Aleksandar Petrović
Through the conversation with Yugoslav film authors and excerpts from their films, this documentary film tells a story of a film phenomenon and censorship, and its focus is, in fact, a painful epoch of Yugoslav film called “a Black Wave”, which was the most important and artistically strongest period of Yugoslav film industry, created in the sixties and buried in the early seventies by means of ideological and political decisions. The film tells a great “thriller” story of the ideological madness which characterised the totalitarian psychology having left multiple consequences felt up to our very days. It stresses similarities between totalitarian regimes defending their taboos on the example of the persecution of the most important Yugoslav film authors. Those film authors have, however, made world careers and inspired many later authors. The film is the beginning of a debt pay-off to the most significant Yugoslav film authors.
Screening of the synonymous Milos Crnjanski's poetic novel about the tragedy of Serbian people who scattered their energy and bones from Dnepr to Lotaringia during XVII and XIX century. The great Serbian migration topic is given through the military campaign of major Vuk Isakovic (Avtandil Makharadze) at the head of Slavonian-Danube regiment, from spring of 1744. to spring of the next year. The second topic follows tragic but passionate relationship between Vuk's younger brother and his wife, which ends with her long-lasting disease and death.
Based on the famous novel of Milos Crnjanski, the story follows Serbian migrations from the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the XVIII century.
Banovic Strahinja takes place during the middle ages in Serbia. While estate owner Strahinja is hunting, a Turkish bandit, Alija, attacks his castle. The Turks kill his servants and kidnap his beloved Andja. When he discovers what has happened, Strahinja gathers a together a group of scoundrels and chases the bandits.
The story follows the life of a regular German women Leni Gruyten during the 1930s and 1940s. Through her interactions with friends, family and other people she knows, the regular folks' perception of the Nazi era is shown.
The Master and Margaret (1972) is based on the eponymous book by Mikhail A. Bulgakov. The film is set in the Soviet Union under Stalin, it has several story-lines, that are intertwined. Maestro Nikolai Masoudov, a talented writer, and his assistant Margaret, are working on a biblical story of Pontius Pilate. The Satan — Woland, and his lieutenants, are harassing Master by surveillance, by killing his friend, and sending another friend to Gulag prison in Siberia. Victimized by their harassment, Master becomes paranoid, and is locked up in a mental institution. Margaret is trying to save him regardless of the danger.
A bizarre and tragic love story involving swineherd, village fool, teacher and an agricultural pilot. The story unfolds in a remote village in the communist ruled Yugoslavia at the down of Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
The protagonist, Bora, is a charming but mean-spirited gypsy, while his older wife, Lence, is submissive. Bora is in love with the younger Tisa, who is being offered in marriage by her father. The two get themselves in trouble and eventually have to flee. Tisa rejects her husband and she and Bora get married in the church, and their adventures continue.
In this episodic WW II drama, a Yugoslavian youth attempts to escape from German soldiers. In the first scene, he stands amongst a group of refugees waiting for a train. One man, with no identification papers is accused of a petty crime and the crowd insists that three soldiers arrest him. The youth tries to stop them all, but he fails and the man is executed. Soon afterward, his wife shows up and proves that he was indeed innocent. In the second episode, the youth participates in a resistance raid and ends up pursued into a swamp where he meets another fugitive. This man ends up sacrificing his life so that the youth can escape. The final story begins as the war ends. The youth has become an officer in the Yugoslav army and is being forced to deliver an order to execute all citizens who collaborated with the Germans. One of the traitors is a woman he cares for, but this doesn't stop him from obeying his commands.
Another early Aleksandar Petrovic documentary, done for Dunav film in 1964. It is made as a kind of a road movie through socialist Yugoslavia, registering numerous bizarre sites and events, with strong irony both in the selection of scenes and in the background commentaries. Originally filmed in 16mm.
A group of partisans goes to destroy a German gas warehouse at Postojnska Jama. One of them grows distrustful towards the new commander, and it spreads among the rest of the squad. The situation culminates when the mentioned partisan remains cut off inside a cave.
A magnificient poem of the tragic love between two wild ducks. The suicidal sacrifice of the male for his female, we do not witness a hunting scene, but a real tragedy of the birds Romeo and Juliet.
