Branko Đurić

Early life

Born to a Serb father and Bosniak mother, his father died when young Branko was only one. When he was fourteen his mother got married to painter Branko Popovac so part of his adolescence was spent with a stepfather who encouraged him to pursue his artistic talents.

Cinematic career

From an early age Đurić knew he wanted to be involved with performing arts. To that end in 1981 he applied at the Academy of Performing Arts (ASU), a newly established faculty within the University of Sarajevo, but got rejected. As a result, following the ASU rejection, he enrolled in journalism studies at the University of Sarajevo's Faculty of Philosophy.

He didn't give up on acting, though, getting jobs as an extra at various TV Sarajevo productions. He also continued applying at ASU ahead of each new academic year, and after two more rejections in 1982 and 1983, finally got accepted on his fourth try in 1984. Once accepted at ASU, he quit the journalism studies where he had completed two years.

Early acting roles

In April 1984, while contemplating giving ASU another try, Đurić joined Top lista nadrealista, a new prime-time television show being launched by TV Sarajevo as an overlap between folk music and sketch comedy. Made by a group of Sarajevo youths from the New Primitivism sub-cultural milieu he already knew and was on friendly terms with, the sketches were framed as comedy fillers in-between folk music performances by top local folk music stars. Being a bit of a new piece in this group of sketch performers, young Đurić right away proved a good fit with fellow youngsters who had prior been cutting their teeth via putting out a 15-minute weekly radio segment airing as part of the Saturday morning Primus program on Radio Sarajevo's channel two before now getting the chance to showcase their talents in front of a large television audience. In parallel with Top lista nadrealista being shot, Zabranjeno Pušenje, one of the bands from the same New Primitives scene released its debut album and Đurić played a small role in the TV Sarajevo produced video for their "Neću da budem Švabo u dotiranom filmu" track. At the said video shoot directed by the aspiring film director Ademir Kenović, Đurić told Kenović of his continual woes getting accepted at ASU to which Kenović responded by sending over his friend Vuk Janić to help Đurić prepare and hone material for the upcoming audition. Đurić finally got accepted.

In early June 1984, Top lista nadrealista television episodes started airing on TV Sarajevo's second channel. Early reaction was largely one of indifference, but after a few episodes, the sketches started catching on. By now known under his nickname Đuro, Đurić was a prominent member of the troupe, playing multiple characters, though the one that got him most attention was his portrayal of a jumpy TV station security guard with a catchphrase "Ćega, ba". TV show's popularity as well as its folk music context led to lucrative offers to all members of the group from local folk music promoters and managers, such as Rizo Rondić, of doing sketch comedy at their clients' live shows and tours through Bosnian towns and villages. Đuro and colleague Zenit Đozić took many of those offers throughout the second part of 1984, cashing in their Nadrealisti prominence by performing as comic relief on folk music tours named "Udri kapom o ledinu", "Zasviraj i za pojas zadjeni", "Prođoh Bosnu pjevajući", etc.

From late 1984 and into 1985, Đuro participated in Audicija, a no frills stage comedic production that began as academic project consisting of Academy of Stage Arts (ASU) students creating, developing, and performing characters based on various individuals applying to the academy. Conceptualized as a series of one-on-one auditions between each applicant and a professor, with students drawing upon their own auditioning experiences, the production gained prominence after one of its stage shows got filmed and broadcast on television. Performing alongside fellow academy students Željko Ninčić, Admir Glamočak, Emir Hadžihafizbegović, Haris Burina, Saša Petrović, Jasmin Geljo, Željko Kecojević, and Senad Bašić, Đuro's streetwise Sarajevan, Solomon Bičakćić, proved to be among the more popular characters from the show. Though drawing mostly poor reviews from the critics, Audicija's folksy humour soon became a comedy smash hit all over Yugoslavia with each subsequent ASU generation performing it and taking the show on the road across the country.

Cashing in on the sudden popularity of his comedic everyman persona, Đuro, an ASU student, starred in a series of memorable commercials for the local tourist board in Sarajevo — popularizing tourism on Jahorina and Bjelašnica mountains around the city — with recycled folksy catchphrase from Audicija, "Joj razlike, drastićne", delivered in heavy Sarajevan accent sticking with the television audience. The said commercials later gained further significance due to its jingle-like, Goran Bregović-composed tune (featuring Đuro's vocal singing about the mountains) eventually getting made into a full-length track called "Hajdemo u planine" ('Let's Go to the Mountains') on Bijelo Dugme's (Bregović's band) next studio album Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo released in November 1986, this time sung by the band's vocalist Alen Islamović. Due to Bregović's habit of mercilessly reusing and recycling old material, the same tune was in 1992 also sung by Iggy Pop as "Get the Money" on the Arizona Dream movie soundtrack.

