Ahmet Obradović

In memoriam

Theater and Film Director Ahmet Obradović was a Bosnian theater and film director and playwright. He served as the longtime resident director and later director of the National Theater in Mostar. Born in Mostar on May 18, 1946, he developed an early interest in directing while still in high school, staging amateur performances with a local cultural society in the town of Stolac. After spending several years writing theater and film criticism in Banja Luka, he enrolled at the Academy of Theater, Film, Radio and Television in Belgrade in 1969, where he studied directing under Professor Miroslav Belović. As a student, he initiated the Student Poetry Festival and created the first stage adaptation of Meša Selimović's novel  The Fortress , earning acclaim and a national award for cultural contribution. In 1973, he staged Edward Albee's  Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf  as his graduation project at the National Theater in Mostar, where he went on to direct over 30 productions. Two of those were his own works:  You're Next, Please  (1977), a satirical play, and  People from the South  (1979), a poetic-documentary drama. He also directed a radio version of the latter for Radio Sarajevo in 1981. His repertoire included a broad range of authors and genres. He directed comedies by Georges Feydeau and Branislav Nušić, dramas by Dušan Kovačević, Ljubomir Simović, and Goran Stefanovski, as well as adaptations of literary works by Ivo Andrić, Branko Ćopić, and Meša Selimović. His 1988 stage production of  The Fortress  was later recognized as a significant work in Bosnian theater. In 1992, he directed  Death and the Dervish , based on Selimović's novel, as his final theater production. It premiered shortly before the outbreak of the Bosnian War for independence. Obradović also worked extensively outside of Mostar, directing in theaters across Yugoslavia, including Kragujevac, Tuzla, Zenica, and in Poland. He collaborated with the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo, where he supported student productions and training. In 1991, he founded the Festival of Comedy of Bosnia and Herzegovina, named  Mostarska liska , inspired by the city's rich tradition of humor. The inaugural festival hosted theaters from Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Tuzla, Zenica, and abroad, and included exhibitions and performances highlighting the comic spirit of the region. In addition to his theater work, he directed several documentary films. Notable among them were works on actors Avdo Džinović and Ante Vican, as well as a 1992 documentary for RTV Sarajevo titled  Convoy for Life , about Mostar refugees in Croatia. It was broadcast posthumously in 1993. Ahmet Obradović died on January 30, 1993, in Zagreb, Croatia, at the age of 46. His contributions to theater and film, particularly within Bosnia and Herzegovina, left a lasting cultural legacy. In his honor, the revived  Mostarska liska festival established the Ahmet Obradović Award to recognize excellence in comedic theater.

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