FESTIVALS

Urania comes to life — Mörder unter uns

Mostly empty Osijek cinemas shortly came to life during the 36th revue of Croatian film and video, however, mostly owing to the authors and guests; not to the citizens of Osijek. The revue featured mostly experimental films, among others a particularly interesting La cantina di ferro by Matija Debeljuh — the film appears to be a fiction film, but the author was obviously more interested in stylization than the story. The scene where we see the imagined meeting of the father and daughter was recognized as the key point of the film where the author keeps suggesting the theme of incest and paedophilia. Still, Debeljuh’s talent glows even underneath unintentional ambiguities and clumsy narrative elements. More direct metaphysical connotations can be found in Orpheus (Orfej) by Damir Jurcic, while some value can also be found in experimental films Through the Night (A. Muharemovic, Kroz noc), Lasceaux (F. Sokolic), etc. Documentary film The Old Town by Kruno Heidler was a totally different type of film, while the best documentary work was Before the Rain (Prije Kiše) by Mario Papic — a lucid recording of life with the help of details and close-ups. Other worthwhile documentary works were Teza (Teza, F. Lenic), suggesting animal torture, I live here now (Ja sada živim ovdje, Z. Pisacic), and others. There were very few animated films, but Jadranko Lopatic’s witty Moses (Mojsije) was an exceptional work, just like The Door (Vrata) by Fran Sokolic. Legendary Tomislav Gotovac most certainly deserved special attention; his films such as Prophets (Proroci), were so much above the competition that the jury awarded him a special mention.

Petar Krelja