Also in 1985, while still in his first year at ASU, the young actor got cast against type by Kenović for the leading role in TV drama Ovo malo duše, a touching coming-of-age story written by Ranko Božić that aired in 1986 on TV Sarajevo with Đuro playing Ibrahim Halilović, suddenly single father in a remote Bosnian village after his wife passes away. This led to a few more dramatic roles on television — in series Znak on TVSa and a movie Vanja that aired on TV Novi Sad.

He also continued doing TV commercials — this time for Dedo and Nana coffee — going back to his, by now well established, "good-natured, streetwise Sarajevo guy" persona.

Đuro then caught a bit of break when the award-winning director Emir Kusturica cast him in Dom za vešanje, which became the young actor's very first role in a feature film. The fact this was Kusturica's first feature after the director's Palme d'Or-winning previous effort ensured plenty of attention for the project along with a Cannes showing. Though his part in the movie was minor (he played one of the Gypsy thugs in Italy), Đuro left a good impression that opened many doors for the young actor.

Popularity in Yugoslavia

By 1989, a sought-after actor all over Yugoslavia, Đuro played memorable supporting role in Kuduz, Kenović's feature film debut. He also participated in Kako je propao rokenrol (a three-story ensemble film by the recent graduates from the Belgrade's Faculty of Dramatic Arts), playing the male lead in the third story opposite Vesna Trivalić about a young couple preparing for the arrival of their first baby.

In fall 1989, Top lista nadrealista's second series started airing, a 7-episode chunk that achieved huge viewership rates in addition to critical praise, all of which solidified Đuro's status in the country. Playing different funny characters every week like street policeman Rade Pendrek, cranky average TV viewer Reuf, high-strung TV news director Đuđi, host of do-it-yourself segment 'Đurine kućne čarolije', etc. led to another huge wave of popularity for the actor.

Bosnian War and relocation to Slovenia

At the outbreak of Bosnian War during spring 1992 Đuro was in Sarajevo before fleeing the city in late August 1992, several months into the siege, and settling in Ljubljana.

Currently, Ðurić is married to Slovenian actress Tanja Ribič with whom he played with in Kajmak in marmelada and lives and works in Slovenia, where he leads Theatre 55, a film production company.

He also works in Croatia, where he had a TV show Pet Minuta Slave (Five Minutes of Fame) on Nova TV, as well as the comedy series Naša mala klinika (Our Little Clinic), which was being aired on POP TV and Nova TV.

In the mid-2000s, Ðurić starred in and directed TV series Brat bratu, the Slovenian version of Only Fools and Horses. The series got cancelled after thirteen episodes due to poor viewership.

In February 2007, Ðurić has appeared on B92 television in Serbia in Ðurine žute minute short segments, a slightly different take on his widely popular "Ðurine kućne čarolije" sketch, which he performed on Top lista nadrealista. The segments mostly received poor reviews and were quickly taken off the air.

In 2011, he played a Serbian soldier in Angelina Jolie's movie In the Land of Blood and Honey. This was Đurić's second movie about the Bosnian War. The first one was Danis Tanović's 2001 No Man's Land, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In it, Ðurić played Ciki, a Bosniak soldier.

Ðurić will make his British television debut in 2012. He plays the lead role of a remorseful former KGB agent in If We Dead Awaken, a one-off Channel 4 drama directed by Luke McManus and written by James Phillips. The film is as part of the Coming Up series produced for Channel 4 by Touchpaper Television. The film was shot on location in London in February and March 2012 and will be transmitted in the early autumn of the same year.

Filmography

Musical career

In parallel with trying to make it as an actor, and later after managing to become a successful one, Đuro was involved with bands though his musical engagement was mostly scheduled around his acting one.

He started with a band called Ševe in the early 1980s with childhood friend Nedim Babović. Đuro then joined punk outfit SCH in 1983, but soon transferred to Bombaj Štampa re-joining Nedim Babović. As Đurić's acting career took off, the band also became more prominent, although their activity was always sporadic. In 1987 their debut album got released.

In December 2008, he reunited with Bombaj Štampa for a concert in Sarajevo featuring original guitarist Nedim Babović and drummer Dragan Bajić along with bassist Ernie Mendillo (The Brandos). More concerts followed and an album of new material will be released in the spring of 2010.