Nastasja Kinski Arrives in Zlatibor, Welcomed by Selakovic

Nastasja Kinski has arrived in Zlatibor. The German actress is the biggest international star of this year’s National Film and Television Festival, known as NAFFIT, according to Kurir and Espreso.

As soon as she arrived, Kinski met with Culture Minister Nikola Selakovic and with director Predrag Gaga Antonijevic, who also runs the festival. The two have worked together before. In 1998, Antonijevic directed the war drama “Savior,” starring Dennis Quaid, in which Kinski played a supporting role. The film screened at several international festivals and remains one of the most notable titles of the director’s career.

The actress is coming to Zlatibor as this year’s recipient of the award for contribution to world cinema. The ceremony is set for September 5 at the Zlatibor Cultural Center. This is not her first encounter with a Serbian audience. She previously received the Golden Seal of the Yugoslav Film Archive during an appearance at Belgrade’s FEST. Accepting that award, she said the following:

“Faith in people is something most precious, having those who believe in you and someone you believe in. That gives us the strength and hope that good things can happen. This award is also you, my audience. I want to thank my directors Roman Polanski, Wim Wenders, Wolfgang Petersen and everyone else, and finally, my mother.”

Kinski rarely discusses her private life, but when she does, she does not pick easy topics. She is the daughter of the controversial German actor Klaus Kinski, whose name is remembered in film history as much for his roles as for the stories surrounding his personal life. On her relationship with her father, she once told reporters:

“I don’t want to, and we shouldn’t, talk about my father. He was a monstrous actor and a human monster.”

She stepped in front of cameras as a young girl, and that experience stayed with her for years. In an interview with W magazine, she described what it was like growing up in the film industry with no one to protect her:

“If I had had someone to protect me, or if I had felt more secure in myself, I would not have agreed to certain things, especially nudity. All of it was tearing me apart inside.”

Despite that, she built a career few actresses of her generation can match. At just 13, she appeared in “Wrong Move,” and in 1978, while filming “Stay As You Are,” she met Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni, with whom she had a brief romance. Roman Polanski cast her in the lead role in “Tess,” the story of a young woman from a rural background. For years, rumors circulated that there was more than a professional relationship between her and Polanski, something Kinski later denied.

Her career was also marked by a 1981 photograph taken for the American edition of Vogue by Richard Avedon: Kinski nude, with a massive Burmese python wrapped around her body. The image drew enormous attention at the time and later became a widely reproduced poster. Roles in “Paris, Texas” and “Cat People” followed. In her private life, she was married to Egyptian director Ibrahim Musa, with whom she has a daughter, Sonja, and she has a son, Aljosa, from her marriage to American actor Vincent Spen. She was in a relationship with music producer Quincy Jones from 1992 to 1995, and has a daughter, Kenya, from that relationship. When Klaus Kinski died in late November 1991, only his son Nikolai attended the funeral, while Nastasja and her sister Paula did not.

Today she arrives at festivals as a recognized and respected actress, and NAFFIT is only the latest such appearance.

The Zlatibor festival was not opened for her alone. At the opening ceremony, the lifetime achievement award went to cinematographer Radoslav Vladic, a longtime name in Serbian film. The program continues over the coming days, and Kinski is expected to take part in official festival events and meet with the public before receiving her award on September 5.