The Foolish Years () is a Yugoslav film series spawned from the 1977 movie of the same name. The original film and its nine sequels were all directed by Zoran ÃÂaliàbetween 1977 and 1992. In Yugoslavia, the entire series eventually became widely known by an informal name, à ½ikina dinastija (à ½ika's Dynasty), actually the title of its seventh film (sixth sequel) released in 1985 that parodied the American TV soap opera Dynasty, which was enormously popular throughout Yugoslavia in the mid-1980s.
What would eventually turn into a film series began in 1977 with Lude godine. Centered around a teenage couple, Boba (Vladimir PetroviÃÂ) and Marija (Rialda KadriÃÂ), one of the film's goals was addressing societal issues such as unprotected sex and teen pregnancy. However, the ensemble of supporting charactersâÂÂmost notably the respective in-laws à ½ivorad "à ½ika" Pavlovià(Dragomir BojaniàGidra) and Milan Todorovià(Marko TodoroviÃÂ)âÂÂcaptured audiences' attention by displaying great comedic potential. This would later be exploited in nine subsequent sequels as each one revolved around the pair of in-lawsâÂÂunrefined, working-class à ½ika and strait-laced intellectual MilanâÂÂrather than the young couple.
Nearly every single film in the series was lambasted by film critics. Most disliked it for what they saw to be poor directorial choices and crude folksy humour loaded with rural and urban stereotypes that are displayed through the characters of à ½ika and Milan, respectively. Despite its low-brow reputation, the series proved to be a valuable training ground and career springboard for many acting talents and future stars of Yugoslav/Serb cinema like Sonja SaviÃÂ, Zoran CvijanoviÃÂ, Nikola Kojo, Gala VidenoviÃÂ, Branko ÃÂuriàand others.
Domestically, the films were box-office successes, and were popular in the USSR.
The films in the series are: