PORTRAIT

The Protest

From the second scene and the view of Bekim Fehmiu in a wrinkled raincoat as he, framed by a broken basement window and accompanied by the music that is nowadays referred to as crime jazz, goes towards the suicide, reminds us of the world of classical American film noir, or of Becker’s, Clouzotov’s or Melville’s walk through French crime scene, while communist officials with their conservative hair styles and bony faces remind us of mafia bosses, and those representing working class in a bowling alley filled with cigarette smoke, remind us of small fish of criminal milieu of Paris. If a Croatian film lover would like to show a friend from abroad the taste and smell of life in the neighbourhood of the iron curtain in the second part of the twentieth century, it could be perfectly done by showing this or some other ’contemporary’ film made by Hadžic. In the light of the ongoing re-evaluation of Hadžic as a director, focused on both re-reading of individual films, as well as search for recurring motifs in his, at first sight very incoherent, work, The Protest is establishing itself as the key film. From reflecting social trends through the prism of maladjusted individuals, to the events deeply rooted in the history of characters (The Reverse of the Medal, 1965; The Deer Hunt, 1972; The Ambassador, 1984), and genre impastos (The Alphabet of Fear, 1961; Wild Angels, 1969), and even The Deer Hunt, whose story of a hero who returns to a small town in order to take care of the unresolved issues with a local bully reminds us of some classic western patterns, The Protest combines author’s constants which are important for all possible future studies on Hadžic, representing a perfect starting point for better understanding of his work in the field of film in general.

Vjeran Pavlinić