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Lordan Zafranović

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Lordan Zafranović
Lordan Zafranović in the 1980s.
Born (1944-02-11) 11 February 1944 (age 80)
Maslinica, Croatia
Years active1961–present[1]
AwardsCannes Palme d'Or
Nominated
1979 Occupation in 26 Pictures
FEST
2023 Belgrade Victor for Outstanding Contribution to Film Art
International Short Film Festival Oberhausen
- Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen
1967 Afternoon (Rifle)
1972 Suburbs (of Isis)
Martovski - Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival
2024 Lifetime Award
- Grand Prix
1985 Blood and Ashes of Jasenovac
- Best Director Documentary
2003 Terracotta Faces
- Best Director Experimental
2003 Celestial City Symphony
Pula Film Festival
- Big Golden Arena for Best Film
1978 Occupation in 26 Pictures
1981 The Fall of Italy
- Golden Arena for Best Director
1981 The Fall of Italy
1986 Evening Bells
- Milton Manaki Critics Award
1978 Occupation in 26 Pictures
- Mladost Award
1973 Dalmatian Chronicle
1975 Passion According to Matthew
Valencia International Film Festival
- Valencia Grand Prix
1981 The Fall of Italy
Yugoslav Film Archive
2019 Zlatni pečat - Lifetime Award

Lordan Zafranović (born 11 February 1944) is an eminent Croatian-Czech-Yugoslav film director known for his World War II trilogy consisting of Occupation in 26 Pictures (1978), The Fall of Italy (1981), and Evening Bells (1986), all co-written with Mirko Kovač (writer), for his experimental black and white early work, which mark him as a major figure of the Yugoslav Black Wave, and for his dauntless exploration of Ustaše crimes during the NDH period.

Early life

Lordan Zafranović was born in 1944 in Maslinica, island of Šolta, in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. He spent the first two years of his life in the El Shatt refugee camp together with his mother Marija and his elder brother Zdenko. After the war, the family reunited with father Ivan and moved to Split, where younger brother Andrija was born. He graduated in ship-engineering from the Split Marine School in 1962 and continued with studies in literature and fine arts at the Split Pedagogical Academy (later University of Split) from 1963 to 1967.[2]

Work

Lordan Zafranović started his film career as an amateur at Kino klub Split in 1961, at age 15. From 1965 onwards, he worked as a professional for Zagreb film, as an assistant to director Vatroslav Mimica, and as one of the founders, and first author, of the legendary Zagreb Film Authors' Studio (FAS). He was awarded Master of International Amateur Film in 1966. When in the following year, he was awarded a scholarship at the FAMU, he was already a mature author with festival experience and awards, namely for his seminal experimental short Poslije podne (Puška) (1968).[3][4][5] At FAMU, Zafranović graduated in film directing as a master student of Academy Award winner Elmar Klos in 1971.

Zafranović is the eldest of the five acclaimed Yugoslav directors labelled by critics as The Prague film school (Praška filmska škola), despite of their very different aesthetics and interests. As they themselves have repeatedly pointed out, nothing unites these five but the fact that they were peers at FAMU around 1968, and that they remained friends thereafter.[6] Still, they stand out as a generation of new talents emerging after the blank the purges of the first half of the 1970s had caused in Yugoslav cinematography.

Lordan Zafranović's first three feature films Sunday (1969, starring Goran Marković), Dalmatian Chronicle (1973), and Passion According to Matthew (1975), met with restraint in the oppressed atmosphere following the end of the Croatian Spring.[7] In 1973, he left Zagreb for Belgrade, where he became part of a writers' circle including, among others, Filip David, Danilo Kiš, and Mirko Kovač (writer). If his 1975 feature Passion According to Matthew was already a collaboration with Kovač, the two met with international success with their 1978 cult film Occupation in 26 Pictures. This box office hit in Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, France, and beyond reinvented the genre of the Yugoslav Partisan film with its lush Mediterranean setting of Dubrovnik and its aesthetics, contrasting the happiness of an affluent aristocratic family and her friends with the arrival of evil, through fascist occupation and violence, and the collapse of morale and society.[8][9] It was awarded the Big Golden Arena for Best Picture at the Pula Film Festival, nominated for the Cannes Film Festival and submitted as Yugoslavia's entry for the Academy Awards.[10] In Hollywood, the film was regarded as a favourite, if only the director agreed to shorten the scene of a brutal massacre in an bus, the climax of the film.[11] Zafranović declined. He continued his WWII trilogy with The Fall of Italy (1981), set in his native island Šolta during the Italian occupation, which revolves around the rise and fall of a young Partisan officer who is corrupted by power, and Evening Bells (1986), also co-written with Mirko Kovač, which tells the life of a village lad (played by Rade Šerbedžija) who went to the city and became a Partisan, and who then ended up first in internment in Nazi Germany and second, after the Tito-Stalin split in 1948, in a Yugoslav prison. The Fall of Italy won him the Big Golden Arena for the second time, Evening Bells the Golden Arena for Best Director at the Pula Film Festival. In the mid-1980s Zafranović returned to more intimate themes, with films such as An Angel's Bite (1984) and Aloa: Festivity of the Whores (1988), notable for their psychological drama and erotics. He also directed numerous TV productions for Radio Television Belgrade and Radio Television Zagreb.

