DAYS OF CROATIAN CINEMA 2002
Film Animation: A Production Rise
Once a strong animation environment
in Croatia (’Zagreb School of Animation’) has been vegetating
for the last two decades. The nineties have seen quite
a lively production of short films (documentary, short
feature, and experimental), whereas the animated production
had somehow lost direction and creative vitality. Occasional
exceptions (Nicole Hewitt and Daniel Šuljić) only emphasized
the fact that there was an creative potential in Croatia,
but the atmosphere was stale and not very stimulative.
This year, however, some changes occurred.
The production
has gotten stronger, many new authors have appeared, and
although there were not outstanding films, there were some
exellent work, the production varied and most films had
some inspirational moments. The most important animation
films were Goran Trbuljak’s cartoon As if by Some Sort
of Miracle (2002), a story of two idle men sitting
in a coffee shop reading the newspapers while at the same
time some intriguing and funny episodes take place on the
street behind them, and the puppet film House of Dolls (young
Goran Šković, 2002), a dark, horror-parody, in which real
dolls were used as puppets. Other films have also shown
potential, so that for the first time in fifteen years
it could be said that the overall quality of this year’s
production equalled that of the best years of the School
of Animated Film. Hrvoje Turković |