"not only me, but the whole country would be completely crazy 00:00:37,100 -- 00:00:40,075 if you allowed to work before our own assessment and decide whether your poetry suitable for listening 00:00:40,100 -- 00:00:43,075 and that deserves to be publicly performed 00:00:43,100 -- 00:00:46,075 Plato state Laws 816 E" "Filmmakers and authors were cautious and frightened." "They started to question, feel and practice their freedom." "Forces of resistance grew immensely within allowed margin." "It ended with a strong political movement for civil rights." "This was the student protests at the end of '68." "Film had the Black Wave as a display of opposition." "is it a close up?" "Yes." "My name is Zelimir Zilnik, I'm 28,72 kg, height 166-167 cm." "BA, Civil Law, filmmaker." "Events during students protest left a strong mark on me." "Many of us started to question the face of democratic Titoism." "is it really so, or is it just an illusion?" "These are miserable poor people, they don't have where to sleep." "The society was based on an elaborated control network." "Many things were stopped even before creation." "Spoilsports existed on all levels." "One thing we tend to forget about the crisis of socialism." "It is a problem of gerontocracy of the governing hierarchy." "The new generation and the old were constantly strained." "Sets of people from political structures came in waves." "They had to prove themselves by banning something, at least." "Only few films were actually banned by court." "There was an absurd situation in Sarajevo court." "All the materials of the film "The City" were to be destroyed." "Another way was to prevent public release." "The author or the producer were advised to change something." "Censorship was not apparent." "The smart way was to express concern." ""You'd better fix this a bit."" "Lenin said that film is the most important art for Communists." "This led to high demands from the Communist governments." "Anything that could not meet those demands was facing ban." "The first board of censors was formed in 1945." "Partisan uniforms were still on, the ruins of WWll lay around." "Fifteen years later the suits and ties were legal." "The start of the '60s saw the forming of "artistic councils"." "It was the age of "workers self management"." "Zivojin Pavlovic described this change in censorship." "It transformed from the role of protector into scout." "The slightest problem in a script stopped further development." "This was the turning point for film in Yugoslavia." "A new generation of filmmakers emerged." "They followed the current new film movement in Europe." "Their poetry was totally different from the official form of film." "Sasa Petrovic, Zivojin Pavlovic, Dusan Makavejev, Zelimir Zilnik." "Their world of outsiders and anti-heroes spoke from the screens." "They shifted away and that was a reason of their fall." "They pointed out at the cracks in the Communist regime of Tito." "This is the most influential tradition of our film." "It overshadowed other traditions." "The image of the censorship emphases this tradition." "I looked at it this way." "we slap them, they slap us." "Anarchistic, anarchic-liberal, anti-Communist." "In '67, a miracle happened." "Miracle lasted for several years." "Yugoslav film started to rule the world." "Belgrade was one of the European centers." "It was equal to Lody, Warsaw, Prague." "Those films were on the margin of the prevailing film industry." "We didn't go to the Pula Film Festival." "We were not invited to Tito's island." "It was a tactical move from the regime, to fix itself." "The resulting action was the so-called "Letter"." "The man behind the Letter from Josip Broz was Stane Dolanc." "The Letter demanded stronger Party discipline." "It called for action against threats in politics and culture." "It created an open space for action against the liberals." "The opposition in culture and education was blown away." "We questioned all the flaws of that system." "We questioned the privileges and the "new class"." "We asked for a place for us in the system decision making." "All the doors were slammed on our face." "Comrade, which one is Marshal Tito street?" "Around the corner." "The one down there?" "No, no, around the corner." "Thank you." "You're not from here?" "I'm from Zagreb." "l'm from Titovo Uzice." "One Party decree was later widely used in the witch-hunt." "It concerned the Party members in distribution and production." "They were to search for ideologically improper films." "They would withdraw from distribution such films." "Radojcic phoned." "The boy is being released today." "Former Post Office employee, jailed for bank robbery." "Where is he now?" "Banned without a court ban." "Some 15 feature films and 30-40 short films shared that destiny." "My "Early Works" appeared in public not before '82." "There was that huge energy, a fantastic point in Serbian film." "At the Faculty we felt as a part of that emerging Serbian film." "A man once told me this about my film "Crows":." "It's so "black", it will never be screened in Belgrade." "It was screened everywhere else, on 1 1 Festivals around the world." "Until this day, the capital hasn't seen the film "Crows"." "But, I don't mind." "I have a job for you." "Not interested." "Wait." "Hear it first." "Go, take a piss." "And me?" "The safe." "Just to take it out." "We tried once, the cops were all over us!" "At the docks, not a living soul there." "Pay me for those suckers, first." "All Communist regimes had their list of taboo topics." "On top of the list was the Leader, then came revolution self-management, brotherhood and unison, sex, the Army." "You couldn't mention the Yugoslav People's Army." "Everything was classified." "And now our guest, the famous singer, Jimmy Barka." "He was a captain at that time, then a general, now retired." "Vuk Obradovic was assigned on that duty." "He is an educated, eloquent man with a free, friendly approach." "He asked me about any problems I have in the unit and my view." "Since he asked, I started talking about my numerous problems." "I felt that I was a victim of political oppression." "He said nothing, but reported me and I was charged for spying." "But on the trial, I was charged for enemy propaganda." "This was a no grounded legislation." "The main attribute was described in Paragraph one." "It was about false presenting political situation in the country." "During the arrest, my house was thoroughly searched." "Large amount of political material was taken away." "That was mostly publications, nothing much compromising." "It was no secret that I had a non-released film." "But now they found the screenplay." "This would now be the grounds for criminal prosecution." "The parades were very boring, they were the same every time." "First, there was a group of young people with flowers." "Workers, army, the guard, aviation, and tanks at the end." "We made the film and it was banned immediately." "It was a surprise for me." "I realized that it was because it wasn't an ordinary film." "Then, there was the scene with the comic book, and the pigs... I didn't know exactly, the pig disturbed them the most." "I asked who banned the film." "They said it was Eli Finci, Zorz Skrigin, and others." "It was the time when one could ask who banned it." "Earlier on, nobody knew neither who banned nor who watched." "They asked if I really thought I could get away with this." "I said that we just filmed things that were there." "They asked about the meaning of the eye." "That's the Minister of internal affairs, his job is to watch us." "We weren't allowed to speak about him in that manner." "Totally idiotic, because that's what he was paid to do." "His eye, and his ear, that was important." "Then in the cutting room I cut out just two shots." "One of them was with a whore." "The other was a with a banner:." "tito, WE LOVE YOU." "It waved in the wind." "They concluded that I put it there because it was unstable." "The films called for the Party to stick to its program." "I know, it sounds ridiculous now." "It ended with a sentence by someone like Dobrica Cosic." "It went something like this:" "The Communist can always improve to be even better." "We were preoccupied with some ultra-left ideas from Marcuse." "It was the time of Rudy Dutschke and Daniel Cohn Bendit." "It was the time of the protests in Sorbonne." "That positive energy resulted in films and film criticism." "Europe film critics showed amazing interest in our films." "It was not just from the political aspect." "It was about our way of work, our way of editing, our music." "Stop, stop!" "You start with music on my mark." "Music!" "I arrived too late at the Berlin Film Festival." "We arrived with film day before the screening." "The film was accepted very well and had very good reviews." "Yet, nobody believed that it would be awarded." "There were great names there, like Bunuel, Goddard." ""Midnight Cowboy" was there, a great film." "The Festival selector approached me during a party." "He says:" "Zelimir, prepare, you've got the Golden Bear." "It was scheduled for that evening." "I didn't expect that." "Josip Broz Tito was the leader and the President of Yugoslavia." "His persona was absolutely untouchable at that time." "His geniality was a protected value." "It was unimaginable to show Tito as an ordinary man." "In "Plastic Jesus", Stojanovic insists on Titoistic iconography." "His photographs are everywhere, just like in real life." "But there is a shot in the film showing Broz confused." "It was a moment before one of his historical speeches." "He was about to crush student rebellion in 1968." "It was a blasphemy to show comrade Tito in that way." ""Plastic Jesus" was put in the deepest dark of a bunker." "The author was sent to prison to make an example." "I got the raw material of the speech, with the preparation." "That was waste footage." "Other wastes found their place in "Plastic Jesus"." "I put it away because it was unusually dramatic." "The material was extremely rare and the background is fascinating." "This was one of the hardest moments in his political carrier." "Three years later, that piece found its place in the film." "I put a song over it:" ""Tito, All Youth Loves You"." "I thought it might sound ironic, but not necessarily." "This was too much for the ruler." "At first, he was furious." "Then he calmed down." "Then asked for