his family of six sons in their house.

Sons

1975

The Coronation poster
NR

The story is centered around members of the Kamshatov family (including Sergei Petrovich and his grandson Yakov Ivanovich) alongside various relatives, acquaintances, and family contacts.

The Coronation

1970

Mister Dimkovic poster
8.0

The main character of this TV drama is a musician and prominent citizen Dimkovic who wants to stay out of the war. Only when his daughter’s life becomes threatened does he hesitate, but his actions come too late.

Mister Dimkovic

1979

And God Created a Tavern Singer poster
6.2

An electro-technician falls in love with a bar singer, but her job environment, full of alcohol, despair and tired truck drivers, causes nothing but troubles for him.

And God Created a Tavern Singer

1972

The Written Off poster
9.0

Careless lives of few Belgrade youths are shattered when Nazis occupy their town in 1941. Soon they join the resistance movement and their activities bring their names to Gestapo's termination list. This movie inspired the series that would get cult status in former Yugoslavia.

The Written Off

1974

Romance with a Double Bass poster
8.0

Lyrical story about a young double bass musician who travels with fellow musicians out of town to play at a wedding in a summer house. A thief and a girl, a bride at a wedding, will unexpectedly determine his fate. In a film without dialogue, music has a special role.

Romance with a Double Bass

1972

Serbia on the East poster
8.0

The last months in the life of a Serbian philosopher and socialist activist Svetozar Marković and his exile by the government of the Serbian Princedom.

Serbia on the East

1970

More Than a Game poster
NR

Popular TV series has been reedited into a theatrical film with additional material that has not been seen on TV before. The film is a homage to the legends of the Yugoslav theater, some of whom are no longer alive. The story takes place in the town for ten years from 1931 to 1941 and shows the conflict of progressive and humane ideas with fascism. A film made from the TV series of the same name (nine episodes) realized in 1976 and shown in 1977.

More Than a Game

1976

Mammoth Bone poster
7.0

The vagrants of a 15-year-old school dropout who's torn between jobs that do not suit him, and dreams of having music career.

Mammoth Bone

1979

The Last Ones poster
NR

A TV drama about the decline and fall of the Russian middle-class family. Based on the work by Maxim Gorky, a four-act drama first published in 1908.

The Last Ones

1973

A Suspicious Character poster
8.0

The second TV adaptation of popular novel by Serbian comedian Branislav Nusic. A small town is disturbed by the arrival of a "suspicious person", an unknown man wanted by the local authorities. During the hunt, it turns out that the suspect is no one else than the mayor's son-in-law who checked under his false name in order to hide his whereabouts from his girlfriend's parents.

A Suspicious Character

1979

Series credits

Better Life poster
7.7

Trials and tribulations of the Popadic family, a typical family of five with everyday problems... BOLJI ŽIVOT is a Yugoslav TV series with mixed elements of soap opera, comedy and drama that aired from 1987 to 1991. Created by the Radiotelevision Belgrade it is considered to be the most successful TV show ever produced in Yugoslavia. Written by Siniša Pavić, most prolific Serbian screenwriter, the series helped jump start cinematic careers for many of its protagonists, most notably Dragan Bjelogrlić who went on to become successful actor, director, and producer.

Better Life

1987

More Than a Game poster
7.7

The story follows a ten-year period before WW2 in a fictional town of Gradina, Serbia and its residents, which went through the turbulent events like the Great Depression and the rise of fascism. But the most important segment of the story revolves around rivalry between two city's football clubs - Radnicki and Gradjanski.

More Than a Game

1974

Jelena poster
9.0

The story of Jelena is set to Serbia's capital Belgrad and it follows the life of an ordinary woman, who's not happy in love. She's married to Ratko and has two children Sasa and Lidija. Inspite of years that went by, Jelena never managed to forget Vuk, a love of her life she has been involved with in her youth. She was separated from Vuk under tragic and mysterious circumstances. After 3 decades in his wish to pursue justice, Vuk returns to his city bringing his daughter Helen with him. His attempt to clarify what happened and to prove the truth is sabotaged by Jelena's husband who keeps failing in business more and more. Even though he loves Jelena, he has a relationship with Sofija, the owner of a modeling agency. Nobody expects that the accidental encounter between Sasa and Helen will become fatal once they decided to start the life together.

Jelena

2004

The Written Off poster
8.7

"The Written Off" is a famous Serbian TV miniseries, that was very popular in former Yugoslavia, originally airing in 1974. Due to its popularity, Radio Television of Serbia has shown reruns of the series ten times, the last re-run starting in 2012. The series has achieved something of a cult status among its audience and still attracts an estimated 3 million viewers with its last rerun. Idea of series derives from exploits of freedom fighters in Belgrade during World War II, and all the characters and events are fictitious.

The Written Off

1974

Hot Wind poster
8.9

Vruć vetar is one of the most popular Yugoslav TV miniseries that aired in 1980. The show and movie cut from scenes of the show were popular in neighboring countries-also very popular in Czechoslovakia. Its main theme became very popular and enjoying a bit of a cult status. The story follows Shurda, a man in his 30s, who comes from a small town to Belgrade to get rich. However, as no job is good enough for him, he tries his luck in Germany, but this venture proves to be the same, so he returns to his native Yugoslavia.

Hot Wind

1980

Bitter Fruit poster
3.5

No synopsis available yet.

Bitter Fruit

2008

The Two Worlds Are Different poster
NR

The two worlds are different

The Two Worlds Are Different

2011

The Swath poster
9.0

The plot is set in the first half of the 1980s and follows daily life problems of the Krkić family, the conflict of generations, corruption in the agricultural cooperative and personal problems of ordinary people in a small village. The series is an excellent illustration of the last years of life in socialist Yugoslavia, attempts to reform society and the abuse of individuals who use their position for personal gains.

The Swath

1985

The Mission of Major Atherton poster
NR

This true story is made up of two episodes that show Operation Hydra. After the fall of the Uzice Republic and the success of the first enemy offensive, the British sent their mission and this series shows the events.

The Mission of Major Atherton

1986