FROM THE HISTORY OF CROATIAN CINEMA

American Heaven in the Independent State of Croatia

One of the topics always mentioned when talking or writing about the cinema during the period of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) is definitely the prohibition of the American film. The American film was not welcome in the Independent State of Croatia primarily on anti-Semitic grounds (the presumption was that the Jews owned Hollywood companies). Only six months later, after the NDH proclaimed war against the USA on 14 December 1941, the American film became unwanted on military and indoctrination grounds. This article presents some preserved historic and archive sources that prove that there was one American film that was not only allowed but also promoted — John Ford’s Grapes of Wrath, 1940. The film was presented during 1943. Of course, the background was ideological — the film was part of the anti American propaganda, the emphasis was placed on miners-workers’ hard life in the USA. This is why the title was ironically changed in Raj Amerika — The American Heaven. The advertising campaign stressed out that the film was prohibited in some parts of the USA. The author concludes that the phenomenon of this film being presented in an Ustasha-country is a particularity among all Third Reich allied (satellite) countries, i.e. the Ustasha apparatus decided to launch a strong anti-American campaign without any (until then frequent) consultations with Germany. The campaign was probably a reaction to the American bombardment of Croatian cities that started off at the end of 1942. The author also comments on the huge audience response which had nothing to do with anti-Americanism but with the desire to see the American film people were used to before the war.

Daniel Rafaelić