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| Cinema of Croatia | |
|---|---|
 | |
| No. ofscreens | 146 (2011)[1] |
| • Per capita | 3.7 per 100,000 (2011)[1] |
| Main distributors | Blitz Film&Video 58.0% Discovery 20.0% Continental Film 11.0%[2] |
| Produced feature films (2011)[3] | |
| Fictional | 6 |
| Animated | - |
| Documentary | 3 |
| Number of admissions (2011)[5] | |
| Total | 3,536,027 |
| • Per capita | 0.9 (2012)[4] |
| National films | 92,855 (2.6%) |
| Gross box office (2011)[5] | |
| Total | HRK 103 million |
| Part ofa series on the |
| Culture of Croatia |
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Thecinema ofCroatia has a somewhat shorter tradition than what is common for otherCentral European countries: the serious beginning of Croatian cinema starts with the rise of theYugoslavian film industry in the 1940s. Three Croatian feature films were nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, several of them gained awards at major festivals, and the Croatian contribution in the field ofanimation is particularly important.[6]
Although motion pictures appeared in Croatia relatively early, for most of the early 20th Century film was almost exclusively the domain of a few dedicated amateur enthusiasts, most notablyJosip Karaman inSplit and, later,Oktavijan Miletić inZagreb. In 1906, the first permanentmovie theater was established in Zagreb.[7]
Josip Halla produced and directed early documentaries in 1911 and 1912. The first full-length movie wasBrcko u Zagrebu released in 1917, and directed by Arsen Maas.[8] It was followed byMatija Gubec, released in the same year and directed by Aca Binički. Neither of these movies survive to this day.[7] In 1918, Croatia Film produced additional 5 movies all directed by Josip Halla before the proprietor dissolved the company.[7]
Croatia lacked the political and economic infrastructure to support its own cinema industry. The most serious effort in that direction beforeWorld War II was the series of educational films produced byŠkola Narodnog Zdravlja.
The cinema of Croatia became an institution after the establishment of theIndependent State of Croatia (NDH) in 1941. The newUstaše regime quickly realised the need for modern propaganda tools modeled on those ofNazi Germany andFascist Italy. After serious lobbying of these two governments for technical advice and resources, the first propaganda films were made in late 1941. Croatian filmmakers likeBranko Marjanović produced in 1943 the documentaryStraža na Drini which later won theGolden Lion award at theVenice Film Festival, attended byAxis power countries. After the collapse of NDH in 1945,Tito's victoriousCommunists also recognised the importance of the film industry and decided to build their own. Many technicians and co-workers of the Ustaše propaganda cinema industry during the war were in fact double agents working for the partisan side, with one main task: to keep the technical facilities untouched upon the collapse of NDH. Therefore, the new regime inherited the technical equipment, and more importantly trained personnel, including directors and top officials. The result of such a policy was the rapid development of the Croatian film industry, although initially under jurisdiction of thefederal government inBelgrade.
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In 1947Jadran Film studios were founded inZagreb.
Croatian feature films from the 1950s were not easily distinguishable from those made in the rest ofYugoslavia; this was mainly owing to the free flow of resources, information and talent among the various parts of the country. It had its first serious peak in the late 1950s, when Croatian film were possibly the most mature in the then-young Yugoslav film industry. The most important director of that era wasBranko Bauer, aDubrovnik-born director whose most famous film is the urban war thrillerNe okreći se, sine (Don't Look Back My Son, 1956). Loosely based onCarol Reed's filmOdd Man Out, it depicts of a fugitive from anUstasha camp who comes toZagreb to find his son, only to find him brainwashed. Among other important Bauer films areTri Ane (Three Annas, 1959), produced inMacedonia, about a father who finds out that his daughter, whom he presumed to have been killed in the war, could be alive. Bauer's filmLicem u lice (Face To Face, 1963) tells the story about a corrupt director of a construction company who confronts a rebel worker during a communist party cell meeting. It is considered the first overtly political film in Yugoslavia. Another notable 1950s' figure isNikola Tanhofer, former cinematographer and specialist for various action genres. His most famous film isH8 (1958), a reconstruction of a real traffic accident in which several passengers on an intercity bus between Zagreb and Belgrade were killed, and in which the driver of the car who caused the accident escaped. Following in parallel three vehicles and dozens of picturesque scenes, H8 offers a mosaic-like picture of late 1950s society. In this period, two Croatian films were Academy Award nominees for foreign language film. Both of them were directed by guests from abroad: ItalianGiuseppe De Santis withCesta duga godina dana(A Road One Year Long, 1958), and SlovenianFrance Štiglic withDeveti krug(The Ninth Circle, 1960).
In the 1960s, Croatian cinema saw changes of style, in part owing to directors embracing modernism. The first modernist film wasPrometej s otoka Viševice (Prometheus of the Island, 1965) by former cartoonistVatroslav Mimica. Using techniques derived from the stream-of consciousness novel, Mimica tells a story about a partisan veteran and communist executive who travels to his native island and faces ghosts of the post-war past. Among other famous modernist classics, the most significant areRondo (1966) byZvonimir Berković, andBreza (The Birch Tree, 1967) byAnte Babaja. The most popular director wasKrešo Golik, who made comedies. Most popular of his films wasTko pjeva zlo ne misli (Who Sings Doesn't Mean Wrong, 1970), a romantic comedy set in 1930s Zagreb. Croatia also participated in the pan-Yugoslav "black wave", although the best authors and films of the black wave were Serbian. Most famous black wave classic from Croatia isLisice (Handcuffs, 1969, byKrsto Papić), a film which is politically relevant because it is Croatia's first cultural product that dealt with repression against communists who supportedStalin in famous breakup between Tito and Stalin in 1948.
