A way to Opsada – Branko Marjanović’s feature films

Amongst Croatian film directors of the 1940s and 1950s, many have been unjustly neglected (i.e. Šime Šimatović). A special place amongst them belongs to Branko Marjanović, one of the founders of institutionalized cinema in Croatia, an influential educational scientist and a close collaborator of Oktavijan Miletić, Nikola Tanhofer, Tea Brunšmid and Radojka Ivančević, today best known as a prominent film documentarist. The author analyzes his contribution to Croatian feature film – from cooperating with Miletić on the film Lisinski to independent directorial works on the films Zastava (1949), Ciguli Miguli (1952) and Opsada (1956), the film that best evidenced Marjanović’s directorial potential. Working on feature film at times when the state and governing ideology put pressure on film, Marjanović tried to explore the possibilities of film and film narration so his films are definitely worth repeated watching and analysis.

Slaven Zečević