Video History Project

People

Andrea Staka

My films are influenced by my personal experience. Born and raised in Zurich to Bosnian and Croatian parents, I have been living between cultures. Switzerland was the country of school and everyday life; safe, calm, and somewhat lonely.

Yugoslavia was the country of family and holidays, but also the country of loss since war broke out in the early 90's. Pain, loss and displacement, "Yugoslavia - a country that is closer to death than life", have become the subjects of my work ever since. When I made HOTEL BELGRADE and YUGODIVAS the representation of Yugoslavs in the media consisted of men with guns and sensationalist news reportage of the battlefield. Women, children and intellectuals, people that left the country as a political statement as war broke out, had neither voice nor representation.

My films give insight into a community, we only have a narrow perception of. THE BIRTHDAY PARTY continues diversifying that image and gives women and children a voice to talk about everyday issues of identity, family and daily struggles of urban life. HOTEL BELGRADE and YUGODIVAS were successfully received at international film festivals, and won numerous awards. Both films were nominated for Best Swiss Film and theatrically released throughout Switzerland. The films screened at Sundance, Locarno, Munich, Leipzig, Palm Springs. I am presently writing my first narrative feature film to be shot in 2005.

My films have received funding by the Swiss Ministry of Culture, the Zurich Council for the Arts, Swiss Public Television and Arte. FILMOGRAPHY 2000 YUGODIVAS, 35mm, 60min, documentary 1999 DALEKO (FAR AWAY), VIDEO, 9 min, fiction 1998 HOTEL BELGRAD, 35mm, 13min, fiction 1995 RUZA, 16mm, 2min, experimental film AWARDS Nomination Swiss film prize ÑBest Documentary" and ÑBest Short", Achievement Award, Swiss Ministry of Culture, Directing Award, Brooklyn International Film Festival, and more.

Cite this record

"Andrea Staka." Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2011. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/andrea-staka.

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Summary

Andrea Staka, a Zurich-born filmmaker of Bosnian and Croatian parentage, makes films addressing pain, loss and displacement related to the Yugoslav wars. Her works include HOTEL BELGRADE, YUGODIVAS and THE BIRTHDAY PARTY; her films screened at Sundance, Locarno, Munich, Leipzig and Palm Springs and received numerous awards and nominations for the Swiss Film Prize. Her filmography lists YUGODIVAS (2000), DALEKO (1999), HOTEL BELGRAD (1998) and RUZA (1995); funding came from the Swiss Ministry of Culture, the Zurich Council for the Arts, Swiss Public Television and Arte.

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Last modified 18 June 2011

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