In 1969, the filmBattle of Neretva directed byVeljko Bulajić was one of the most expensive foreign language films made in Yugoslavia.
In the early 1970s, following Yugoslav constitutional changes, Croatia gained more autonomy in shaping its cultural affairs., but following the collapse of theCroatian Spring, authorities pushed for tighter control over films.
Fresh air came to Yugoslav cinema in the late 1970s and early 1980s with the so-called Prague School, a group of directors educated at the Prague Academy FAMU. Amongst the five directors usually presumed to be Prague School, two came from Croatia:Lordan Zafranović, andRajko Grlić. Grlić's most famous film, competing atCannes, isSamo jednom se ljubi (1981), a political melodrama that depicts the early communist establishment in the late 1940s. Zafranović's most famous films wereOkupacija u 26 slika (Occupation in 26 Pictures) andPad Italije (The Fall of Italy), both of them war films set in coastalDalmatia, and both screened at Cannes.
In the 1980s, Croatians began creating "neo-genre" works which who used Western commercial genres such ashorror,thriller, ormystery and implemented it in late-communist societal settings. The most famous director of that trend isZoran Tadić, especially with his metaphysical, black-and-white thrillerRitam zločina (Rhythm of the Crime, 1981), and horror movieTreći kljuć (The Third Key, 1983), which examines corruption throughkafkaesque metaphor.
When Croatia became independent in the 1990s, Croatian film suffered a difficult crisis. Due to the wars, the market for Croatian films shrank, most of the theatres disappeared for good and no Croatian films could expect to be financially viable without even greater support from the state. In the period of the rule ofFranjo Tuđman, the government avoided direct censorship, but demanded more nationalistic content, making it less accessible not only to audiences in other countries, but also to Croatians.
After the political changes in 2000, Croatian cinema began to work in a completely free environment for the first time. As a result, critics at the beginning of this decade argued that Croatian cinema flourished in a "third golden era" (after the 1950s and 1960s). One of the most popular directors in the contemporary Croatian cinema isVinko Brešan whose comediesKako je počeo rat na mom otoku (How the War Started on My Island, 1997), andMaršal (Marshal Tito's Spirit, 1999) mix grotesque humor and political provocation. Brešan's war dramaSvjedoci (Witnesses) , based on a novel byJurica Pavičić, was the first feature film from countries of former Yugoslavia which depicted Yugoslavian war crimes.Svjedoci was screened in competition at theBerlin Film Festival in 2003.A Wonderful Night in Split (Ta divna splitska noć, 2004) by Arsen A. Ostojić received a nomination for the European DiscoveryEFA award, andTu (Here, 2003) byZrinko Ogresta was awarded at theKarlovy Vary Film Festival. Among other distinguished contemporary directors, internationally most recognized isOgnjen Sviličić, whose two films premiered at theBerlin Film Festival -Oprosti za kung fu (Sorry about Kung Fu, 2004) andArmin (2006).Armin was also Croatia's submission for the2008 Academy Award, and although it did not earn a nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film category, it did nevertheless receive the prestigious Best Foreign Film of 2007 Award given by theInternational Federation of Film Critics.
Croatian cinema produces between five and ten feature films per year.[9] TheMinistry of Culture and Media also cofinances approximately 60 minutes of animation per year, plus documentaries and experimental films which have a bigger cultural prestige in Croatia then in other countries of former Yugoslavia. National cinema attendances average at 2.7 million tickets bought by a population of around 4.5 million.
The history of animation in Croatia begins with two short animated commercials by Sergej Tagatz in 1922 as a part ofJadran Film. This was followed by animations produced byDom narodnog zdravlja such asIvin zub (Ivo's Tooth),Macin nos (Kitty's Nose), all of which were directed byMilan Marijanović and drawn byPetar Papp in 1928. In 1929, the first completely animated short was made, entitledMartin u nebo, martin iz neba.[10]
Zagreb has its own animation film school, Zagrebačka škola crtanog filma (Zagreb Cartoon School). It was given that name at theCannes Film Festival in 1959, when eight Zagreb cartoons were screened, and the French film historianGeorges Sadoul first time namedl'école de Zagreb (Zagreb School). The school was based on the production companyZagreb Film, famous for its symbol - a little horse. The most notable member of school (which was never a school in a proper, educational sense) wasMontenegro-born authorDušan Vukotić, winner of the 1963 Oscar for his animated shortSurogat. He was the first non-American to win the Oscar for animated film. Other important members wereVatroslav Mimica (later a feature filmmaker), andVlado Kristl, who left Croatia in the early 1960s after the banning of his avant-garde, experimental cartoonDon Kihot (Don Quixote). The Zagreb school was revolutionary for the animations of the 1950s, because it abandoned the Disney-like cartoon style, and introduced visual elements of avant-garde abstract painting, constructivism and cubism. A failure of the school was that it never experimented with other animation techniques than cartoons. Also, it never reached level of proper industry, remaining more like an artistic workshop. The Zagreb school was lively and successful during the 1960s and early 1970s, but after that Croatian animation faded and today it does not have the global role it used to have.
Many Croats have participated in world cinema, including actor-directorRade Šerbedžija, actorGoran Višnjić, producerBranko Lustig, and actressMira Furlan. Furthermore,John Malkovich andEric Bana are of Croatian ancestry.
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