Writing

Branko Ivanda

Born 1941-12-25 · Split, Croatia

Branko Ivanda (born 25 December 1941) is Croatian film director and screenwriter. Ivanda was born in Split, then under Italian occupation. His father Leo was a high-school professor of Croatian and French language and his mother Dunja a clerk. The family had artistic leanings, as Ivanda's grandfather was an actor in the Croatian National Theatre in Split (HNK), while his uncle-in-law was composer Ivo Tijardović. Ivanda completed the classical gymnasium in his hometown, occasionally playing minor roles in the HNK, but as he preferred directing, he entered the Academy of Dramatic Arts of the University of Zagreb where he graduated. His directing debut was 1969 modernist piece Gravitacija ili fantastična mladost činovnika Borisa Horvata. Following the ban of his documentary about 1971 student demonstrations Poezija i revolucija - studentski štrajk 1971, in the 1970s he focused on television, where he would direct films, dramas, documentary and advertising films for over thirty years. He also accepted occasional theater projects. For his TV and fiction films he received several awards, notably FIPRESCI from the Berlin Film Festival. He has been a dean of the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb since 2004. Ivanda married twice: from the first marriage with Stanka, he had son Nikola, who was also a director and Branko's close assistant in multiple TV projects, such as popular series Obični ljudi, Ponos Ratkajevih, Sve će biti dobro and Dolina sunca. Nikola died from heart attack in 2012 at age 36. From his second marriage with producer Lidija he has two children.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

In the Camp poster
7.0

Piano player is commissioned as an officer in WW1 Austro-Hungarian army. His sensitive soul is being tormented by war atrocities. And then he is ordered to hang an old lady...

In the Camp

1983

The Horseman poster
6.9

The movie takes place in the early 18th century on the borders between Bosnia and Dalmatia, the crossroad between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice. It deals with issues relating to the region's native Croats as they struggle between to live between two empires and two faiths: Catholicism and Islam.

The Horseman

2003

The Rabbit poster
NR

Written in 1932 between the two world wars, this TV drama brings a critique of militarism and speaks of the meaninglessness of warfare and the tragedy of human lives and the tragedy of human lives in such an environment.

The Rabbit

1975

Sisters poster
8.0

Based on the motifs of Slavko Batušić’s play Chamber Trio, the main characters are sisters Julia and Regina, and Regina’s husband Marcel, in the vortex of an intimate and psychological drama of unresolved marital relations.

Sisters

1992

Ana and Nives poster
NR

It follows the lives of two women: real-life painter Nives Kavurić-Kurtović and editor Ana who’s just working on editing of documentary on Nives.

Ana and Nives

1980

Ana and Nives poster
NR

It follows the lives of two women: real-life painter Nives Kavurić-Kurtović and editor Ana who’s just working on editing of documentary on Nives.

Ana and Nives

1980

Psychopaths poster
8.0

A TV film based on Chekhov’s 'Ariadna'.

Psychopaths

1974

No artwork available
8.0

After the death of his beloved wife, a nobleman from northern Croatia turns to spiritualism refusing to accept that she's gone. She begins to appear in his presence and he starts to believe that she's alive.

Nocturno

1974

No artwork available
10.0

Zlatko Kovač, a provincial professor, gets the job in the big city's school, only to find out that his red-employment is not random. Professor Toth, the man he replaced, has died under the strange circumstances. Kovac meets a variety of strange people in his school's collective, and it was not long before they came up with the new body. However, the police is unable to solve the case, but he takes the matter into his own hands and setting a trap for a murderer on a school manifestation.

Crime at School

1982

No artwork available
10.0

Zlatko Kovač, a provincial professor, gets the job in the big city's school, only to find out that his red-employment is not random. Professor Toth, the man he replaced, has died under the strange circumstances. Kovac meets a variety of strange people in his school's collective, and it was not long before they came up with the new body. However, the police is unable to solve the case, but he takes the matter into his own hands and setting a trap for a murderer on a school manifestation.

Crime at School

1982

Five Dead Adresses poster
NR

A contemporary drama about a woman at a turning point in life, too old to start life all over, but young enough not to decide to try. After a failed marriage abroad, childless and with unfulfilled expectations, Melisa returns to Zagreb longing for her mother, brother, friends and beloved hometown.

Five Dead Adresses

1985

Illusion poster
7.0

The story of an inter-generational conflict between two brothers of completely different political and secular views.

Illusion

1967

The Wooden Coffin of Thomas Wolfe poster
8.0

Two characters spend days in over-questioning themselves and arguing about the first and last matters of ephemeral human existence.

The Wooden Coffin of Thomas Wolfe

1974

Gravitation poster
6.3

After completing his military service, Boris Horvat finds himself at the crossroads. He thinks about enrolling at the faculty, but the job of a clerk at a bank where his father worked is already waiting for him. Boris falls in love with a female artist, but soon gets involved in another love affair, this time with his female colleague at work.

Gravitation

1968

Gravitation poster
6.3

After completing his military service, Boris Horvat finds himself at the crossroads. He thinks about enrolling at the faculty, but the job of a clerk at a bank where his father worked is already waiting for him. Boris falls in love with a female artist, but soon gets involved in another love affair, this time with his female colleague at work.

Gravitation

1968

No artwork available
7.8

Just before Italy's capitulation in 1943, an eminent lawyer is being forcefully taken to the fort by Italian authorities along with his fourteen year old son, in order to reconstruct the judicial process for thirty nameless people that never actually took place.

Court Martial

1978

No artwork available
7.8

Just before Italy's capitulation in 1943, an eminent lawyer is being forcefully taken to the fort by Italian authorities along with his fourteen year old son, in order to reconstruct the judicial process for thirty nameless people that never actually took place.

Court Martial

1978

Lea and Darija poster
6.1

It’s inspiring true story about two thirteen-year-old girls who were, on the eve of World War II, great dancing and acting stars in Zagreb. Selling out theatre venues, they were praised in the most superb headlines by the Croatian and European press. They were filmed by Parisian Pathe and Berlin’s UFA… During the Nazi persecution of Jews and the later German nationals’ flight from communists, a dramatic friendship was born through entertainment, dance, but also anxiety. This led towards an unexpected end.

Lea and Darija

2011

Lea and Darija poster
6.1

It’s inspiring true story about two thirteen-year-old girls who were, on the eve of World War II, great dancing and acting stars in Zagreb. Selling out theatre venues, they were praised in the most superb headlines by the Croatian and European press. They were filmed by Parisian Pathe and Berlin’s UFA… During the Nazi persecution of Jews and the later German nationals’ flight from communists, a dramatic friendship was born through entertainment, dance, but also anxiety. This led towards an unexpected end.

Lea and Darija

2011

The Case of Graduate Wagner poster
NR

This drama premiered in Zagreb in 1935. The plot shows a young man from a well-to-do bourgeois family facing the anger of his parents over his absences from high school, behind which stands his forbidden love with a girl of humble working-class background.

The Case of Graduate Wagner

1976

The Dream of Dr. Mišić poster
7.7

Doctor Mišić comes to the Jabučevački cacstle, a place known as haunted by ghosts and wraiths. He's stubborn supporter of common sense and logic, taking all assumptions about transcendent world and fourth dimension to be silly. However...

The Dream of Dr. Mišić

1973