persecution." "Then he was not pleased with dimensions of the persecution." "It finally came down to three years of prison." "That lasts less than the faculty, and you get the same knowledge." "We comrades say that one should take care of man." "is not he the real Man, indeed!" "One screening was on Brioni." "The projectionist told me that Tito was with Krleza." "Tito was with his wife, and there was some colonel Drobac." "Couple of minutes into the film Tito got up, walked away." "Comrade Ljuba dropped by to get some rest." "The next day Tito summoned the projectionist and warned him:" ""lf you bring another such film your head will roll."" "He showed his resentment, but he said not to tell the others." "Comrade military personnel didn't fuck for 6 months." "That day in Avala Film, general dismay." "They tell me quietly about last night in the club, on Dedinje." "Tito got angry, and the screening was stopped after 15 minutes." "Tito said, what do those people want, those lunatics." "I say, Tito is an old man, there are some nude scenes." "They say, don't be stupid." "1967 marked the international success of our films." "Tito invited some 100 of us to his island of Vanga." "We were all in black suits." "Tito asked Sasa Petrovic what wil he do next." "He asked Bulajic the same." "I said, I'd like to do something about '48, the lnformbiro period." "An interesting thing happened then." "We all heard that." "He didn't speak Serbian very well." "He said this about the subject:" ""Don't mess with it."" "Tito was not that influential on film and other forms of art." "I had many contacts with Tito, as the Festival director." "I went to see him with many international film stars." "Tito had only one request for the Festival in Pula." "He wanted to see the opening film prior to the public screening." "He would walk out on a film he didn't like." "He didn't want to do that in front of thousands of people." "Yugoslavia's Josip Broz Tito was one of important wise men." "He protected the status quo in Europe." "I was on training in the Cecurity Centre on Banjica, Belgrade." "In the afternoon we had screenings." "They showed us so called banned Black Wave films from the bunker." "That drew great attention and interest." "I watched over him for a year as a member of the Guard." "He always wanted to be a grand seigneur." "Hence, he returned the favour... triple." "The repressive system was applied on the Black Wave creators." "The goal was to impose on others a self-censorship system." "Who wanted to film inappropriate things would now think twice." "Some 100 cars and 200 people left from Belgrade that day." "They all came for the screening." "They brought 400 people to Novi Sad from their side." "They were war veterans, factory workers, night watchers." "Nesa Ristic told me something else, years after that." "Nesa was assigned to bring sixty Belgrade Party members." "The limo chauffeurs waited in front of the cinema." "They asked Nesa if they could watch the film." "He says, "Fine, go to the balcony"." "They didn't know the purpose of that screening." "During the end credits there was this huge applause, but first from the balcony." "The chauffeurs were unaware that they should be against the film." "Daily newspapers draw us in a debate." "Which is better, short and fat, or thin and long?" "False dilemmas!" "Don't trust the press!" "Joy is the most important, the merry is the best." "Some 30 people took part in the discussion after the film." "There were four attackers, just one of them very unpleasant." "Yet all others 20, 30 of them, all were positive." "The president of the commission later became an ambassador." "He said this to other members, Zilnik and other filmmakers." ""Comrades, I have to vote against, you do whatever you like"." "There were six votes pro, and one against." "His." "The debate was supposed to be in the newspapers the next day." "Not a word." "Film "Early Works" was released in three of our Republics." "The grounds for the ban was disturbance of Yugoslav public." "That and many others was banned because someone didn't like it." "That someone was powerful enough to start the machinery for banning." "I defended the film by attacking the District Attorney." "I said that he has a Stalinist point of view on the Yugoslav society." "Does he think it is so weak to be in jeopardy because of this?" "The D.A. was taken back, he yelled, saying I was drunk." "I say that that he is a dogmatic man, a Stalinist." "Judge Radovic, a man of integrity, asked me to stay during the pause." "He tells me:" ""l heard that Tito saw the film."" "I say, I don't know, but yesterday I was with Veljko Vlahovic." "That startled the judge:" ""So, what does he say?"" "The Party has no formal opinion on the film." "The film will be a subject this summer." "After the pause the judge asked me if I had some proof." "I called as a witness Oto Denes, Djuric from Avala Film, etc..." "Two days later the situation was different." "All the witnesses spoke as if there really is artistic freedom." "We wanted to screen it, and the judge saw the film." "He said that there was a series or provocative moments." "But, it was not so dangerous and he set it free." "Something is completely incomprehensible." "The entire progressive Belgrade public stood silent in 1973." "The regime was ruining a complete film industry." "Our film was internationally the most respected art form." "The grounds for banning printed materials and films were similar." "That was something against the state, unspecified." "Then something that offends public moral, also not specified." "Something obscene and stupid, perversions, pornography." "Pornography is still a criminal act." "This cannot be released as a film." "There was that third element, offending the youth, etc." "These categories applied to the printed material and film." "The trial was based on one, single closed screening." "Two weeks later, the police burst in confiscated the film." "Who reported it?" "The producer." "That was an unprecedented paradox." "The producer confiscated the film to himself." "There was a poet from Sarajevo I admired, read his poetry." "On that Party meeting he said one completely ridiculous thing." "In high voice, pathetically he said:" ""Comrades, if we allow this film to enter the theatres I'm sure that the audience will tear off the screen."" "Help!" "I didn't feel comfortable." "It wasn't easy for me." "I was worried." "I felt that my director's carrier has been cut at the beginning." "I hope nobody will get angry for what I am about to say." "I cannot be easy on the filmmakers completely." "The members of the Council were filmmakers." "They demanded that the film should be burnt down." "I was one of the few who saw "Sacred Sand" by Mika Antic." "It was screened under odd circumstances." "All films were screened at the Fortress, as usual." "This film was screened at 8 am in a local cinema." "This was a marginal cinema in Nis." "The crew was presented officially, like at the premiere." "I remember the leading actress, a non-professional one." "After that, the film was lost." "Name, surname, why are you here, and what's the verdict." "Where did you hide the grease?" "Where is the wool?" "Here is the wool, take it!" "I'll take your pants down and light a fire between your legs." "We'll see your wool." "Some things in that film were off limits back then." "Take it." "Now!" "Now!" "Nothing in that film was made up." "We heard real life stories." "The authorities abused, beat up and tortured those peasants." "They searched for hidden grease and bacon." "Peasants had to give more than they had, in fact." "They could hardly survive." "Those are true stories." "Nothing was made up." "We just showed those things in our own, poetic manner." "Why did you have to go through all this?" "No particular reason." "Really, you fucking peasant?" "!" "I just wanted to test my neighbours." "Black Wave films were mostly inaccessible to Yugoslav public." "However, they sold out very well abroad." "The regime had nothing against money." "As Karl Marx once said: "Economy comes before social build-up."" "It was the time of great political turmoil." "Some reactionary regimes started to fall." "The dictatorship in Greece fell." "In Athens, there was a screening of "The Role of My Family..."" "There were other films, but "The Role..." is a perfect example." "In Portugal, Salazar falls, again "The Role of My Family"." "Yugoslavia Film held world sales and kept records in a big book." "I started going over the book under "The Role of My Family"." "I saw Germany, Greece, Portugal, USA, and other." "We had no use at all from that strong commercial activity." "I started the subject that implicated misunderstandings." "We ate..." "Stalin..." "like a cake." "You fucking peasants... you call yourselves revolutionaries?" "Fifteen years have passed after the demise of the Black Wave." "It was 1987, Film Screenplay Festival in Vrnjacka Banja." "Radoslav Zelenovic wanted to clear the films and its authors." "The four-year-long struggle ended in 1990." "The only verdict against a film was annulled in Sarajevo court." ""The City" was set free, SFRY was now without banned films." "That didn't do much help, the country fell apart anyway." "A man came from the police assigned to political issues." "The policeman said they sent him to see what's going on." "We gave him a chair and he saw all those films." "After that, he said to me:" ""This is not so dangerous."" "I said: "lt's not."" "He said: "What shall I write in my police report?"" "Write down what you just said, that it's not so dangerous." "He smiled and said: "l'm not that crazy to lose my job."" "Why the documents don't exist?" "Somebody just said that the film was not fit for release." "That someone went on to another post." "But the one who stayed, knew that the film was not for release." "We were informed that the print of the film "The City" was missing." "A friend told us that the print lies in the police archive." "It lay there ever since the confiscation." "We asked the District Attorney in Sarajevo to start the procedure." "The point was to lift the ban." "The Communist regime in Yugoslavia was like any other." "They too, felt that it was their right to judge all arts." "They convicted the artists and buried the Black Wave." "You go down the street and see people cross on the other side." "Some people give unbelievable