Although the country of Croatia, which acceded to the European Union on July Ist this year, is not large in land
it has a seemingly infinite number of islands,and, although its current production of feature films does not exceed a couple of dozen annually, there seem to be almost as many film festivals of varying size and content held regularly within its borders. The exquisite capital, Zagreb, a compact and seductive Hapsburg metropolis (its so-
-called, if somewhat misnamed, "animation school" was famed in the late 1950s after winning awards and acclaim
at Cannes) certainly enjoys the festival phenomenon - ZagrebDox attracts huge student audiences in early
Spring, as well as TV commissioners and documentary-makers from around the world; old art-house cinemas
have been lovingly restored and now host Days of European Film in May, and the Zagreb Film Festival in autumn, while a new art museum in the suburbs has a splendid purpose-built cinema presenting the best of world cinema
to growing audiences. Numerous film events are held in other historic cities such as Dubrovnik and Split, while
Motovun has long been a favoured movie-Mecca for the back-packing cinephile, with its open-air screenings each summer.
But the pearl of the Balkan festivals still has to be Pula, which now presents a week of the newest Croatian
features in the extraordinary Roman Arena, with their entire casts and crews taking their bows on the vast stage,
to the delight of literally thousands of local and foreign spectators.Sixty years ago the festival began, with supremacist film-enthusiast Josip Tito viewing the films in advance and delighting in receiving international
glamourati such as Sophia Loren, Richard Burton, Florinda Bolkan (as is amusingly remembered by Tito's surviving
personal projectionist in the recent documentary Kino Communisto). Croatia's own film-making only dates from the early 1940s, when it tended to have propagandist intent and content (a documentary by Branko Marjanovic from 1943 duly won the Golden Lion at Venice, perhaps encouraging the need for the Allies to revive Cannes
as soon after the Second World War ended as was feasible).
The great Jadran studios were founded in Zagreb in 1947, and Pula became the showplace for pan-Jugoslav cinema. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, conflicts in the region and Croatia's independence, the Pula Film Festival was revived on a more modest budget, but with an enhanced national focus, and a growing European element, welcoming such talents as Jiri Menzel, Greta Scacchi and Sir Christopher Lee.It undoubtedly has the potential, with more state funding and commercial sponsorship- and more central hotels- to become the Deauville of the Balkans. A downtown cinema has been lovingly restored and renamed Kino Valli, in honour of
one of the several internationally-renowed screen stars of Croatian origins, Alida Vall.(Others include Sylvia Koscina, Laura Antonell - both actually born in Istria- while Eric Bana and John Malkovich also have Croatian
roots).
Ever since Marco Polo, Croatians have been used to making their mark abroad (while the links between Istria and Italy are evident)- the Academy-Award-winning producer Branko Lustig(Schindler's List) hails from Zagreb,
Rade Serbedzija has been seen in a host of international films, from Eyes Wide Shut to The Saint and recently
won Best Actor Award from Pula for his role in his own son's debut feature, the brilliant black comedy 72 Days, but still has his own theatre company on Tito's fabled isle of Briuni, while other actors such as Cary Elwes and Scott Bakula also have Croatia in their genes. Several top Croatian directors studied abroad - FAMU in Prague
helped form Rajko Grlic, and Lordan Zafranovic, who still lives in the Czech capital. Foreign film-makers have
worked in Croatia on films that became Academy Award nominees, such as Giuseppe de Santis,and France
Stiglic, and today modern Croatia, now fully integrated into the European Union has so much to offer co-producers, with its wealth of historic, rural, and seacoast locations, abundant clear light for shooting to rival that of Greece or Portugal, and its ever-stronger positioning as a tourist destination for families, clubbers
and even members of the Royal Family!
The benefits of its gastronomy, wines and other liquid delights are becoming more widely appreciated as foreign film productions and co-productions have been returning since Independence, and now the accession to the EU should encourage more and more. At last a distinctive Croatian voice is emerging - an advantage is the use of the Latin alphabet, a contrast with the Cyrillic of adjacent Balkan countries, though much vocabulary is shared with nearby neighbours.The Hapsburg heritage brought Croatia closer to Vienna and Trieste, ushering in some interesting visitors from abroad - James Joyce was an evident regular in a certain bar in Pula, as well
pioneering early film society screenings, and Alfred Hitchcock was something of a connoisseur of maraschino,
which he found in Zadar.
The seven features showing as part of the Welcome Croatia Croatian Film Festival at the modern LOST Theatre
in London represent an eclectic selection of recent films that have won awards at home and abroad.They share
an evident professionalism, a grasp of technique and clever use of modest resources, and draw on the strengths of performers, young and old, who have invariably honed their skills on stage or in television, or in other
Balkan capitals. They range from a beautifully realised historical re-creation, a most unusual story of the impact of Nazism on two 13-year-old girls who were stage stars as dancer and actress in Zagreb before the War began, LEA AND DARIA (sumptuously directed by Branko Ivanda, like an MGM musical, but not with a happy ending) to the startlingly contemporary CANNIBAL VEGETARIAN (by Branko Schmidt) which charts the trials and tribulations of a gynaecologist with some unorthodox practices.A similarly adult but rather sophisticated
erotic comedy of misbehaviours, JUST BETWEEN US(director,Rajko Grlic) is clearly set in present-day Zagreb, but its parade of
loves and deceits could take place in any European capital.It has an excellent cast headed by Miki Manolovic,unforgettable as the lugubrious Soho sex-shop boss in Irina Palm,opposite our own Marianne Faithfull). Dark but welcome comedy marks the work of Vinko Bresan, represented here by WILL NOT STOP THERE, revolving around a Romany working in Serbia porn, while the season opens with the innovative, semi-documentary A LETTER TO MY DAD,where Damir Cucic tackles the
gulf between generations in an original format, and it closes with ON THE PATH (directed by Jasmila Zbanic),which focusses on a young Bosnian Muslim couple, which stars Zrinka Cvetesic, currently lighting up the West End musical Once, playing a Czech singer in Dublin.
By a happy coincidence,HALIMA'S PATH, one of the most awarded films of recent years - 22 prizes in 22 international festivals and now the official Croatian candidate for the Foreign Language 'Oscar' in Hollywood,2014- which only last
month was judged to be the best international feature in the Raindance Festival in London-will have a screening, as part of a different festival in BAFTA, on Piccadilly, on Saturday morning, 2nd November, and its
gifted director Arsen Ostojic will be attending for a discussion there at 2pm.
So for a taste of Croatia, wend your way to the LOST Theatre in wildest Wandsworth this week- such films should make the journey worthwhile.
PHILLIP BERGSON
LOST Theatre 208 Wandsworth Road LONDON SW8 2JU Telephone 0844 847 1680 Tickets available at the door,
discounts for Festival Pass,etc. Licensed Bar.31st October-2nd November 2013.