In his long and productive career, Zafranović succeeded in realizing his films according to his creative vision and professional ethos, against all odds. His FAMU peer Rajko Grlić calls him "one of the biggest talents of Croatian film, one of the rare directors with a 'feeling for film', with what in the field of music is called the absolute pitch".[12] Others have praised him as "one of the great masters of modernism" (Dina Iordanova), "one of the great masters of Yugoslav film", and "a Mediterranean classic whose films can be compared with those by Angelopoulos, Bertolucci or Liliana Cavani" (Ranko Munitić). If his enemies denounced him as a "regime's director" indulging in "manierism" (Nenad Polimac),[13] Grlić sees him as "the only Croat director whose films have grown organically from the Mediterranean iconography - from that sun, salt, poverty, sweetish baroque catholic kitsch, and the bitter world of black and red ideologies".[14] British-Bulgarian film researcher Dina Iordanova asserts that his "main occupation has been to explore the pressures experienced by ordinary people under extreme historical circumstances. His films challenge the deepest foundations of nationalism and question the justification of historical violence."[15] As is the case with other Yugoslav directors, namely Dušan Makavejev or Želimir Žilnik, Zafranović's films often caused controversy. This culminated in his occupation with the crimes of the NDH and the Ustaše during World War II and his documentaries Jasenovac: The Cruelest Death Camp of All Times (1983) and Decline of the Century: The Testament of L.Z. (1993) about the war crimes trial against NDH Minister of Interior Andrija Artuković.[16][17][18] According to director Jasna Nanut, Zafranović's work as a whole awaits critical valorization as "an indispensable and essential part of Croat cinematography."[19]

Exile and return to Croatia

Shortly before the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991, Zafranović joined the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Croatia in 1989 for a short period.[20] Franjo Tuđman, the future first President of the Republic of Croatia, attacked him because of his movie Jasenovac: The Cruelest Death Camp of All Times (Krv i pepeo Jasenovca, 1985). Soon after Croatia's Declaration of Independence, Tuđman denounced him as an "Enemy of the Croatian people". Zafranović was forced to leave the country. He took along his film on Artuković, which he finished in exile as a personal account on the reemergence of fascist ideology and violence in Croatia: His Decline of the Century: The Testament of L.Z. (1993) is, in the words of Dina Iordanova "a powerful indictment of past and present-day Croatian nationalism".[21] He settled in Prague and continued to work for Czech Television. More than a decade later, he returned to Zagreb to make his monumental TV series on Josip Broz Tito, Tito – the Last Witnesses of the Testament (2011), co-produced by Croatian Radiotelevision.[22]

Currently, he is working on his film The Children of Kozara (Zlatni Rez 42 (Djeca Kozare)) (in post-production). The story is based on a script which he co-wrote with Arsen Diklić back in the late 1980s, on a young girl which is imprisoned in the Ustaša death camp of Jasenovac along with her two younger brothers, after being captured with her mother in the Kozara Offensive.[23] The story follows her struggle for survival and escape from hell with the support of people who are not ready to allow that perilous, inhuman circumstances make them forget their own humanity.

