3rd Subversive Film Festival in Zagreb

The 3rd Subversive Film Festival in Zagreb (Croatia) was held throughout the entire month of May 2010.  Each year the festival selects an organizing theme–this year’s was socialism.  Socialism, its representations and theoretical musings, was explored on film through a Glauber Rocha retrospective, a retrospective of the Zagreb School of animation from1951-90 and the centerpiece of the festival: a retrospective of Yugoslav film from 1955-90.  A series of roundtable discussions, lectures and book promotions was also presented.

Overall, this festival was extremely well-produced.  The immense amount of rare films screened in outstanding prints was impressive, as was the festival program booklet, which was a brilliant work of editing and presentation in its own right.  It seems, judging from the previous festival booklets that were given out to attendees, that this is a film festival that gathers a wonderful amount of creativity, and is clearly something not to be missed in the future.

On May 20, Dr. Nevena Dakovic from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade presented a lecture titled “Filmic Belgrade.”  Her subject was the representation of the Belgrade cityscape in Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav films, as well as the effects those representations had on questions of identity.  The presentation was interesting, if a bit rushed, uniting considerations of spatial studies and film studies into an analysis of the socialist and post-socialist landscape.

The highlight of this evening was the large panel discussion entitled “Yugoslav Film Affair,” moderated by the Italian critic Sergio Grmek Germani, including: the filmmakers Lordan Zafranovic, Zelimir Zilnik, Lazar Stojanovic, Veljko Bulajic, Slobodan Sijan, Djordje Kadijevic; and professors Pavle Levi, Hrvoje Turkovic and Nevena Dakovic.  The subject was the Yugoslav “Black Wave” and the politics surrounding this subversive film style.  Many questioned whether the Black Wave was anything more than a political tool that has been overly-mystified and the numerous people on the panel who were involved in this period of filmmaking lent terrific insights into its ways and means.  The result was a highly-charged and interesting panel that featured more than one walk-off.  Even now, in 2010, socialism and post-socialism are still extremely touchy subjects for those who lived through them.