statements." "You hear some accusations." "There were waves of hysteria, typical for such systems." "It's a system without feedback, without control of its work." "Everything labeled "Black Wave" was removed from the scene." "The paradox lies in merits of the Black Wave." "International prestige of Yugoslav culture is credited to it." "The films were awarded at international festivals." "The government throws away all those benefits." "It prefers a greater benefit:" "the execution of its enemies." "is this yours?" "No, some waste from TV." "What fool would throw this away?" "This is great." "A completely forgotten fashion started at that time." "When I say restalinization, it's not only ideologically." "It's a complete lack of taste, the New Partisan fashion line." "Zdravko Colic and others get on the gravy train." "Comrade Tito feels that the time has come to fight the enemy." "The decision to start armed uprising was made." "Our nations do not accept break-up of Yugoslavia." "This New Red Wave was a kind of vulgar Maoization." "Then my peers suddenly woke up." "They felt threatened with the success of the new film." "They started to make those parasite film epics." "On one hand, they showed falsified history." "On the other hand, this was a large-scale financial fraud." "The best example is film "Heroes" by Veljko Bulajic." "It ended with a court decision." "The American partner was to be reimbursed 5 million dollars." "You want Uzice?" "!" "Our streets?" "!" "Our cinema?" "!" "Take this!" "It's all being forgotten now." "But the groundwork for the collapse of socialism was set then." "It was set by bureaucratic, closed structures of the socialism itself." ""W.R:" "Mysteries of the Organism" by Makavejev is one of the films." "There are other unacceptable films:" ""Early Works" by Zelimir Zilnik and "Sacred Sand" by Antic." "We demand to stop the work of those who abused the film." "This Communist unit has made a list of 20 typical short films." "They abuse the precious experience of our Self-Management socialism." "Films by Zilnik and Karpo Godina are at the top of this list." "Political Commissions were formed at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts." "Professors and students were in the Commission." "Their task was to evaluate the work of professors Aleksandar Petrovic and Zivojin Pavlovic and their students." "They had to check the bad influence of these professors on students." "Typical political cleansing." "I remember the commission watching our films in our presence." "When they hear a rude word, the pencils start to screech." "We are there and look what do they see in our films." "They had a dispute whether to take our passports or to set us free." "They took away passports of Sasa Petrovic, Selenic, Pekic..." "Due to the protests from abroad they returned Sasa his passport." "The final result was that we were allowed to go." "There were two prevailing views." "One view was to arrest us, the other was to let us go." "However, we have to face an eternal truth." "The limits of the censorship have never never, ever harmed the freedom of expression." "It is all in the line with Kranjcevic's verses:" ""Chains give us wings So we can fly faster"" "Censorship and constrains were, in fact, inspiration." "The rebellious man, rebellious individual found inspiration." "With too much freedom, the tension tends to lower down." "Some authors were under great stress." "Their careers and works have one huge gap." "Some of them never recovered." "Some of them stopped working almost completely." "Lazar Stojanovic and Joca Jovanovic, among them." "Jail authorities came to me on more than one occasion." "The warden would say that everything is set for my release." "All I had to do was to sign a paper." "The paper said three things." "One thing was that I confess the crime and express remorse." "I never denied making the film, but I felt I did no crime." "Second thing was that I promise never to do it again." "I had every intention to continue making films." "And the third thing was too much for my ego." "I had to ask humbly for my release." "Our sociologists, authors, even politicians overlook one fact." "They don't see that film reflects social reality and history." "Poor Lazar's father had three heart attacks." "He didn't live to see Lazar out of jail." "Branko Perak, cinematographer, suddenly left for Canada." "Zelimir Zilnik fled to Germany." "Dusan Makavejev fled to France and America." "Sasa Petrovic fled to France." "I would go on. I know what they took away from me." "They took my life, my beliefs." "My curiosity comes from my childhood or circumstances." "I know that my curiosity applicable." "It would've been better if all of us were obsolete." "That goes for Mihic, Pavlovic, Kozomara and Makavejev." "It would've been better if this was just a reflection of an age." "But it's still a reality." "This is devastating." "Terrible." "The negative was carefully marked on the place where it was cut." "It was done professionally." "Therefore, I believe that it is packed in some little box." "It will appear one day and return to the film where it belongs." "this SCENE disappeared while THE film WAS KEPT BY THE STATE"