November 23, 2020 - Legendary actor Mustafa Nadarević died on Sunday in Zagreb after a long battle with a serious illness. He was 78.
The actor, who was diagnosed with lung cancer, was recently released from the hospital and was under home care in Zagreb.
Nadarević was born in Banja Luka on 2 May 1943 before the family moved to Zagreb when he was a young child. He studied acting at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb and spent most of his life in Zagreb. He taught at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb for two years, and at the Sarajevo Academy for one semester.
Nadarević’s wife, Slavica Radović, passed away in 2012 at age 48 after a decade-long struggle with breast cancer. He has one daughter from his first marriage, and from his second marriage, a daughter and a son.
Theater and film
Nadarević began his theatrical career in Rijeka, in the Theatre group of Viktor Car Emin. In 1969 he became a member of the Drama of the Croatian National Theater in Zagreb.
He got his first big roles in plays - Bogdan in Hvarkinja, Pomet in Dundo Maroje, Leone in The Glembays. He also played Cyran, Figaro, and M. P. Murphy, and began his film career in the early 1980s in supporting roles.
During his long acting career, Nadarević built a reputation as one of the most recognizable character actors in the region. The Bosnia and Herzegovina native appeared in over 70 films such as The Smell of Quinces (1982), When Father Was Away on Business (1985), Reflections (1987), The Glembays (1988), Kuduz (1989), Silent Gunpowder (1990), The Perfect Circle (1997), Days and Hours (2004), Mirage (2004), and Halima’s Path (2012).
His role in The Glembays got him the Golden Arena for Best Actor award in 1988. In 1991 he won the award for Best Actor at the 17th Moscow International Film Festival for his role in Silent Gunpowder.
During the last years of his life, Nadarević was best known for playing the hilarious Izet Fazlinović in the Bosnian sitcom Lud, zbunjen, normalan (“Crazy, Confused, Normal”). Nadarević’s most recent role, Janko Bobetko, was in Antun Vrdoljak’s 2019 film General, a film about the life of Croatian general Ante Gotovina.
Successful director
He made his directorial debut in 1992 with the play Flight over the Coward's Nest, and after that, he staged several great plays - Balkan Spy by Dušan Kovačević, Acting Hamlet in the Village of Mrduša Donja by Ivo Brešan, Confusions by Alan Ayckbourn at the Kerempuh Satirical Theater, Hasanaginica by Milan Ogrizović at the Croatian National Theater and the National Theater in Sarajevo. Each of these plays has been performed over 100 times, delighting audiences throughout Croatia and the region. Diligence, perfectionism, dedication to the acting profession, courage, unconventionality, intellect and wit, along with great diction and incredible physical dexterity, are just some of the qualities of the great artist that has passed away.
In 2018, Mustafa Nadarević received awards for all artistic work of the Croatian Society of Dramatic Artists. The explanation read: “With his overall artistic work, intriguing directing and witty scripts, deep devotion to the goddess Thalia, pedagogical work and each of his performances, Mustafa Nadarević truly confirmed that he is a great Croatian actor who has dedicated his entire life to the art of words, gestures and emotions, enriching the culture of the Republic of Croatia, as well as the cultures of neighboring countries”.
We say goodbye to legendary Mustafa Nadarević in his words: “The art of living and acting are very similar but acting is better because on stage you can die many times and come back to life. Unfortunately, life is an untalented actor. Once someone leaves us, then it’s forever. All that remains is the art of survival and memory”.
Goodbye Mustafa… Goodbye Duje, Mujica, Izet, Leone, Pomet, Zijah…
Source: Novi List
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