Filmography

Amateur short films at Kino klub Split

  • Sunday (Nedelja; 1961)
  • The Boy and the Sea (Dječak i more; 1962)
  • City of Split (Splite grade; 1962)
  • Ranko the Producer (Proizvođac Ranko; 1962)
  • Story (Priča; 1963)
  • Diary (Dnevnik; 1964)
  • Breath (Dah; 1964)
  • Aria (Arija; 1965)
  • Night and After Night's Night (Noć i poslije noći, noć; 1965)
  • Concerto (Koncert; 1965)
  • Rainy (An Innocent Saturday) (Kišno (Nevina subota; 1965)
  • Sunny (Sunčano; 1965)
  • Mistral (Maestral; 1967)

FAMU student films

  • Rondo (1968)
  • Lady Cleaner (Gospođa čistačica; 1969)
  • The Last Tape (Posljedjna vrpca; 1970)

Professional films

  • Long Live the Youth (Diary 2) ([Živjela mladost (Dnevnik 2); 1965)
  • Portraits (Passing by) (Portreti (u prolazu); 1966)
  • Little Rascal (Mali vagabund; 1966)
  • Johnny Dear they Stole Your Gold (Dragi Džoni kradeju ti zlato; 1966)
  • Day and Night (Piazza) (Dan i noć (Pjaca); 1966)
  • Upper City (Gornji grad; 1966)
  • Cavalcade (three films) (Kavalkada (tri filma); 1967)
  • Girl X (Djevojka X; 1967)
  • People (Passers-by) (Ljudi (u prolazu); 1967)
  • Afternoon (Rifle) (Poslije podne (puška); 1967)
  • Sunday (Nedjelja; 1969)
  • Waltz (My First Dance) (Valcer (moj prvi ples); 1970)
  • Ave Maria (My First Bender) (Ave Marija (moje prvo pijanstvo); 1971)
  • Antique (Antika; 1971)
  • The Seas (Mora; 1972)
  • Suburbs of Isis (Predgrađe (Ibisa); 1972)
  • Zavnoh (1973)
  • Murder on the Night Train (Ubistvo u noćnom vozu; 1973)
  • Dalmatian Chronicle (Kronika jednog zločinca; 1973)
  • Labour Builds the City (Rad zida grad; 1974)
  • Dream (de natura sonoris) (San (de natura sonoris); 1975)
  • Passion According to Matthew (Muke po Mati; 1975)
  • Zagreb Fair (Zagrebački velesajam; 1976)
  • Film on Workers and Guests (Film o radnicima i gostima; 1977)
  • Occupation in 26 Pictures (Okupacija u 26 slika; 1978)
  • A Free Interpretation (Slobodna interpretacija; 1979)
  • Zagreb Lives with Tito (Zagreb živi s Titom; 1980)
  • The Fall of Italy (Pad Italije; 1981)
  • Homeland (Vladimir Nazor) (Zavičaj (Vladimir Nazor); 1982)
  • Angel's Bite (Ujed anđela; 1983)
  • Jasenovac: The Cruelest Death Camp of All Times (Krv i pepeo Jasenovca; 1985)
  • Evening Bells (Večernja zvona; 1986)
  • Mare adriaticum (1986)
  • Amorella (1987)
  • Aloa (The Whores' Festival) (Haloa (Praznik kurvi); 1988)
  • Decline of the Century: The Testament of L.Z. (Zalazak stoljeća: Testament L.Z.; 1993)
  • Lacrimosa (The Vengeance is Mine (Má je pomsta (Lacrimosa); 1995)
  • Who is M.Š. (Kdo je M.Š.; 2000)
  • Terracotta Faces (Lica terakota; 2003)
  • The Eyes of Beijing (Oči Pekinga; 2003)
  • Celestial City Symphony (Simfonija nebeskog grada; 2003)
  • Tito – the Last Witnesses of the Testament: 1. Prologue (Tito – posljednji svjedoci testamenta: 1. Proslov; 2011)
  • Tito – the Last Witnesses of the Testament: 2. Underground (Tito – posljednji svjedoci testamenta: 2. Ilegala; 2011)
  • Tito – the Last Witnesses of the Testament: 3. Daybreak (Tito – posljednji svjedoci testamenta: 3. Praskozorje; 2011)
  • Tito – the Last Witnesses of the Testament: 4. Uprising (Tito – posljednji svjedoci testamenta: 4. Ustanak; 2011)
  • Tito – the Last Witnesses of the Testament: 5. Pain and Hope (Tito – posljednji svjedoci testamenta: 5. Patnja i nada; 2011)
  • Tito – the Last Witnesses of the Testament: 6. The Fight (Tito – posljednji svjedoci testamenta: 6. Borba; 2011)
  • Tito – the Last Witnesses of the Testament: 7. Creation (Tito – posljednji svjedoci testamenta: 7. Stvaranje; 2011)
  • Tito – the Last Witnesses of the Testament: 8. Victory and Reprisal (Tito – posljednji svjedoci testamenta: 8. Pobjeda i odmazda; 2011)
  • Tito – the Last Witnesses of the Testament: 9. Conquest (Tito – posljednji svjedoci testamenta: 9. Conquest; 2011)
  • Tito – the Last Witnesses of the Testament: 10. Blossoming (Tito – posljednji svjedoci testamenta: 10. Procvat; 2011)
  • Tito – the Last Witnesses of the Testament: 11. 777 Weeks (Tito – posljednji svjedoci testamenta: 11. 777 sedmica; 2011)
  • Tito – the Last Witnesses of the Testament: 12. Discord (Tito – posljednji svjedoci testamenta: 12. Razdor; 2011)
  • Tito – the Last Witnesses of the Testament: 13. Death (Tito – posljednji svjedoci testamenta: 13. Smrt; 2011)
  • Zeitgeist (Duh vremena; 2018)

