The ''Foolish Years'' ( sr, Lude godine / Луде године) are a Yugoslav series of films spawned from the 1977 movie of the same name. The original film and its nine sequels were all directed by Zoran Čalić between 1977 and 1992. The series became widely known informally as ''Žikina dinastija'' (''Žika's Dynasty)'', the title of the 7th film (sixth sequel) released in 1985. The informal name of the series parodied the American TV soap opera ''

Dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

'', which was enormously popular throughout Yugoslavia in the mid-1980s. What would eventually turn into a film series began in 1977 with ''Lude godine''. Centered around a teenage couple, Boba (Vladimir Petrović) and Marija (Rialda Kadrić), one of the film's goals was addressing societal issues such as

unprotected sex Safe sex is sexual activity using methods or contraceptive devices (such as condoms) to reduce the risk of transmitting or acquiring sexually transmitted infections (STIs), especially HIV. "Safe sex" is also sometimes referred to as safer se ...

and

teen pregnancy Teenage pregnancy, also known as adolescent pregnancy, is pregnancy in a female adolescent or young adult under the age of 20. This includes those who are legally considered adults in their country. The WHO defines adolescence as the period bet ...

. However, the ensemble of supporting characters—most notably the in-laws Živorad "Žika" Pavlović (

Dragomir Bojanić Gidra Dragomir () is a Slavic masculine name, mostly found in Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Russia, and Ukraine as well as Romania. It is composed of the Slavic words '' drag'' (dear, precious) and ''mir'' (peace), both very comm ...

) and Milan Todorović ( Marko Todorović)—captured audiences' attention by displaying great comedic potential. This was later exploited in nine subsequent sequels as all of them revolved around the pair of in-laws—wacky working class Žika and strait-laced intellectual Milan—rather than the young couple. Nearly every single film in the series was lambasted by

film critic Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, magazines and other popular mass-media outl ...

s. Most disliked it for what they saw to be poor directorial choices and crude folksy humour loaded with rural and urban stereotypes that are displayed through the characters of Žika and Milan, respectively. Despite its low-brow reputation, the series proved to be a valuable training ground and career springboard for many acting talents and future stars of Yugoslav/Serb cinema like Sonja Savić,

Zoran Cvijanović Zoran "Zoki" Cvijanović ( sr-cyr, Зоран "Зоки" Цвијановић; born 25 January 1958) is a Serbian actor and producer. He has starred in over 70 films and television series with his most notable role coming in the drama series '' Si ...

, Nikola Kojo, Gala Videnović,

Branko Đurić Branko Đurić ( sh-Cyrl, Бранко Ђурић; born 28 May 1962), also known by his nickname Đuro ( Cyrillic: Ђуро), is a Bosnian actor, comedian, film director and musician, who lives and works in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Born and raised ...

and others. Domestically, the films were

box-office A box office or ticket office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a wicket. By extension, the term is fre ...

successes, and were popular in the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

Films

The films in the series are: *''Lude godine'' (''Foolish Years''), (1977) * ''Došlo doba da se ljubav proba'' (''The Time has Come to Taste the Love'') a.k.a. ''Lude godine II'' (''Wacky Years II'', 1980) *''Ljubi, ljubi, al' glavu ne gubi'' (''Kiss, Kiss, but Don't Lose Your Head'', 1981) *''Kakav deda takav unuk'' (''Like Grandpa, Like Grandson'', 1983) *''Idi mi, dođi mi'' (''Come to me and Go from me'', 1983) *'' Šta se zgodi kad se ljubav rodi'' (''What Happens When Love Comes to Town'', 1984) *''Žikina dinastija'' (''Žika's Dynasty'', 1985) *''Druga Žikina dinastija'' (''Second Žika's Dynasty'', 1986) *Treća Žikina Dinastija (, Third Zika's Dynasty 1988) *''Žikina ženidba'' (''Žika's Wedding'', 1992), also known as ''Ženidba Žike Pavlovića'' (''The Wedding of Žika Pavlović'') in

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* ''Povratak Žikine dinastije'' (''Žika's Dynasty Returns''), cancelled in 2018 in production phase, due to lack of government funding.

References

Serbian film series Serbian comedy-drama films Serbian-language films Yugoslav comedy-drama films 1977 comedy-drama films Films set in Serbia Films set in Yugoslavia 1980 comedy-drama films Films set in Belgrade Films shot in Belgrade 1981 comedy-drama films 1983 comedy-drama films 1984 comedy-drama films 1985 comedy-drama films 1986 comedy-drama films 1988 comedy-drama films {{Serbia-film-stub