Tadej is the doyen of Croatian and Yugoslavian film set design. His rich career includes work on films such as Zastava (1949) by Branko Marjanović, Jubilej gospodina Ikla (1955) by Vatroslav Mimica and Izgubljena olovka (1960) by Fedor Škubonja. He studied architecture at the University of Technology in Zagreb. He first began to work on film in 1947. Also important is his work as a screenwriter, together with Vatroslav Mimica, on the early films done by the Zagreb Animation School (e.g. Cowboy Jimmy, 1957, by Dušan Vukotić, Na livadi and Premijera, both from 1957, by Nikola Kostelac). He himself directed the cartoon Sve želje svijeta (1966). As a director of feature films, he achieved his greatest success with films for children (Družba Pere Kvržice based on the novel by Mato Lovrak, Daredevil's Time based on the story by Branko Ćopić, Tajna starog tavana). Also very successful were the bitter comedy about a good-hearted prostitute from Belgrade, Žuta (1973) and the war drama Hitler From Our Street(1975), set in an ethnic German village in Vojvodina. He also directed an interesting experimental film, Simpozij (1988), which criticizes the bureaucrat mentality, the TV series Hokejaši (1989) and Kanjon opasnih igara (1998, also a feature film).