Zlatko Paković

Zlatko Paković (born in 1968) is a Serbian theatre director and writer, best known for his politically engaged theatre and his interpretations of Bertolt Brecht's Lehrstücke (learning plays). His work is characterized by a pronounced sense of playful expression. Throughout his career, Paković has directed theatre productions in various countries, including Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Norway, and the Netherlands. His notable productions include Srebrenica, When We the Murdered Rise, To Kill Zoran Đinđić, Pope Francis Wrestles with His Angel, Pier Paolo Pasolini Directs the Last Judgment, Altar Boys, Wittgenstein's Pupils, Capitalism: demonstrated in geometrical order, Othello: the Illegitimate Liturgy, Encyclopedia of the Living, and Katalin Ladik Experiences a Nervous Breakdown, Quits Her Job as a Bank Clerk and Becomes a Conceptual Artist.

Paković has received several awards for his work, including the Sterija Award and the Sterija's "Dejan Penčić Poljanski" Award from the Critics' Round Table for Best Play. For the production If You Stare into the Abyss for Too Long, based on the novel by Enes Halilović, he was awarded two additional Sterija Awards. He has also received the Ahmed Vali Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014, he was awarded the International Ibsen Scholarship for his project Ibsen's Enemy of the People as Brecht's Learning Play.

Education and career Paković was born in 1968 in Valjevo, Serbia. He studied at the Faculty of Philosophy and the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, where he earned a degree in theatre and radio directing.

Theatrical style Paković is an activist theatre-maker. He refers to theatre as "a matter of radical imagination", and sees it as a tool for dissecting and exposing complex structures and ethical dilemmas that shape societies, with the aim of raising awareness and motivating audiences to take action.

Paković describes his productions as provocatio —provocations designed to awaken vocatio, a "call to responsible citizenship".

Another controversial piece, Pier Paolo Pasolini Directs The Last Judgment, was banned by municipal authorities in Podgorica, Montenegro; its premiere eventually shifted underground to a private basement and was streamed online.

Religion and clerical power recur as central themes in his work. In Croatia, Pope Francis Wrestles with His Angel imagines the Pope dismantling the Vatican Bank, ordaining women as priests, and abolishing clerical celibacy—decisions taken as remedies to endemic church scandals. In Bosnia, Church of Bosnia asserts that truthfulness transcends religious divisions, dramatizing a scenario in which two women are married in a mosque under Sharia law, as an illustration of religious equality.

Srebrenica, When We the Murdered Rise In 2020 the play Srebrenica. When We the Murdered Rise premiered in the Center for Cultural Decontamination in Belgrade under police protection, following reported death threats by Serbian ultranationalist groups who deny the genocide in Srebrenica. The play was produced by the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia. This work marked the first theatrical production in Serbia to place the moral imperative of recognizing the Srebrenica genocide at the centre of its narrative. Researchers Željana Tunić and Snežana Stanković discuss the play in an essay published in Performance Research exploring the mechanisms of denial of the Srebrenica genocide in present day Serbia.

The play was later performed in Brussels on 16 November 2022, followed by a public discussion moderated by Simon Papuashvili, programme director of the International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR).

Ibsen's an Enemy of the People as Brecht's Teaching Play In 2014 Paković received the International Ibsen Scholarship for the project Ibsen's An Enemy of the People as Brecht's teaching play. The piece, adapted from Ibsen's The Pillars of Society and An Enemy of the People premiered on 20 December 2015 at the Center for Cultural Decontamination in Belgrade.

Directed by Paković, the production merges Ibsen's moral dramas with Brechtian epic theatre and learning-play techniques. Its stated aim is to "generate critical reflection and action against the hypocrisy of the new, morally unsound political and social classes which have emerged from wars and besmirched transitions", while influencing the values of a younger generation raised amid social fragmentation, corruption, and the erosion of public assets. 1995: Singing diary (Hipnos, Belgrade, Serbia) 2002: A Room for one Bed (Otkrovenje, Belgrade, Serbia) 2008: The Common Ashes (Geopoetika, Belgrade, Serbia) 2012: Anatomy of Nationalist Morality and other columns (Službeni glasnik, Beograd, 2012) 2013: Die Gemeinsame Asche (Dittrich Verlag, Berlin, Germany) 2015: On Authoritarian Conscience (Mostart, Zemun, 2015) 2016: Encyclopedia of the Living (Centar za kulturnu dekontaminaciju, Belgrade) 2021: Heretical Liturgy - Ten Plays (Zepter Book World, Belgrade, Serbia) 2022: Pope Francis wrestles with his angel (Multimedia Institute, Zagreb, Croatia) 2024: Dodecalogue - twelve dramatic pieces (Zepter Book World, Belgrade, Serbia) 2025: Bloody Poems (Multimedia Institute, Zagreb, Croatia)

Essays 2023: "On Theatre's Responsibility in the Spectacle of Climate Change" (TDR The Drama Review, Band 67, USA)

Film and television 1994 – 2006 VIN – Video Weekly: the first independent television political magazine in Serbia. (Television Director) 2006: Look into the Past (Director of the documentary series, ten episodes. (Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia) 2009: Not in Our Name (Screenwriter and Director of the documentary. / Women in Black, Belgrade, Serbia)

Awards 1999 Belgrade City Parliament Prize for the best short story, Serbia 2010 "Desimir Tošić" Prize for Journalism, Belgrade, Serbia 2014 The International Ibsen Scholarship, Skien, Norway 2015 Literature Scholarship MuseumsQuartier, Vienna, Austria 2016 Literary scholarship from the Lazareti Art Workshop, Dubrovnik, Croatia 2021 "Joakim Vujić Award" for best play and best directing, Serbia 2021 "Sterija Prize" for the best theatre performance, Novi Sad, Serbia 2021 "Special Sterija Prize" for directing, Novi Sad, Srbija 2021 "Ahmed Vali" Lifetime Achievement Award, Novi Pazar, Serbia 2023 "Amra Prutina", Award for artistic courage, Mostar. Bosnia and Herzegovina 2024 Sterija Award „Dejan Penčić Poljanski" from the Round table of critics, Novi Sad, Srbija 2025 "Joakim Vujić Award" for best play and best directing, Serbia