Vili Matula

Vilim "Vili" Matula (born 5 March 1962) is a Croatian actor, director, civil activist and politician. He serves as a representative in the Croatian Parliament for green-left coalition We Can!.[1]

Vili Matula
Born
Vilim Matula

(1962-03-05) 5 March 1962
Zagreb, PR Croatia, FPR Yugoslavia
Occupations
  • Actor
  • director
  • producer
  • comedian
  • civil rights activist
Years active1978–present
SpouseBranka Trlin

Some of Matula's best known acting roles include the Croatian and Yugoslav works S.P.U.K., Infection, and 100 Minutes of Glory. Internationally, he has appeared in Wallenberg: A Hero's Story, Schindler's List and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead. He is a drama champion in the Kerempuh Satirical Theatre in Zagreb.

Early life

Matula attended elementary and high school in Zagreb[2] and was a member of the College of the Zagreb Youth Theatre. In 1978, Matula started his own theatre group, "Domaći" before enrolling in the Academy of Dramatic Art in 1980.[2] After graduating in 1985, he joined Zagreb's Comedy Theatre. In 1988, Matula co-founded Zagreb's Acting Studio intended for developing acting skills by applying different techniques and methods such as the Strasberg Method, the Chekhov Technique, Meyerhold's Biomechanics, and the Alexander Technique.[2]

In 1993, Matula attended the Summer Acting Programme at the Royal National Theatre in London. From 1987 to 1997, he was employed at the drama ensemble of the Zagreb Youth Theatre (Croatian: Zagrebačko kazalište mladih, ZKM).[2]

Career

Acting

In 2000, he participated in the launching of the Boal Forum Theatre in response to an invitation by theatrologist and feminist critic Nataša Govedić.[2] In 2001, Matula started his collaboration with Damir Bartol Indoš and The House of Extreme Music Theatre – Kugla (Swinging, Man-Wolf, Chinese Roulette, Green, Green, iCefas).[2]

In 2008, he appeared in the Metastases play adaptation, for which he won Marul and a Croatian Theatre Award.[2] For the supporting role, he was nominated for an Apollo Prize at the Belgrade Culture Festival.

On film, Matula has appeared in Tranquilizer Gun, Is It Clear, My Friend?, Infection, 100 Minutes of Glory, Long Dark Night and Šuma summarum. For his role in the Matanić-directed 100 Minutes of Glory, Matula won the Best Supporting Actor at the Pula Film Festival.[3]

He has also appeared in international productions including the Emmy-winning Wallenberg: A Hero's Story, starring Richard Chamberlain, the Spielberg historical drama Schindler's List (1993) and the 1990 Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, where he played Horatio.

His television work includes guest roles on Zakon!, Naša mala klinika and Žutokljunac. Matula has also filmed and produced several television specials and shorts for the Motovun Film Festival.

Matula has recorded several hundred radio dramas. His spoken word discography includes reciting August Šenoa, Ivan Goran Kovačić, Ante Kovačić, Vladimir Nazor and Miroslav Krleža. He has provided vocals for the Punk Cabaret album by Stanislav Kovačić,[4] on three songs. In animation, he has voiced several characters on the Croatian-American venture The Elm-Chanted Forest. In Croatian dubs, he voiced Chum in the Croatian dub of Finding Nemo (2003) and Sterling in Cars 3 (2017).

Politics

Matula was a member of the League of Communists of Croatia, as well as delegate[5] in the 11th and final convention of the Central Committee of the League of Communist of Croatia, which resulted in the first democratic elections in 1989 the Socialist Republic of Croatia, then part of SFR Yugoslavia.

Matula has opposed the Right to the city movement called PravoNaGRAD in Zagreb[6] and neo-fascism.[7] He's one of the founders of the Actor's union, of which he was also a president. Matula is a member of the coordinating committee of Zagreb is OURS! (Zagreb je NAŠ!) the progressive citizen platform[8] that registered as a green-municipalist party. In the Zagreb municipal elections in 2017, Matula entered as a candidate in the borough council of Donji grad in Central Zagreb as vice president. His reports included council suppression, corruptive and manipulative behavior of city authorities.[9] In 2019 he became a founding member of the citizen platform We can! (Možemo!) that formed a green-left coalition for the 2020 parliamentary election where is presented as one of the candidates.[10] He was elected in the Croatian Parliament together with 6 other members of the Coalition.[11] In 2017, Matula signed the Declaration on the Common Language of the Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks and Montenegrins.[12]

Selected filmography

Television
Year Title Role Notes
1985 Wallenberg: A Hero's Story Second SS Sergant TV film
1987 The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission Karl - Krieger's Aide TV film

Film
Year Title Role Notes
1993 Schindler's List Investigator
1996 Sedma kronika Antonije
2004 100 Minutes of Glory Rapacki

Awards
  • 1988: Orestija Award for Orestija
  • 1989: Dubravko Dujšin, Veljko Maričić and Golden Laughter Award for the play Dekadencija
  • 1998: Veljko Maričić, Mila Dimitrijević, Vladimir Nazor and Croatian Theatre Award for Best Actor and Best Monodrama for "Münchhausen"
  • 2004: Golden Arena for Best Supporting Actor
  • 2008: Marul and a Croatian Theatre Award for his supporting role in Metastases
  • 2010: Marul and Golden Laughter Award at the Kerempuh Satire Festival for Balon
  • 2010: Orlando Award at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival for his lead role in Gogol's Revizor
  • 2019: Apollo Prize and the Marul Award for Best Actor in Govori glasnije!


References
  1. Stipić, Tomislav (2 July 2020). "Vili Matula: Škorin stih o 'čudnim ljudima čudnog imena' je čudovišan". danica.hr.
  2. "Vilim Matula". kazalistekerempuh.hr. Kerempuh Theater.
  3. "Post festum 51. Pula film festivala". filmski.net (in Croatian).
  4. "Stanislav Kovačić predstavio glazbenu priču u formi punk cabaret kazališta". tportal.hr.
  5. Anali Hrvatskog politološkog društva, Hrvatsko politološko društvo, 2010., ISSN 1845–6707, ISSN 1847–5299 (Online), str. 1931.,
  6. "INTERVJU: VILIM MATULA / 'Živimo u izopačenoj kriminalnoj orgiji od društva gdje se pljačke prikrivaju lažnim domoljubljem'". 100posto.jutarnji.hr.
  7. "Matula raspalio u Otvorenom: Probajte diplomatski s Merkelicom objasniti da postoje različiti oblici 'Sieg Heila', Lučić mu odgovorio usporedbom s Mladićem". tportal.hr.
  8. "Zagreb is OURS!'...embraces Zagreb's less privileged and more vulnerable among us, including those impacted by discrimination based on class, age, health, ability, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, sex characteristics, nationality, language, religion, belief or lack of one, as well as other statuses and likely intersections.'". 20 September 2017.
  9. "Prezir spram vijeća, zlostavljanje službenice". zagrebjenas.hr. 8 March 2019.
  10. "Ljudi - Možemo!". mozemo.hr. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  11. "The future of the Croatian left: Mozemo!". Index.hr. 6 July 2020.
  12. Signatories of the Declaration on the Common Language, official website, retrieved on 2018-08-16.
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