DAYS OF CROATIAN CINEMA 2002

Short Feature Film: Consolidation Cocktail

The consolidation of Croatian cinema has finally begun. A 2000. decision of the Ministry of Culture to start financing professional production of short films besides feature films has its most prominent results in the field of short and mid-length feature film productions. The first and most obvious result of this policy is a higher quality of short films, while in the long run, we should also expect better quality long feature films, when the authors experienced in short films decide to have a go at long features. So far, the best feature films were coming out of the workshop of the Zagreb Academy of Dramatic Arts, however, this year, some new production companies have emerged on the scene.

Goran Kulenović’s Straight to the Bottom was undoubtedly the funniest and the most charming film screened at the festival. It was the story of four friends who were trying to get rid of a dead policeman whom one of them had killed in a fit of passion. Film combined Tarantino’s violent poetics and Golik’s good-natured, reginal nostalgia. It was situated in Zagreb in the early nineties, when situations similar to that featured in the film were not so unusual. Contrary to Kulenović, Kristijan Milić’s Safe House was definitely a nineties film. Young director Milić was acutely aware that in the nineties Tarantino was much more relevant than Golik, so his film was an energetic, raw, and violent thriller-drama, quite uncommon for Croatian cinema.

Arsen Ostojić’s Painting of the Nude introduced a completely different subject, one concerning the problems of the old: their loneliness and lack of understanding by their surrounding. Dalibor Matanić reminded us of the tradition of the Croatian short film with his Drought, featuring the last inhabitants of an island in a calm, documentary style. Apart from several disappointing works from the authors that had shown potential at previous festivals, all in all, this has been a good year for Croatian short film so that the concept of state funding of short films should definitely not be abandoned.

Igor Tomljanović