Profile of Miljenko Smoje on Famous Like Me

Miljenko Smoje (February 23rd, 1923 - October 22nd, 1995) is a Croatian writer and journalist.

Smoje was born in Split in a family of poor labourers. Neighbourhood where he grew up was known for traditional support for anarchism, socialism and other left-wing ideologies. All this would later influence Smoje's work and help him develop strong dislike of authorities and establishment.

Smoje finished high school in Split in 1941, but his further education was interrupted by Axis invasion of Yugoslavia and Split being occupied by Italy. Smoje joined Communist Party of Yugoslavia and took part in local resistance movement. However, due to his rebellious nature, he was kicked out of Party but he survived that, as well as brief incarceration by Italian authorities. After the end of war he finished college and worked as a teacher. In 1950 he took a job of reporter for Split daily newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija where he would write until his formal retirement in 1979.

As a reporter, Smoje developed specific style that included use of Čakavština dialect in his articles. His specialty were articles about ordinary people and through the decades he travelled all over Dalmatia chronicling almost any aspect of its life. Later he used many of those experiences in order to write short stories, plays and novels. He liked to inject all of his work with a strong doses of humour, occasionally laced with bits of every-day tragedy. All this helped Smoje become one of the most respected and more popular writers of former Yugoslavia, as well as arguably the greatest humourist of Croatian literature.

It was the medium of television which helped Smoje become truly famous. In 1970 he wrote the script for Naše malo misto (also known as Malo misto), mini-series chronicling three decades of life in small Dalmatian coastal town. The series featured many memorable characters that would later become part of local culture. Smoje also showed great ability to use broad comedy as a way to criticise some aspects of Communism. The series nevertheless became instant hit and grew in popularity through decades, gaining a cult status.

In 1980 Smoje tried to repeat the success with Velo misto, more ambitious project chronicling life in Split between 1910 and 1947. The epic series, partly based on his novel, was somewhat less successful, mostly due to the script being too influenced by Communist authorities. Velo misto, however, also became very popular and developed cult status of its own.

After his retirement Smoje continued to write for Slobodna Dalmacija and Nedjeljna Dalmacija weekly. In late 1980s and early 1990s he opposed Croatian nationalism and for that reason he was being snubbed by media controlled by Franjo Tuđman and his ruling Croatian Democratic Union. When Tuđman's supporter Miroslav Kutle took over Slobodna Dalmacija in 1993, Smoje began to write for satirical weekly Feral Tribune.

Semi-official snub of Miljenko Smoje ended in late 1990s when his shows were allowed to be aired on Croatian Radiotelevision.

Smoje was married twice. He is interred in Žrnovnica near Split.

External link

• Miljenko Smoje at the Internet Movie Database

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Miljenko Smoje