For more than two decades, Haris Pašoviæ has been one of the leading theatre directors in the South East Europe. His education includes the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad; the Fulbright Scholarship in the USA (University of Hawaii, Honolulu, New York University and the University of Wisconsin, Madison); the UNESCO High Levels for Directors, Festival d’Avignon, France, and other professional trainings. He is the artistic leader of the East West Theatre Company in Sarajevo.
He directed in some of the most important theatres in the former Yugoslavia and participated in a number of festivals across the region. His productions of Wedekind’s “Spring’s Awakening” and “Calling the Birds”, based on Aristophanes’ play “The Birds” (both at the Yugoslav Drama Theater, Belgrade 1987/90), are considered as landmarks in the theatre of the former Yugoslavia. Likewise, Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” (Belgrade Drama Theatre) and Jarry’s “Ubu Roi” (National Theatre Subotica) are considered as classic productions in the ex-Yugoslav theatre, the former being the last Yugoslav premiere performed in the eve of the war in the country. As the artistic leader of the theatre “Promena” (“Change”), Pašoviæ directed with great success Wiess’ “Marat/Sade”, Wedensky’s “The Christmas Three at the Ivanovs”, Danilo Kiš’s “Simon the Magus” on a lake surrounded by sand desert as well as Bunuel’s “Hamlet”, placed in the fortress sitting on a rock rising from the Adriatic Sea (Dubrovnik Summer Festival) and many other plays.
During the siege of Sarajevo (1992-1995), Pašoviæ spent most of the time in Sarajevo managing the MES International Theatre Festival. He directed plays and produced several shows, “Waiting for Godot”, inter alia, directed by Susan Sontag. This work with Sontag has been reported across the globe. In 1993, while Sarajevo was still besieged, he organized the first Sarajevo Film Festival “Beyond the End of the World”. Pašoviæ managed even to tour in 1994 in several European countries (under the UNESCO auspices) with the Sarajevo Festival Ensemble invited by Peter Brook and the Bouffe du Nord Theatre in Paris. During the tour, the Ensemble preformed two productions he had directed in the besieged city: “Silk Drums” based on the Noh plays, and “In the Country of Last Things”, based on Paul Auster’s novel.
After the war, Pašoviæ directed several documentaries including “Greta”, a story on Prof. Greta Ferušiæ, an Auschwitz and the siege of Sarajevo survivor; a documentary trilogy entitled “Home,” “Love Thy Neighbor” and “The Balkans – Blood and Honey” about American journalists David Rieff, Peter Maass and Ron Haviv, who had reported from the Bosnian war, and an art documentary entitled “A Propos de Sarajevo” about the Sarajevo International Jazz Festival. These documentaries were shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival at Lincoln Centre, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, as well as at the Museum of Modern Arts in Stockholm, the Contemporary Arts Institute in London, the IDFA Festival in Amsterdam, the Mediterranean Film Festival in Rome, as well as at the Sarajevo Film Festival and several others.
In 2002, he made a spectacular comeback to theatre directing Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” in front of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina in downtown Sarajevo. This was a bold futuristic production about a Muslim Romeo and a Christian Juliet, which involved 25 actors and live musicians, 300 sq. m of stage, a 60-member crew, arms, vehicles, fireworks, video projections across the façade of the Parliament building; it stopped the traffic in the main city artery for 4 hours each night it was performed. In 2004, Pašoviæ wrote a play “Rebellion at the National Theatre”, inspired by McCoy’s novel “They Shoot the Horses, Don’t They?” and directed it at the National Theatre in Sarajevo.
Pašoviæ has received many awards including the Best Director Award at the MES International Theatre Festival, Sarajevo; the Best Director at BITEF, Belgrade; the Best Yugoslav Director, UCHIMURA Prize, the Best Director at the Festival of Bosnian Theatres, etc. His shows, as well as actors and other artists working with Pašoviæ have received numerous awards as well.
In 2005, Pašoviæ established the East West Theatre Company. He directed William Shakespeare's «Hamlet» as the biggest regional co-production in the last 20 years with an international cast. «Hamlet» was proclaimed the Theatrical Event of the Year 2005 by the most influential Bosnian weekly «Dani», while Pašoviæ was named the Person of the Year 2005 /Theatre. In 2006, Pašoviæ directed a futuristic FAUST with a prominent regional cast, and Vitrac’s “Victor or the Children in Power” at the ZKM Theatre, Zagreb, Croatia. In 2007, Pašoviæ adapted and directed “Class Enemy” by Nigel Williams.
Pašoviæ is the co-founder of the Directing Department at the Performing Arts Academy. Several of his students are today internationally acclaimed film directors. Pašoviæ lives in Sarajevo. He is the professor of the Performing Arts Academy in Sarajevo and the Bled School of Management, Slovenia.