Aleksandar Petrović is a Serbian director and screenwriter who died in Paris in 1994. He was one of the first directors of his generation to shake off the propaganda stereotypes and codes that plagued Yugoslav cinema. He studied at the Prague Film School and at the Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy where he obtained a diploma in Art History. He directed his first short subject, Flight Above the Marches, in 1957. His films And Love has Vanished (1961) and Days (1963) mark the beginnings of a modern sensibility in Yugoslav cinema. He was appointed professor of direction at the Belgrade Academy of Cinema, Theater, and Television. Three (1965), was nominated at the Oscars and became a worldwide success. I Even Met Happy Gypsies (1967) won the Palme d’or and the FIPRESCI award at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1968, he directed It Rains in My Village, inspired by Dostoevsky’s The Possessed. In 1973, the Communist government forced him to resign his professorship in cinematography. He then left to work abroad.  The Master and Margaret (1973) won the Silver Lion at the Venice Mostra, among other prizes.  In 1977, he filmed Group Portrait with a Lady, based on the Heinrich Böll novel. His last film was Migrations, directed in 1989.