The generation that grew up watching partisan films had two childhood heroes: Velimir Batu Živojinović and Ljubiša Samardžić Smoki. When playing partisans and Germans, it was important not to be German, and even more important to seize the role of Bata or Smokey. To the rest, whatever happens. It didn't matter if these two were together in a partisan movie - the script of these war games was a mix of plots from several different movies anyway. The main argument to challenge someone for the role of Smokey was, "You're not tall."
Ljubiša Samardžić himself in his autobiographical documentary film Panta Rei he assumes that his height of almost two meters recommended him to directors at the beginning of his career. Samardžić was born in 1936 in Skopje in a mining family, and came to Belgrade 20 years later to study law. After the third year of study, captivated by the guest performances starring world stars Laurence Olivier, Judi Dench and Vivien Leigh, he decides to enroll in acting at the Belgrade Drama Academy. He was accepted from the first, and already in 1961 he got his first film role in Scaffolding games Lucky Weyganda. The following year in his second film Sand city he starred with Milena Dravić, with whom he will be an inseparable film partner in more than 30 films and series, and the two will become the favorite film couple of the Yugoslav audience. After this film, he earned the nickname Smokey (the name of the character he played), which will follow him for the rest of his life. In the same year, he played in two big and important films, The goatherd Veljko Bulajić and Too many Branka Bauer. With these two directors, he will remain a friend and collaborator in the years to come, and this group of dedicated filmmakers is joined by Mladomir Puriša Đorđević, in whose masterful film trilogy San, Tomorrow i Noon Smokey played the main role. At the Venice Film Festival in 1967, Ljubiša Samardžić received an award for the leading male role in the film Tomorrow and until now he remains the only actor from Yugoslavia to be awarded the Golden Lion. With director Ivan Hetrich, he played the unforgettable role of Black Rock in the series Where the wild boars go. There he played a Montenegrin who resolutely fights against any government, especially against the occupying power. The best director of action films, Hajrudin Šiba Krvavac, assigned him roles in Saboteurs, To the Partisan Squadron and a cult film Valter defends Sarajevo, where he played the illegal Zis alongside Bata Živojinović in the title role. This most watched film in China brought him huge fame in that country - Smokey himself recounted the magnificent receptions that the Chinese hosts gave them, never forgetting to mention that Bata was, after all, a bigger star there.
In the 1980s, partisan films almost stopped being filmed, and Ljubiša Samardžić increased his fame with a series of comedic roles: it started with the unforgettable Borivoj Šurdilović Šurda in the series Hot wind where his partner was Vesna Čipčić, then in the role of Siniša Pantić in a comedy Temporary work and the two sequels that followed, to culminate with It's not easy with men in which he starred with Milena Dravić. Smokey and Milena were regularly named the best acting couple of the eighties.
"I thought I knew people," Ljubiša Samardžić said in his testament Panta Rei when Yugoslavia began to fall apart. Although he sincerely loved his former homeland, he accepted its disappearance with bitter dignity. He maintained ties with colleagues in Croatia and Bosnia, as much as possible. He went to the funeral of his good friend and partner in many films, Boris Dvornik, in 2008. When the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina started in 1992, Smokey found out that Šiba Krvavac was in the hospital. He called him and told him that he would personally arrange for Šiba to leave besieged Sarajevo. Somehow, it was logical that the illegal Zis from Valtera rescue your old friend from the city where hell has just broken loose.
"Screw it, Smoky," Šiba told him tiredly, determined to die in Sarajevo together with the country where he was born. Hajrudin Šiba Krvavac died on July 11, 1992 in Sarajevo.
In the middle of the war in the nineties, Ljubiša Samardžić decides to become a producer. Together with his son Dragan, he founded the Cinema Design production company and offers opportunities to young directors (those who grew up with partisan films), mostly debutants: Vladimir Blaževski with Revolution Boulevard, Oleg Novković with Tell me why you left me, Gorčin Stojanović with Premeditated murder i Hornet, Đorđe Milosavljević with Wheels. Almost a third of film production in Serbia in the nineties. During the NATO bombing in 1999, he decided to start directing himself. The movie Sky hook, about a group of young people who express their resistance to aggression through their unwavering desire to rebuild a bombed-out basketball court, opens the competition program of next year's Berlin Festival. A movie followed Nataša, about the October 2001 changes in Serbia. The day before the premiere in April XNUMX, Smoky's son Dragan dies. By his own admission, Smokey dedicated everything he did later to the memory of his son.
Although Samardžić's directorial reach is far from his acting, Smokey has shown great dedication to film and the painstaking work of producing motion pictures. He had enormous support from younger colleagues who collaborated with him, such as editor Marko Glušac and director Radivoje Raša Andrić. When his movie Crow horses was already in the final stages of post-production, Smokey enthusiastically told his co-writer and producer Toni Matulić that there is a Museum of Bread in Pećinci and that Toni must arrange for him to shoot another shot there.
"It's out of the question, Smoky," replied Toni Matulić, explaining that it is an irrational waste of resources, time and energy and that the film is already good enough without that one shot. Smokey never wavered. Although he didn't have a single strong argument for his film desire, he showed an incredible amount of persistence, perseverance and dedication. He smiled, flattered, charmed, made jokes about himself, everyone in the room laughed, even Matulić himself. It was that Ljubiša Samardžić who woos his film partners Neda Arnerić, Milena Dravič... Irresistible.
"You see that everyone agrees with me," Toni Matulić unsuccessfully defended himself, and Smoky got his way. When he was making films, Ljubiša was everywhere and always. When he was not filming or editing, he was at meetings, looking for collaborators and sponsors. Before each premiere, he personally sorted the invitations with his wife Mira.
In addition to the Golden Lion, Ljubiša Samardžić received three Golden Arenas at the Pula Festival, the AVNOJ award, the "Pavle Vuisić" Lifetime Achievement Award and hundreds of others, both acting and directing, at various world festivals. He donated all his awards and diplomas to the Yugoslav Cinematheque in 2014, where the Legacy of Ljubiša Samardžić now exists. Smoky always played for the audience, with this legacy he returned to the audience everything they owed him.
With his latest film Panta Rei, an emotional and personal documentary, Smokey said goodbye to us better than any newspaper article, commemoration, speech or epitaph can.
