Foolish Years

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The Foolish Years (Serbian: Lude godine / Луде године) are a Yugoslav series of films spawned from a 1977 movie of the same name.[1] The original film and its nine sequels were all directed by Zoran Čalić between 1977 and 1992.[2] The series became widely known informally as Žikina dinastija (Žika's Dynasty), which was one of the titles of the films, released in 1985.[2] The informal name of the series parodied American TV soap opera Dynasty, which was enormously popular throughout Yugoslavia in the mid-1980s.

The series began with a 1977 film Lude godine. Centered on a young couple, Boba and Marija, the goal of the film was to address important issues such as unprotected sex and teen pregnancy.[2] However, the ensemble of supporting characters — most notably the inlaws Živorad "Žika" Pavlović (played by Dragomir Bojanić Gidra) and Milan Todorović (played by Marko Todorović) — captured audiences' attention by displaying great comedic potential.[2] This was later exploited in nine subsequent sequels as all of them revolved around the pair of in-laws — wacky Žika and strait-laced Milan — rather than the young couple.

Nearly every single film in the series was lambasted by film critics. Most disliked it for what they saw to be poor directorial choices and crude folksy humour loaded with rural and urban stereotypes that are displayed through the characters of Žika and Milan, respectively. Despite its low-brow reputation, the series proved to be a valuable training ground and career springboard for many acting talents and future stars of Yugoslav/Serb cinema like Sonja Savić, Zoran Cvijanović, Nikola Kojo, Gala Videnović, Branko Đurić and others.[2]

Domestically, the films were box-office successes,[3] and were popular in the USSR.[4]

Films[]

The films in the series are:

  • Lude godine (Foolish Years), (1977)
  • Došlo doba da se ljubav proba (The Time has Come to Taste the Love) a.k.a. Lude godine II (Wacky Years II, 1980)
  • Ljubi, ljubi, al' glavu ne gubi (Kiss, Kiss, but Don't Lose Your Head, 1981)
  • Kakav deda takav unuk (Like Grandpa, Like Grandson, 1983)
  • Idi mi, dođi mi (Come to me and Go from me, 1983)
  • Šta se zgodi kad se ljubav rodi (What Happens When Love Comes to Town, 1984)
  • Žikina dinastija (Žika's Dynasty, 1985)
  • Druga Žikina dinastija (Second Žika's Dynasty, 1986)
  • Sulude godine (Weird Years, 1988)
  • Žikina ženidba (Žika's Wedding, 1992), also known as Ženidba Žike Pavlovića (The Wedding of Žika Pavlović) in Croatia
  • Povratak Žikine dinastije (Žika's Dynasty Returns), cancelled in 2018 in production phase, due to lack of government funding.[5]

References[]

  1. ^ Mazierska, Ewa; Gyori, Zsolt (2018). Popular Music and the Moving Image in Eastern Europe. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 142. ISBN 978-1-50133-719-2.
  2. ^ a b c d e Mrenica, Ines (1 November 2020). "Čemu smo se smijali? Prije 35 godina emitovana je "Žikina dinastija", detektor našeg mentaliteta" [What were we laughing at? "Zika's dynasty", a detector of our mentality, was broadcast 35 years ago]. Klix.ba.
  3. ^ Goulding, Daniel J. (2002). Liberated Cinema: The Yugoslav Experience, 1945-2001. Indiana University Press. p. 148. ISBN 978-0-25334-210-2.
  4. ^ Schwartz, Matthias; Winkel, Heike (2016). Eastern European Youth Cultures in a Global Context. Springer. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-13738-513-0.
  5. ^ "Neće biti snimanja "Povratka Žikine dinastije"?" ["Žika's Dynasty Returns" will not be filmed after all?] (in Serbian). 4 August 2018. Retrieved 20 November 2019.


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