DAYS OF CROATIAN CINEMA 2002

Experimental Film: Der Experiment ist nicht aus (The Experiment Is not Over)

Only several months ago, the organizers of the Days of Croatian Film were still thinking about turning the Days into a festival of short documentary and short feature film. The very existence of experimental film was called into question. However, the idea was rejected and Croatian authors of experimental avenue may certainly be very pleased with this year’s festival, mostly thanks to the selector Sanja Iveković. For the first time in the history of this festival, Sanja Iveković used the selector’s right to issue special invitations, thus bringing to light the works that are rarely seen, or that do not actually belong to cinema environment. With twenty-one entries in competition, the experimental/video selection had one of the greatest and most varied numbers of presented films.

It was also the most transparent category: it showed that experiment/video is an extremely vital category with many production channels: beside the film channel (Croatian Film Clubs’ Association and the subventions by the Ministry of Culture), the 11th Days also had gallery (visual-conceptual) and ’academic’ support — in the works of the students of the Academy of Arts in Split and the Zagreb Visual Arts Academy. The experiment has offered many things — experimental documentary, conceptual animation, structural and poetic variations, first person narration, narrative-animated games with dolls, conceptual fixations, programmatic works, and ready-mades, comprising a wholesome and multilayered category. Of course, the wholeness and complexity of particular works may be argued. However, experimental film even got a grand prix — The Song is Over (Das Lied ist Aus) by Ivan Faktor.

The film combined personal documentary material made by Faktor in Osijek, the town that was heavily bombarded and destroyed during the war, with chosen bits from the soundtrack of Lang’s M, mirroring the terror of ’unprotected’ citizens and the madness of the invisible child killer. Text also offers a review of all experimental films featured at the festival.

Diana Nenadić