Pjer Žalica

Directing

Pjer Žalica

Born 1964-05-07 · Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia

Pjer Žalica (born 7 May 1964) is a Bosnian film director, screenwriter and a professor at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo. His father Miodrag (1926–1992) was a noted dramaturgist and poet who scripted several TV movies. He has directed several short films, only one of which is (Mostar Sevdah Reunion 2000) as well as three feature films, Gori vatra (2003), and Kod amidže Idriza (2004). In May 2008, he directed the music video for the duet Dabogda by Dino Merlin and Hari Mata Hari. In 2017, Žalica signed the Declaration on the Common Language of the Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks and Montenegrins.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

The Frog poster
NR

Zeko, a barber and ex-soldier suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, invites his brother Braco and his friend Švabo to Eid festivities. He intends to take advantage of the festive mood and ask his brother, a gambler and alcoholic, to change his ways. Braco doesn’t want to listen and will not take the conversation seriously. Zeko puts a razor under his brother’s neck, forcing him to promise he will change; furious, Braco leaves, telling Zeko he will never see him again, while Švabo suggests that Zeko see a psychiatrist. Alone, without his only friend and his brother, Zeko decides to kill himself – until Muki, a young man selling books door-to-door, stops him.

The Frog

2017

Orkestar aka Orchestra poster
5.8

Story about Plavi orkestar (Blue Orchestra), a pop band from Sarajevo who were one of the biggest pop sensations in the 1980s Yugoslavia.

Orkestar aka Orchestra

2011

Orkestar aka Orchestra poster
5.8

Story about Plavi orkestar (Blue Orchestra), a pop band from Sarajevo who were one of the biggest pop sensations in the 1980s Yugoslavia.

Orkestar aka Orchestra

2011

May Labor Day poster
7.2

After ten years in Germany, Armin returns to Bosnia. He just got married and wants to surprise his father, but he is not home. Neighbours say that he has been arrested, nobody knows why. The papers say that he is a suspect for the war crime back in the 90s. Armin wants to learn the truth and the neighbourhood to celebrate May Labor Day.

May Labor Day

2022

May Labor Day poster
7.2

After ten years in Germany, Armin returns to Bosnia. He just got married and wants to surprise his father, but he is not home. Neighbours say that he has been arrested, nobody knows why. The papers say that he is a suspect for the war crime back in the 90s. Armin wants to learn the truth and the neighbourhood to celebrate May Labor Day.

May Labor Day

2022

The Perfect Circle poster
7.0

An alcoholic Bosnian poet sends his wife and daughter away from Sarajevo so they can avoid the troubles there. However, he is soon descended upon by a pair of orphaned brothers. The brothers have escaped a massacre in their own village and have come to the Bosnian capital in search of a long lost Aunt. The poet befriends the boys and together they try to survive the horror of the siege of Sarajevo.

The Perfect Circle

1997

Focus, Grandma poster
6.8

April 1992. Members of a large family strewn around the former Yugoslavia gather around the death bed of their elderly matriarch. She is not well, but the forecast of a family doctor that her death is a matter of minutes away proves incorrect, so the waiting stretches out for days. Relatives start bickering, playing tricks and arguing over the inheritance to be left by the old woman, especially over her large family house in Sarajevo. Despite her deteriorating health, Grandma happily joins the fray. It appears as if that might be what is keeping her alive. Family feuds and intrigues directed against one of the sisters are more important to the family than the clear, terrifying signs of an approaching cataclysm. When the scheming is finally revealed, it is too late. A war has begun in Sarajevo.

Focus, Grandma

2020

Focus, Grandma poster
6.8

April 1992. Members of a large family strewn around the former Yugoslavia gather around the death bed of their elderly matriarch. She is not well, but the forecast of a family doctor that her death is a matter of minutes away proves incorrect, so the waiting stretches out for days. Relatives start bickering, playing tricks and arguing over the inheritance to be left by the old woman, especially over her large family house in Sarajevo. Despite her deteriorating health, Grandma happily joins the fray. It appears as if that might be what is keeping her alive. Family feuds and intrigues directed against one of the sisters are more important to the family than the clear, terrifying signs of an approaching cataclysm. When the scheming is finally revealed, it is too late. A war has begun in Sarajevo.

Focus, Grandma

2020

Days and Hours poster
7.7

Fuke visits his uncle Idriz and aunt Sabira to fix a broken boiler. He soon finds out there's a lot more that needs to be repaired. Idriz and Sabira aren't ready to accept the loss of their only son in the Balkan war, seven years earlier. When Fuke's car refuses to start, Fuke has to stay over in their house. He meets a lot of old friends and neighbors there.

Days and Hours

2004

Fuse poster
6.3

Two years after the Bosnian civil war, a town that is slowly rebuilding itself must whip together a democracy when it's announced the U.S. President Bill Clinton might be paying a visit.

Fuse

2003

Fuse poster
6.3

Two years after the Bosnian civil war, a town that is slowly rebuilding itself must whip together a democracy when it's announced the U.S. President Bill Clinton might be paying a visit.

Fuse

2003

No artwork available
NR

A biopic centered on the life of one of the most recognizable and iconic Croatian musicians of all time, Mišo Kovač. Plot details TBA.

Misho

Frame for the Picture of My Homeland poster
NR

Based on a true story, the film presents events similar to those in the Lukić indictment.

Frame for the Picture of My Homeland

2005

42 1/2 poster
NR

After the war, two friends are together again. Every year they buy one pair of new shoes.

42 1/2

2003

No artwork available
NR

This is a film that shows portraits of three children who lived in Sarajevo during the siege. Through their stories the film tries to give a picture of youngsters who live in the war for three and a half years and their efforts to overcome the trauma. The stories are seemingly separate, but the thread that connects them is a three-year-old boy who on his tricycle constantly wanders the streets of Sarajevo, passing everywhere and always seeing everything. He takes us from one child to another, opening up before us a picture of the bizarre life of children in Sarajevo.

Children Like Any Other

1995

MGM Sarajevo: Man, God, the Monster poster
7.0

Made by the Sarajevo Group of Authors (SAGA), a collective created during the siege of Sarajevo, this documentary captures stories of war that occurred during the conflict.

MGM Sarajevo: Man, God, the Monster

1994

MGM Sarajevo: Man, God, the Monster poster
7.0

Made by the Sarajevo Group of Authors (SAGA), a collective created during the siege of Sarajevo, this documentary captures stories of war that occurred during the conflict.

MGM Sarajevo: Man, God, the Monster

1994

The End of Unpleasant Times poster
10.0

Old man Zaim is alone in the world and wants to change that. He is in love with his neighbor Munevera. Munevera doesn't want him. But there are those who do.

The End of Unpleasant Times

1998

The End of Unpleasant Times poster
10.0

Old man Zaim is alone in the world and wants to change that. He is in love with his neighbor Munevera. Munevera doesn't want him. But there are those who do.

The End of Unpleasant Times

1998