Life
Life in Fresh Air
Život na Svježem Zraku / Danko Volarić / Croatia / 2001 / 60 min / Croatian and Serbian
A film about the village of Djulovac in Western Slavonia, Croatia. The place is very small, but it has many political fractions. The main issue is how to win the votes of the new inhabitants: Croats from Kosovo who moved into houses formerly inhabited by Serbs who had left at the beginning of the war. At the same time, the politicians are also eager to obtain the votes of the returning Serbs who are now reclaiming their houses. Quite humorous, with some very strong cinéma vérité sequences, the film investigates the spirit of the villagers at a time when human values like honesty and dignity are about to lose their meaning. Will the wounds inflicted during the war be deepened or is there a chance to create solidarity in peacetime? The film does not try to provide any answers; it merely poses questions that are crucial to the whole of former Yugoslavia. Silvestar Kolbas's camera wonderfully captures the hidden but significant moments of hesitation, dilemma and human malice dominating the village.
producer | Nenad Puhovski
screenplay | Danko Volarić
camera | Silvestar Kolbas
editor | Staša Čelan
sound | Mladen Škalec, Tomislav Hleb
