Views into Past, Rhythm of Eternal Present

One fifth of a century. Two decades. Twenty years. In some other figures, this segment of time which encompasses the entire ZagrebDox might also be described with the number of screened films, the number of guests or media releases. All these are interesting stories, however the large number of films sometimes obscures the one that makes ZagrebDox a festival we keep returning to. Therefore, the Croatian Film Critics Association decided to see trees for the forest, aided by the festival’s founder, director and head programmer Nenad Puhovski. Six films at their choice will largely provide a fascinating overview of the world we live in, the world we observe and contemplate through ZagrebDox as well.

The first winner of ZagrebDox was the painfully relevant, subtle cinematic triptych by Finnish director Pirjo Honkasalo The Three Rooms of Melancholia. The war in Chechnya was raging at the time, Russian boys were being thrown into the trenches, with a geostrategically important pipeline running below them. It was this particular film that was chosen by the great Croatian film critic Nenad Polimac, while his younger colleague Stipe Radić opted for Cameraperson as his personal favourite. In it, director Kirsten Johnson focused on the power of the camera, on the relationship between those who make images and those who appear in them. In a world as highly mediatised as ours, it almost seems like there is not a topic more relevant than this one…

Iva Rosandić chose the film by one of the most significant experimental performers of the 20th century, the composer and electronic music pioneer Laurie Anderson. The loss of her mother, her husband Lou Reed and her beloved terrier Lolabella inspired her to make a stream of consciousness film Heart of a Dog, in which she combines images, animated sequences, personal 8 mm footage and countless recordings of her beloved dog against her personal narration. The film selected by Višnja Pentić is The Steel Mill Café by Goran Dević. The ‘pub talks’ filmed observationally over the course of the last week before the café closed down provides a new layer to the most probed Croatian city in documentary terms, Dević’s Sisak.

Ognjen Glavonić’s Depth Two is an experimental-documentary thriller about a mass grave in the suburbs of Belgrade. The film was chosen as his ‘best ever’ in ZagrebDox’s twenty-year history by film critic Ivan Žaknić. The last film in this programme section is the one that started it all, chosen by Nenad Puhovski. Werner Herzog’s The White Diamond is the first documentary screened at ZagrebDox, on 21 February 2005 at Europa Cinema. It was the first ever HD digital screening in Croatia; the projector had to be brought in from Switzerland and it was so big that it didn’t fit into the projection booth, it had to be placed in the auditorium.

Across the musical expanses covered by ZagrebDox’s section Musical Globe, the ‘rags to riches’ path is more than usually universal. By way of film, Zagreb will host the great Joan Baez, the iconic The Birthday Party and Nick Cave, the already eternalised Yu Grupa, the eclectic Srđan Gino Jevđević and the unmistakable Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Grandpa Guru by Silvio Mirošničenko is a portrait documentary showing the continuity of the Kultur Shock band, with a special accent on the interesting life, music and art of its lead singer and front man Srđan Gino Jevđević. In the film we follow Gino’s spiritual journey on a quest for his identity and place in the world, after fleeing the war in Sarajevo and arriving to Seattle, where he met Nirvana’s Krist Novoselich and Jello Biafra from Dead Kennedys. Mutiny in Heaven is a story about the rise and implosion and about the issues of inspiration, creativity, addiction, fame, interpersonal conflicts and the unique relationship between creative vision and self-destruction. Using exclusive, honest interviews, rich and unseen archives of one of the most influential bands of its time, the Australian The Birthday Party.

The directing trio Navasky, O’Boyle and O’Connor feature an honest, confessional documentary film Joan Baez: I Am a Noise about the legendary singer-songwriter and activist in which she is trying to capture the meaning of her life, work and personal private stumbles which she kept hidden from the public eye. Less a celebrity, but equally influential was the Japanese composer, pianist and music innovator who in Neo Sora’s concert film Ryuichi Sakamoto / Opus relies on the most important thing: his music. Film lovers will remember Sakamoto most probably by his Oscar-winning original score for Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor, but also by collaborations with Almodovar, Stone, de Palma, Oshima…

A few more music numbers to wrap up! The documentary Electric Yu-topia by Darko Lungulov comprises 80 years of life, 60 years of music-making, half a century of Yu Grupa and 45 years of our former state. It is a film about a rock band which outlived the country it was named after, but also a story about a family, the Jelić brothers, who were born and grew up together with new Yugoslavia.


ZagrebDox takes place with the support of the City of Zagreb, Croatian Audiovisual Centre, Kultura nova Foundation, Croatian Film Directors Guild and the City of Zagreb Tourist Board.