NEW CROATIAN FILM
Young Croatian Film
The syntagm »Young Croatian
Film« refers to the optimism that emerged in the difficult
times of confusion during the beginning of the Nineties
as a result of the war. In film works, there appeared a
new, young, educated and talented generation of directors,
directors of photography, editors and actors which foreshadowed
a creative and generational renewal in Croatian film. This
could already be sensed with the film Mirta uči statistiku (Mirta
Learns Statistics) by Goran Dukić (1991), which announced
the coming of a talented generation of Croatian filmmakers.
It was to be expected that production in the war years
in Croatia would be dominated by the theme of war, and
the first accurate and quality film testimonies on the
Homeland War came from the youngest generation of filmmakers
from the Zagreb Academy. Among the war documentaries, particular
attention was attracted by Hotel Sunja by Ivan Salaj
(1992), who, to an even stronger degree, confirmed his
personal and unique approach to the war in the feature
film Vidimo se (I’ll be Seeing You) (1995).
A unique
place is held among the young group of authors who injected
Croatian war films with spiritual refreshment and esthetic
innovation by the prematurely deceased Jelena Rajković
(1969-1997), with the documentaries Blue Helmet (1992)
and Krapina, poslijepodne (Krapina, in the Afternoon (1997),
and the feature Noć za Slušanje (A Night for
Listening) (1995). Lukas Nola can be added to this
group of authors with his feature film Svaki put kad
se rastejemo (Everytime We Part), (1994).
However, the greatest international resonance among the
films about the Homeland War was achieved by the most
widely seen Croatian film of the period. Kako je počeo rat na mom otoku (How
the War Started on My Island) by Vinko Brešan (1996)
was experienced as an authentically Croatian film precisely
because the best characteristics of the film are, at the
same time, Mediterranean and Central European.
Young Croatian Film also
dealt with the postwar situation during the difficult period
of transition. The informal ideologist of this postwar
tendency is film maker Hrvoje Hribar who did not deal with
the war directly, even though his films Hrvatske katedrale (Croatian
Cathedrals) 1993 and Puška za uspavljivanje (A
Rifle for Sleeping) 1997, which show a modern sensibility
and intellectual diversity of interests, are unimaginable
without the war as a context for personal and social
relationships. This group of films can also include Risk
Mess (Russian Meat) by Lukas Nola (1997) and
the debut film Mondo Bobo (1997) by the film obsessed
Goran Rušinović (1968). Young Croatian Film is
on the trail of the new American film, but synchronous
with European film trends and imbued with a Croatian
urban sensibility, and it shows, with reason, that it
has certain populist tendencies, but that it has not
yet discovered emotion in its fullness.
It is as if that
without emotionally stunted characters, there would be
no place for ironic declaration, for disregarding ideology,
and for contempt toward the elitist or any type of stereotype
or conventional type of film rhetoric. All of this makes
up the important esthetic and world-view components of
the films of this generation among whom can be counted
numerous young filmmakers (Ištvan Filaković, Neven Hitrec,
Branko Ištvančić, Tomislav Jagec, Zvonimir Jurić, Goran
Kulenović, Zoran Margetić, Saša Podgorelec, Ivan Salaj,
Nikša Sviličić, Ognjen Sviličić, Jasna Zastavniković,
Dražen Žarković and many others) who are up and coming.
Ivo Škrabalo |
