Roland Joffe
| Roland Joffé | |
|---|---|
Joffé during the 5th International Festival of Independent Cinema Off Plus Camera in Kraków, 2012
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| Born |
17 November 1945 London, England, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Film director, producer, screenwriter |
| Years active | 1960–present |
| Spouse(s) | Jane Lapotaire (m. 1974–80) |
| Children | Rowan Joffé, Nathalie Lunghi |
Roland Joffé (born 17 November 1945) is an English-French film director who is known for the Oscar-winning movies The Killing Fields and The Mission. He began his career in television. His early television credits included episodes of Coronation Street and an adaptation of The Stars Look Down for Granada. He gained a reputation for hard-hitting political stories with the series Bill Brand and factual dramas for Play for Today.
Joffé was educated at two independent schools: the Lycée français Charles de Gaulle in London, and Carmel College in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, which was Europe's only Jewish boarding school, until it closed in 1997. He completed his formal education at the University of Manchester.
After university, Joffé joined Granada Television as a trainee director in 1973, where he directed episodes of Coronation Street,Sam,The Stars Look Down,Crown Court,Bill Brand, and Headmaster.
In 1977, producer Tony Garnett was commissioned by the BBC to direct the play The Spongers within BBCs Play for Today series. He informed the BBC drama department that he wanted to hire Roland Joffé as director, but was told that Joffé did not possess BBC clearance and was regarded a "security risk". The reason was that Joffé had attended some Workers' Revolutionary Party meetings in the early 1970s, although he never became a party member. He explained around 1988: "I was very interested in politics at that time. But I was interested in what all the political parties were doing, not just the WRP, and I was never actively involved." Only after Garnett threatened he would "go public", was the veto on Joffé's appointment withdrawn.The Spongers won the prestigious Prix Italia award.
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