RETROSPECTIVE
Beyond the Stone Gate
The catalogue introduction to the retrospective
program of Croatian film at The Alpe Adria Cinema Festival:
Meeting with the Central and Eastern European Cinema, January
1999
The title of the last feature film by the renowned Croatian
author Ante Babaja, The Stone Gate, can be taken as
the figurative characterization of the most intimate nature
of the Croatian cinema: the name is almost an oxymoron, where
the opening of the gate (onto a void, to an object, or whatnot)
is contradicted by the sense of steadiness suggested by the
stone. Even when the Croatian cinema was part of Yugoslav
film-making, its desire to break out of the mold, to branch
out structurally, to combine various forms (an array of inventions
ranging from features to shorts, from experimental to animation
films, up to the emerging personalities in each sector) which
could not easily be reconciled with serial or production
continuity, its clear aesthetic effort... all these indicate
the — now recognizable — will of the Croatian cinema to be
individual. Over the months spent researching Croatian cinema,
the author and his collaborator Mila Lazić were captivated
by its charm. Even in the region of its uncertainties and
weaknesses, a strong motivation could be sensed.
The retrospective
intended to be not only documentary evidence of an extremely
composite cinematic universe, but also a partial attempt
to link some of its varied guidelines, not only in the
feature film region, but also within the documentary field,
within the avant-garde and animated tradition, and it tried
to avoid rigid divisions along the way. The previous retrospective
of Croatian film at the Alpe Adria Cinema festival in 1989,
freed the selectors from having to present some remarkable,
but already seen films of some important but already exhaustively
presented Croatian authors. It has helped them to concentrate
on some new discoveries, to shed light on some of the aspects
of the Croatian cinematic tradition that have been neglected
by even the Croats themselves.
Sergio Grmek Germani |
