FROM THE HISTORY OF CROATIAN CINEMA

Bogdan Žižić’s documentary films

Bogdan Žižić’s filmmaking opus stretches over four decades. Most of his work were documentary films, which was more than obvious from the retrospective selection of his films screened at the Days of Croatian film (2004). šT here are several thematic preoccupations that mark Bogdan Žižić’s opus with striking continuity. His films are predominantly — testimonies. Some of them are exclusively testimonies — gathering of spoken and visual testimonies of past, often anxious events, mixing objective and subjective viewpoints. Such was, for example, film The Naked Island (1994), Jasenovac (1966), Over the Sea (1968). Those films feature isolation, separation, even alienation of an individual or even a whole society as an additional or a prevailing theme. Separation and alienation appear as enforced, or prison imposed (Naked Island), as a turn of unfortunate events resulting in loss of identity (Gastarbaiter), or as an ambiental consequence (of physical separation in Stečci or an overcrowded situation in County Fair). A significant portion of Žižić’s opus was dedicated to creative work (Praise to the Hand, Morning of the Clean Body), that is to say, to art and the artists (Expressionism in Croatian Painting; Emanuel Vidović; Celestin Medović; Vlaho Bukovac) uniting testimony and interpretation. A repetitive element of his testimonies was the use of photography, that is to say, film excerpts. Much of the attention was paid to visuality, introduction of a dynamic view in the context of static, but Žižić’s directorial approach is characterized by balance that allows the viewer to create his own opinion about the material, drawing from the film enough elements for emotional articulation of his/her attitude.

Tomislav Čegir