Ljubiša Samardžić

Acting

Ljubiša Samardžić

Born 1936-11-19 · Skopje, Macedonia, Yugoslavia

​Ljubiša Samardžić (1936-2017), sometimes referred to as Smoki or Smoki Samardi, was a Serbian actor and director. Nowadays he is perhaps best known as Šurda in the Yugoslav TV series 'Vruć Vetar'. Born to the family of a coal miner, his acting talent was discovered very early and he won a scholarship with respected director Bojan Stupica. After graduating from the Belgrade Drama Arts Academy, he obtained a role in Igre na skelama (1961). Samardžić was a member of the Central Committee of Yugoslav Communist Party in late 1980s.

Acting credits

Special Education poster
6.8

Educator and those educated in a home for juvenile delinquents in the same test: approach, take a peek into his soul to become a man. The story of a minor, neglected boys-offenders and their teachers who try to reject the old methods of rehabilitation.

Special Education

1977

Three Tickets to Hollywood poster
7.1

The story of three boys who, fascinated with seventh art magic, decide to escape from their remote village straight to Hollywood. In the same time, a local policeman frantically organizes a reception for the president of the state. His "strictly controlled" citizens, under the influence of events in Cuba, in 1962. start dividing in two parties, resolved to succeed where Khruschev and J.F.K. have failed.

Three Tickets to Hollywood

1993

Walter Defends Sarajevo poster
7.1

Sarajevo 1944. The German armies desperately need fuel in the retreat. Walter, the enigmatic and charismatic leader of the resistance movement, can endanger their supplies. The Germans are taking a cunning plan to remove that obstacle.

Walter Defends Sarajevo

1972

The Hornet poster
7.1

A love story between a Serbian girl and young Albanian set against the background of current Balkanic conflict.

The Hornet

1998

Boxers Go to Heaven poster
6.8

Tragicomic story about a former boxing champion, unbeaten in the ring, but beaten by alcohol.

Boxers Go to Heaven

1967

The Battle of Neretva poster
6.8

In January 1943 the German army, afraid of an Allied invasion of the Balkans, launched a great offensive against Yugoslav Partisans in Western Bosnia. The only way out for Partisan forces and thousands of refugees was the bridge on the river Neretva.

The Battle of Neretva

1969

The Battle of the Eagles poster
6.4

The first Yugoslav Partisan air force unit. Loosely based on historical facts.

The Battle of the Eagles

1979

White Grass poster
6.7

When Dane returns from the army, Vera awaits him at the station, ready to live together with him. Yet beneath the veil of enthusiasm lies anxiety for their future. The couple sets off for the mountain village where Vera's parents live, but find life in the harsh alpine conditions too difficult. They decide to move down into the valley, where they meet a discontented couple whose marriage has been marred by an affair. Vera and Dane also encounter difficulties in their relationship, but the tragic example of the other couple helps them realize that their home lies in the place of their birth - beneath the free skies in the mountains.

White Grass

1976

Uros the Stupid poster
8.0

The Zivkovic family lives on a hilly village, on cleared part of land. Having many relatives, their lives are interlaced, and jobs distributed. Their biggest problem is a family that lives on the village edge and whose members steal, and Uros the Stupid, single and infantile Markovic family member. Contrary to the world of elders, Urosh and children lead their life of some kind. Suddenly, postman brings the telegram saying that some forgotten cousin from America has died and left two million dollars of inheritance. Unrest enters life of peasants. Everyone has some idea on how to invest the money, feeling at the same time that they don't need it. All of their actions will end differently from what they expected.

Uros the Stupid

1989

Doctor Mladen poster
6.4

The story begins in 1941 and shows one of the people who which were actually, very brave and proudly fought against the Ustasha, Germans and other butchers, not related to that ideology was tied. The film is about Dr. Mladen Stojanovic legend of Kozara and Krajina, great man, humanist, friend, and finally the commander one of a the proud partisan detachment, which is that area brought for a moment bring much desired freedom.

Doctor Mladen

1975

The Awkward Age poster
6.5

Adaptation of the highly popular children's novel by Branko Copic, who in this book resembles his school and college days in Bihac, Bosnia, in the years before WWII.

The Awkward Age

1994

The Battle of Sutjeska poster
6.6

The headquarters of the Marshal Tito's Liberation Army are surrounded by Axis forces. The Partisans have no choice but to fight their way out of the encirclement and face the enemy on the plains of Sutjeska.

The Battle of Sutjeska

1973

The Bombers poster
6.3

Two best friends, former Partisans, must face new challenges after the war.

The Bombers

1973

The Knife poster
6.4

A popular folk singer is found murdered. Two police detectives are investigating his past in order to catch the killer.

The Knife

1967

Life Is Beautiful poster
7.5

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

Noon poster
6.2

The lives of many people in one Serbian town are changed after Tito's breakup with Stalin.

Noon

1968

Zarki poster
5.7

In Vojvodina during the war, a partisan commander Zarki fell into the hands of the local Germans. They bound him in chains and take him from one village to another, torturing him in public so he could tell the names from his movement. Bewildered by his resisting power, the Germans tend to break him down and destroy the pride which is his answer to their torture. Frenzied of powerlessness, they ultimately choose the most horrifying death - they buried him alive in the sand that will cover the last trait of him, but he died victorious: He died for his thing.

Zarki

1970

Say Why Have You Left Me? poster
6.1

The story of a young man who, in 1991. receives order to report to a military drill, and finds himself on Vukovar front, where he spends five months. Returning from there, he discovers changes within himself, but within his home town also. Totally lost, he finds no way to make contact with the environment, and suddenly experiences love with the girl who survived all horrors of that war...

