The Marathon Family

DUTCH PREMIERE (restored version)

The eccentric Topalović family has been in the burial business for decades. When the old Pantelija dies, five generations of his heirs start to fight for the inheritance.

The story is set between the two World Wars. The Topalović men range in age from 25 to 120, and all work in the funeral trade. But their family business has a macabre secret: they steal coffins from the local cemetery, refurbish them and sell them as new. As coffin manufacturing becomes increasingly lucrative and new technologies make burials faster and easier, the era of crematoria is approaching. Trouble begins when the youngest, Mirko, refuses to carry on the family trade, believing in a better, nicer and more honest career. With its grotesque characters and black humour, The Marathon Family is a landmark of Yugoslav cinema.

SCREENINGS

Saturday 14 November 19:00
Sunday 15 November 16:15

Programme section(s): Old Gold: 100 Years of Pavle Vuisić (1926-1988)
Original title: Maratonci trče počasni krug | Year: 1982 | Runtime: 92′
Country: Yugoslavia | Language: Serbian | Subtitles: English
Cast: Bogdan Diklić, Danilo Stojković, Pavle Vuisić, Mija Aleksić, Bora Todorović
Director: Slobodan Šijan | Production: Milan Žmukić – Centar Film | Screenplay: Dušan Kovačević​ | Cinematography: Božidar Nikolić | Editing: Ljiljana Lana Vukobratović

FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION) 

Montréal World Film Festival, 1982 – Special Jury Prize | Festival of Yugoslav Feature Film in Pula, 1982 – Golden Arena for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Seka Sablić) | Film Screenplay Festival Vrnjačka Banja, 1982 – Best Dialogue | Marseille International Film Festival, 1982 – Best Screenplay

DIRECTOR’S BIO

Slobodan Šijan (1946) is a Serbian film director. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade and then enrolled at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade. During the 1970s, he directed a number of television films, as well as experimental and short films. From 1976 to 1979, he published a series of fanzines which, according to him, were made “out of frustration” as he experimented and attempted to break into professional cinema. His first full-length feature film, Who’s Singin’ Over There?, directed in collaboration with writer Dušan Kovačević and cinematographer Božidar Nikolić, was released in 1980 and became a box-office hit. The Marathon Family (1982) also achieved considerable commercial success. Over the following years, Šijan directed two more notable films, How I Was Systematically Destroyed by an Idiot and Strangler vs. Strangler.