Slovak director Juraj Jakubisko died at the age of 84 (pictured on July 5, 2019).
Prague – His colleagues from the cultural community remember Juraj Jakubisk as a brilliant film director. According to them, he was a perfectionist, but shooting with him was very mentally demanding, Magda Vašáryová, who shot two films with him, told Czech Television (ČT) today. Writer Ondřej Suchý, for example, mentioned his artistic activity. Slovak station RTVS reported on the death of Jakubiska last night. Jakubisko was one of the most famous Slovak creators and was nicknamed the “Fellini of the East”. During his career, he shot several dozen feature films and documentaries.
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“He is a director who influenced my life in a very fundamental way, even though I only made two films with him,” said Vašáryová. According to her, working with Jakubisko was very demanding, he was still “extraordinarily” dissatisfied with the performances of the actors. She filmed with the director at the time of the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops into Czechoslovakia, and was there when his role model Federico Fellini called him from Rome to come and secure a job for him in Rome. In 1969, she and Jakubisk made the film Birds, orphans and fools, according to her, the communists chose it as a film that must never be made again. Because of this picture, they expelled Vášáryová from the university for a year. “That ended some of my academic career as a sociologist,” she added.
Director Jiří Strach remembered Jakubiska on Facebook shortly after the death was announced. “Juraj Jakubisko has died. A filmmaker, an artist and a person whose imagination none of us filmmakers even reach up to his ankles. May he be rewarded with only good things in heaven,” he wrote.
The writer Ondřej Suchý liked Jakubisk's pictures. In his memory, he also wrote that one of the brilliant film directors had died. “A friend. I loved his wonderful pictures, drawn for various occasions. I looked over his shoulder when he drew his idea of Nostalgic Mouse in a notebook in Šemanovice. We had mutual respect for each other… Juraj – I will not forget!,” he said on Facebook .
The Czech Ministry of Culture also reminded Jakubiska in a tweet today. “Slovak director Juraj Jakubisko, the “Fellini of the East,” has died. He made several dozen feature films and documentaries; the most famous ones include The Thousand-Year Bee, Perinbaba and the feature film Bathory. Jakubisko has received numerous awards, including the Czech Lion for his long-term artistic contribution to cinematography,” the ministry said.
Slovak Theatre, politicians and the press appreciated the work of the late director Jakubisko
The Slovak National Theater (SND), top Slovak politicians and the press praised the work of the deceased director Jakubisko. The native of eastern Slovakia, who lived in Prague for years, was described as a legend.
“The management of the Slovak National Theater received with great sadness the news of the death of one of the most prominent Slovak directors, Juraj Jakubisk,” wrote SND. He collaborated with the Jakubisko Theater as the director of two operas by the music composer Eugen Suchona.
“His exceptional filmmaking style brought Slovakia into the big film world. The Slovak Fellini, as he was often called, loved freedom and fantasy and left room for them in his films,” she said Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová. She added that some of Jakubisko's films have become part of the country's cultural heritage.
According to Prime Minister Eduard Heger, Jakubisko went to acting heaven, after however, he left behind legendary works that will remain here for generations.
“A huge loss for Slovakia and the Czech Republic. One of the greatest artists of our time has left us. I will remember him as a charismatic person, a human being with a beautiful heart, ” said the Speaker of the Slovak Chamber of Deputies, Boris Kollár.
According to the newspaper Sme, Jakubisko made the impossible real, he gave the Slovaks their own magical realism. Daily newspaper Pravda wrote that Jakubisko was a magician of Slovak cinema, he was able to infuse the magic of the world somewhere between heaven and earth with moving images, and he was only afraid of boredom, which leads to cinematic hell. Public Broadcasting and Television of Slovakia announced that Jakubiska will be mentioned in its broadcast.
