Dimitar Anakiev

Dimitar Anakiev, an independent filmmaker, writer and poet, was born in Belgrade in 1960. He completed High Medical School in Nis, Serbia in 1986 and worked seven years as an MD. He resided in Slovenia beginning in 1987 but shortly thereafter and without warning found himself among the victims of administrative ethnic cleansing ("Erased"), the result of secret illegal action enacted 26.2.1992 by the democratic Slovenian government one year after the disintegration of the state of Yugoslavia. For 10 years he was compelled to live without personal documents (such as passport or personal identification), rendering him an invisible prisoner of the Slovenian democracy. At this point he purchased a small video camera and began his film career, in an attempt to make himself and other marginal Balkan people visible. The success of his films (including the Slovenian national film award) has made it possible for him to continue filmmaking as a producer, director and teacher. His company, Dimitar Anakiev Films s.p.-DAF (now Anakiev Production) specializes in socially engaged films of the Balkans in the post-communist era. Anakiev is a founding member of the Slovenian Director Guild, and a member of the Slovenian Filmmaker Association.