Besim Sahatçiu (; 2 October 193520 October 2005) was a Kosovo Albanian director of theatre and film.

Biography

After finishing '' gymnasium'' in

Peja Peja or Peć, ), is the fifth most populous city in Kosovo and serves as the seat of the Peja Municipality and the District of Peja. It is located in the Rugova region on the eastern section of the Accursed Mountains along the Peja's Lumbar ...

, Sahatçiu studied literature at the

University of Belgrade The University of Belgrade () is a public university, public research university in Belgrade, Serbia. It is the oldest and largest modern university in Serbia. Founded in 1808 as the Belgrade Higher School in revolutionary Serbia, by 1838 it me ...

. Following the interruption of his studies due to compulsory military service, he worked as a

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

for the publisher, '' Rilindja''. He later studied at the Academy of Dramatic Art in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

, and defended his thesis with staging

Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; ; (; () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright of Ukrainian origin. Gogol used the grotesque in his writings, for example, in his works " The Nose", " Viy", "The Overcoat", and " Nevsky Prosp ...

's satirical play, ''

The Government Inspector ''The Government Inspector'', also known as ''The Inspector General'' (, literally: "Inspector"), is a satirical play by Russian dramatist and novelist Nikolai Gogol. Originally published in 1836, the play was revised for an 1842 edition. Base ...

'', at People's Provincial Theatre in

Pristina Pristina or Prishtina ( , ), . is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative center of the eponymous municipality and District of Pristina, district. In antiquity, the area of Pristina was part of the Dardanian Kingdo ...

. Sahatçiu's

ethnographic film An ethnographic film is a non-fiction film, often similar to a documentary film, historically shot by Western filmmakers and dealing with non-Western people, and sometimes associated with anthropology. Definitions of the term are not definitive. ...

, ''117'', won the Grand Prix at the Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival in 1978. The film was described as a “spiritual portrait of the nation.” As a

theatre director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

, Sahatçiu worked at the National Theatre of Kosovo in Pristina. In 2018, Kosovo's Ministry of Culture posthumously honored Sahatçiu with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Cinematography. The same year, a street in Pristina was named after him. In 2021,

Posta e Kosovës Post of Kosovo (, , ''Pošta Kosova'') is the publicly owned company and the postal-service operator of the Republic of Kosovo. It was founded on 21 December 1959 as part of the Kosovo Post, Telephone and Telegraph (PTT) operator. Following the ...

issued

postage stamps A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the ...

in its 'Arti skenik – Besim Sahatçiu dhe Leze Qena' series, commemorating Sahatçiu and Leze Qena.

Filmography

*''Crveni udar'' (1974) *''Trimi'' (1975) *''Tito na Kosovu'' (1975) *''Gëzuar viti i ri'' (1976) *''Pehlivanët'' (1976) *'' 117'' (1976) *''Pasqyra'' (1977) *''Duke pritur Godon'' (1977) *''Era dhe lisi'' (1979) *''Tito e Kosova 79'' (1980) *''Tre vetë kapërcejn malin'' (1981) *''Përroi vërshues'' (1983) *''Lulepjeshkat e dashurisë'' (1988)

References

External links

*
Besim Sahatçiu
on

MUBI Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; the Auteurs before 2010) is a global streaming platform, production company and film distributor. MUBI produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusively available ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sahatçiu, Besim 1935 births 2005 deaths Kosovan film directors Kosovan film producers Kosovan screenwriters Albanian theatre directors Albanian film directors Albanian film producers People from Peja Kosovo Albanians University of Belgrade alumni Academy of Dramatic Art, University of Zagreb alumni 20th-century Albanian translators 20th-century Albanian screenwriters