A View into Yugoslav Cinema by Mina Radović

Man Is Not a Bird

During its XXXVI edition, Il Cinema Ritrovato will present a section dedicated to Yugoslav cinema. The curator of the programme, Mina Radović, has written an introductory article, discussing the ideas behind the selection, as well as the significance of each selected title. All the films will play at the Jolly cinema of Bologna between June 25 and July 2, 2022.

“Tell the Truth!” A View into Yugoslav Cinema, 1955-1969

By Mina Radović

Yugoslav cinema represents a rich, multifaceted, and for many film connoisseurs, untapped resource of film heritage. One of the most diverse states in twentieth century Europe, Yugoslavia was originally founded in 1918 in the aftermath of the First World War and the collapse of several empires as the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The country was governed as a constitutional monarchy governed by King Aleksandar Karađorđević and in 1929 the country changed its name to Yugoslavia – ‘the land of South Slavs’.

A hub of film culture, pedagogy, and production, the film industry was nationalised after the Second World War and a sophisticated studio system quickly emerged. The new government led by Josip Broz Tito turned Yugoslavia into a socialist country with its own brand of self-management and a form of diplomacy which connected East, West, and the ‘Non-Aligned’ world.

The post-war years saw the rise of formidable new artists who examined, mediated, and challenged contemporary Yugoslav reality, breaking social taboos, and forging new means of cinematic expression. Their work is often diametrically different, but they are connected by an innovative, experimental, and altogether refreshing spirit to see the world anew. The retrospective will present two decades of cinema, moving from the Classical Cinema of the 1950s to the New Yugoslav Film of the 1960s and incorporates a range of feature and short, fiction, documentary, and experimental films by master filmmakers of the era.

Dance in the Rain

The programme starts with the classic omnibus film Tri Zgodbe by Slovenian filmmakers France Kosmac, Jane Kavčič and Igor Pretnar. It moves to Don’t Look Back, My Son, a timeless work by the doyen of Yugoslav cinema Branko Bauer, as well as Zenica, a poignant melodrama by Jovan Živanović and Miloš Stefanović that stands alongside the best work of Elia Kazan. France Štiglic’s The Ninth Circle, presented here in its new restoration, is a powerful film about the psychological effects of totalitarianism. By contrast, an unconventional love story with a great tinge of noir is to be found in Boštjan Hladnik’s sublime Dance in the Rain. Masterpieces of the New Yugoslav Film follow with Aleksandar Petrović’s Three, a remarkable human drama meets war film and perfect introduction to this director’s work, and Dušan Makavejev’s Man is not a Bird, Makavejev’s debut and the film that announces his experimental courage. The last and most radical is to be discovered in the cinema of Živojin Pavlović whose The Ambush is a unique blend of political critique and film poetry. The retrospective further spotlights master short filmmaking of the era through the work of Dimitrie Osmanli (the children’s film The Rebellion of the Dolls), Bahrudin Bato Čengić (the study of incarceration Man without a Face) and Želimir Žilnik (the brilliant documentary Little Pioneers).

“Tell the truth”! is what the films proclaim, speaking to mind and soul, and they open the door for you to experience a major cinematic heritage and chapter in film history, one that will leave you desiring to discover more about the cinema of Yugoslavia. 

The Ninth Circle

The Films

[dates and formats of screening subject to change before the official announcement of the programme in June]

Tri Zgodbe (1955) directed France Kosmac, Jane Kavčič, Igor Pretnar

35mm | June 29, 14:00

Three stories in traditional Slovenian countryside are interwoven by the image of the river, depicting the fragile beauty of female figures and questioning the national landscape; echoes the melancholy of Duvivier and Clouzot.  

Don’t Look Back, My Son (1956) by Branko Bauer

35mm | June 27, 9:00 & June 30, 21:30

A lyrical representation of father and son caught in Zagreb during the Independent State of Croatia is a table turner in the cinematic representation of war and remembrance. 

The Rebellion of the Dolls (1957) by Dimitrie Osmanli

DCP | July 1, 14:00

An encounter between a little boy and girl whose doll he rips gives way to an uprising of the dolls, an event which becomes as much existential as physical.  

Zenica (1957) by Jovan Živanović and Miloš Stefanović

35mm | June 26, 9:00 & June 30, 14:00

The story of a young couple’s arrival in a housing district in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, gives sway to an impeccable melodrama about the multi-cultural dynamic of post-war Yugoslav society.

The Ninth Circle (1960) by France Štiglic

DCP (new restoration) | June 28, 14:00 & July 2, 21:30

An expressionist, hallucinatory, and vital portrait of life under totalitarianism told through the eyes of a Croatian student and the Jewish girl he marries on the eve of the Holocaust.

Man without a Face (1961) by Bahrudin Bato Čengić

35mm | June 26, 9:00 & June 30, 14:00

A chronicle of life inside a prison facility raises questions of crime, punishment, family, and responsibility as the filmmaker probes the inner world of the incarcerated.

Dance in the Rain (1961) by Boštjan Hladnik 

35mm | June 25, 14:00

A relationship between a young man and the ideal woman he finds in the bourgeois lady Marusa unfolds on the noir-lit rainy streets of Ljubljana. 

Tre (1965) by Aleksandar Petrović 

35mm | June 26, 14:00

A dramaturgical triptych and masterful study of human conscience, agency, and action in the face of death is told through the stories of three characters played by Velimir Bata Živojinović.

Man is not a Bird (1965) by Dušan Makavejev

DCP (new restoration) | June 28, 21:30 & July 2, 14:00

Makavejev’s inventive, free form debut is a panoramic portrayal of society told through the love life of a man and woman in an industrial mining town.

Little Pioneers (1968) by Želimir Žilnik

35mm | June 29, 14:00

A documentary about children who live on the street, steal, and break the law is both playful and dramatic; an essential work from the director which inspires active participation in the life of the socially neglected. 

The Ambush (1969) by Živojin Pavlović

35mm | July 1, 14:00

A young man enchanted by communist ideals participates in the rebuilding of his country after the war and, as the boundaries between right and wrong become blurred, he is forced to confront the truth; a film which was ‘bunkered’ and an aesthetic ambush of sorts, it is a work of cinema you will not forget.