Say Why Have You Left Me?

1993

Guardian Angel poster
7.1

A journalist investigates the smuggling of gypsy children on the black market and tries to save a young boy.

Guardian Angel

1987

The Morning poster
7.5

In the first days after the Second World War, as collaborators are being taken care of, a former partisan finds out that war never truly ends — not even in time of peace.

The Morning

1967

The Train for Kraljevo poster
6.5

It is 1941 and the German occupying forces are taking over Yugoslavia, making a train ride to Kraljevo a dangerous game for a secret communist agent carrying important documents. Both the Germans and the police are looking for him on the train, and his safe arrival in Kraljevo seems like an impossibility. His determination to get the papers to the right people keeps him going, even through a gun battle after the train arrives - challenging him to find a way to complete his mission.

The Train for Kraljevo

1981

The Timok Rebellion poster
6.3

In 1883 Milan Obrenovic, arrogant and despotic king of Serbia, felt threatened by the militia segments of his army. In order to remove that threat he disbanded militia. However, people of Timok Valley decide not to surrender their arms to the regular troops. The movie was made for the 100th anniversary of the event.

The Timok Rebellion

1983

Operation Belgrade poster
5.3

In Autumn of 1943 American plane carrying Soviet colonel is shot down near Nazi-occupied Belgrade. Germans capture the colonel and begin interrogations, because he knows everything about forecoming Allied summit in Tehran. Group of Yugoslav Partizans is sent to Belgrade in order to rescue the colonel before he starts talking.

Operation Belgrade

1968

Superfluous poster
6.2

Young farmer Mikajlo while on youth labour action falls in love with a student Nada and infatuated with her, he leaves the peasant brigade and Malena, a girl who as if she were overabundant, followed him to work the labour action. Mikajlo's courtship of Nada provokes laughter and ridicule, so ambitious 'Don Juan' returns to his brigade and the girl.

Superfluous

1962

Behind the camera

The Scent of Rain in the Balkans poster
NR

Trials and tribulations of a Jewish family from Sarajevo during turbulent times between 1914 and 1945. Based on TV series of the same title.

The Scent of Rain in the Balkans

2011

Sky Hook poster
7.4

Belgrade during the height of the war Yugoslavia in 1999. Kaja struggles with daily destruction and the constant threat of being drafted, but also with his impending divorce from his wife Tijana, who wants to emigrate with their son.

Sky Hook

2000

Sky Hook poster
7.4

Belgrade during the height of the war Yugoslavia in 1999. Kaja struggles with daily destruction and the constant threat of being drafted, but also with his impending divorce from his wife Tijana, who wants to emigrate with their son.

Sky Hook

2000

Goose Feather poster
6.4

Goose Feather (Serbian: Jesen Stiže, Dunjo Moja) was Serbia submission to the 77th Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee. Vaguely based on a song By Djordje Balasevic called "Prica o Vasi Ladackom" (the story of Vasa Ladacki). The story is about a very poor boy that wanted abundance and wealth because he basically didn't own anything. He was in love with an equally poor girl that his father wouldn't accept. He moves to another village and starts drinking...

Goose Feather

2004

Goose Feather poster
6.4

Goose Feather (Serbian: Jesen Stiže, Dunjo Moja) was Serbia submission to the 77th Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee. Vaguely based on a song By Djordje Balasevic called "Prica o Vasi Ladackom" (the story of Vasa Ladacki). The story is about a very poor boy that wanted abundance and wealth because he basically didn't own anything. He was in love with an equally poor girl that his father wouldn't accept. He moves to another village and starts drinking...

Goose Feather

2004

Natasha poster
5.6

Seventeen year old Natasha, a daughter of a murdered police inspector, tries to discover her father's killers.

Natasha

2001

Black Horses poster
5.1

Black Horses is a film about the destiny of Serbian people who are forced to endure the "rule from the North" against their will. The empress Maria Theresia has designated their region of Banat to be the dungeon for insubordinate citizens of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Fortunately, World War One has interfered and ended the rule of the Austrain emperors, but many wounds have remained, wounds that bore spite and on the basis of which the people began their struggle to find their identity, to gain their freedom and land and a better life. That kind of surroundings, full of those ready to exploit others and retort to violence, where a man is torn between honesty and fraud, was my inspiration to make a modern film focused on love "the thing a man can suffer for; a thing you can give your heart to; and a thing that can make your heart stop".

Black Horses

2007

Black Horses poster
5.1

Black Horses is a film about the destiny of Serbian people who are forced to endure the "rule from the North" against their will. The empress Maria Theresia has designated their region of Banat to be the dungeon for insubordinate citizens of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Fortunately, World War One has interfered and ended the rule of the Austrain emperors, but many wounds have remained, wounds that bore spite and on the basis of which the people began their struggle to find their identity, to gain their freedom and land and a better life. That kind of surroundings, full of those ready to exploit others and retort to violence, where a man is torn between honesty and fraud, was my inspiration to make a modern film focused on love "the thing a man can suffer for; a thing you can give your heart to; and a thing that can make your heart stop".

Black Horses

2007

Bare Ground poster
6.8

The story takes place in a dilapidated building in the blocks of New Belgrade, whose tenants constantly fight and do bad things to one another. In the same building lives a quiet and young married couple, who are completely different from their environment.

Bare Ground

2003

A Night at My Mother's House poster
6.3

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

Waning Moon poster
5.0

A story about rich lady who invites a poor fellow to her house with intentions to marry him. He accepts her offer, yet it soon proves that the reason were his high debts, as well as prostitute he's secretly seeing. The story becomes more complex when the lady starts an affair with their gardener.

Waning Moon

2008