Slobodan Skerlić
Education and Early Career
Slobodan Boban Skerlić was born in Belgrade on March 22, 1964. He studied at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. He wrote the screenplay for “So Hot Was the Cannon” as early as the early 1980s, before he even enrolled in the academy, which speaks to his early preoccupation with literary source material and the art of filmmaking.
Film
He is best known as the director of the film “Do koske” (To the Bone, 1997), and his film “Zmajovini pangalozi” is the first 3D film shot in Serbia.
As a director and screenwriter, he is also known for “Prokleta je Amerika” (Damn America, 1992) and “So Hot Was the Cannon” (2014).
“So Hot Was the Cannon” opened the 42nd FEST film festival in 2014 — a rare distinction, as the opening slot is almost traditionally reserved for the Cannes winner. The film was based on the novel of the same name by Vladimir Kecmanović, produced in co-production with Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Television
As creator, director, and screenwriter, Skerlić is behind the series “Klan” (The Clan, 2020), a crime drama with elements of tragicomedy following two small-time criminals from the provinces who rise through the world of organized crime.
Theatre
Skerlić is also active in theatre. At the Belgrade Drama Theatre, he directed “Trpele” (They Endured) — a documentary theatre piece based on testimonies of women victims of violence from a Helsinki Committee for Human Rights research project — as well as “Kad su cvetale tikve” (When the Pumpkins Blossomed) by Dragoslav Mihailović, and “Kramer vs. Kramer” (2024).
Thematic Focus
Skerlić is a director who has set himself the task of exposing evil in this part of the world, regardless of the form it takes — through films and TV series about domestic organized crime and domestic violence, with a long-term goal of making a film about war crimes.