In post-production

  • Zlatni rez 42 (Djeca Kozare)

Work in Progress

  • Posljednja priča stoljeća (Ostrvo Balkan)
  • Karuso
  • Moć Ljubavi
  • Miss Sarajevo
  • Sestre
  • Bizarno

References

  1. ^ "Lordan Zafranović režiser i scenarist". Lordanzafranovic.com. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  2. ^ "Lordan Zafranović režiser i scenarist". lordanzafranovic.com. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  3. ^ Branka Benčić, Diana Nenadić and Adriana Perojević: Splitska škola filma – 60 godina Kino kluba Split. 3 vols. Split 2012.
  4. ^ "Monografija "Splitska škola filma – 60 godina Kino kluba Split" od sada dostupna za prodaju i u klubu « Kino Klub Split". Archived from the original on 25 August 2016. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  5. ^ "HFS – Hrvatski filmski savez – Zapis – 68/2010". Hfs.hr. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  6. ^ Rajko Grlić: Predgovor, in: Goran Marković: Češka škola ne postoji, Belgrade 2020 (second edition), 11.
  7. ^ Daniel J. Goulding: Liberated Cinema. The Yugoslav Experience, 1945–2001. Bloomington: Indiana University Press 2002, 143ff.
  8. ^ Daniel J. Goulding: Occupation in 26 pictures (Cinetek). Flicks Books 1998.
  9. ^ Nataša Mišković: Krik protiv zla: Titos Geschichtspolitik und der Zerfall Jugoslawiens, oder Wie eine Künstlergruppe Jugoslawien retten wollte. In: Peter Collmer et al., eds.: Zerfall und Neuordnung in Osteuropa. Das Phänomen der Wende von 1989/91, Cologne 2019, 121–142.
  10. ^ "ZAFRANOVIC Lordan". Festival de Cannes. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  11. ^ "DEN TANA O FILMU OKUPACIJA U 26 SLIKA: Zbog scena u autobusu nije dobio Oskara". Kurir.rs. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  12. ^ Rajko Grlić: Neispričane priče, Zagreb 2018, 237.
  13. ^ Nenad Polimac: Leksikon YU Filma. Zagreb 2016, 105.
  14. ^ Rajko Grlić: Neispričane priče. Zagreb 2018, 237.
  15. ^ Dina Iordanova: Cinema of Flames. Balkan Film, Culture and the Media. London: Palgrave Macmillan 2001, 99.
  16. ^ Krtinić, Piše: Marija (2 April 2015). "Lordan Zafranović: Shvatio sam da su svi naši filmovi bili uzalud". Dnevni list Danas. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  17. ^ "Controversies by Lordan". Kino Tuškanac. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  18. ^ "Sunčani inferno Lordana Zafranovića – P.U.L.S.E Magazin za umetnost i kulturu". Internet portal za umetnost i kulturu "P.U.L.S.E". 1 April 2010. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  19. ^ 55 godina umjetničkog stvaralaštva filmskog autora Lordana Zafranovića, 16–19 May 2019. DHFR Društvo hrvatskih filmskih redatelja, Zagreb 2019.
  20. ^ Davorka Budimir: Hrvatska politička elita na početku demokratske tranzicije Archived 9 August 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Anali 2010., p. 81
  21. ^ Dina Iordanova: Cinema of Flames. Balkan Film, Culture and the Media. London: Palgrave Macmillan 2001, p. 100.
  22. ^ "Tito je fenomen koji se treba istražiti". Radio Slobodna Evropa. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  23. ^ For the historical context see Ivo Goldstein: Jasenovac, Zagreb 2018; Nataša Mataušić: Diana Budisavljević, Prešućena heroina Drugog svjetskog rata, Zagreb 2020, and the articles Jasenovac concentration camp, Jastrebarsko children's camp, Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia.
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