Split, Croatia, Yugoslavia | 1930-03-20 | 2010-09-16

Vanca Kljakovic was born on 20 March 1930 in Split, Croatia, Yugoslavia. He was a director and writer, known for Hotelska soba (1975), Kljuc (1965) and Kuzis stari moj (1973). He was married to Vida Tucan and Zdenka Hersak. He died on 16 September 2010 in Croatia. Kljaković graduated from classical high school in his native Split . He studied and graduated in acting at the Academy of Theater Arts in Belgrade , and then at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, he studied and graduated in directing in the class of Dr. Branko Gavella. Kljaković appeared in Croatian theater and film life at the end of the 1950s , first as an actor and screenwriter and then, in the early 1960s , as a director at the then Zagreb Drama Theater (today GDK Gavella ). He was employed at the "Gavella" theater until 1970 , and then worked as a freelance artist. From 1996 until his retirement, he worked at the Croatian National Theater in Split : after that engagement, he became almost the "house director" of the Split City Youth Theater , where his wife, costume designer Vida Tućan , was one of his most loyal collaborators . For the past fifteen years, he has successfully collaborated with the City Puppet Theater in Split. Vanča Kljaković made his debut as a film director in 1965 with the film Duga ulica , the first part of the Ključ omnibus . Then followed the films The Eleventh Commandment (1970), My Old Man's Home (1973) and Slow Motion (1979). In 1987, he directed the film Marjuča ili smrt , and a year later Buža , perhaps his most valuable film production based on the story and screenplay of the same name by Živko Jeličić .