The country in focus: Croatia

Croatia is the closest of all other SEE countries to enter the European Union. Although known among Dutch travellers predominantly as an attractive summer holiday destination, the country has made significant economical, political and cultural progress in the last 10 years. It is expected that Croatia will enter the EU the latest by 2012. Being a film festival, we are mainly focused to observe how these changes are reflected in cinema. Interestingly enough, Croatian cinema after the political changes in 2000, flourishes again and many critics write about the "third golden era", after the 1950s and 1960s. In a completely free political environment, maybe for the first time, the younger generation of film makers expresses in a very innovative, often provocative, fresh and engaging manner, its views on contemporary society. Matching a modern sensitivity of especially the urban society, the new cinema accomplishes full communication and a deep relationship with the local audience. Internationally, the new Croatian cinema is recognized at prestigious festivals such as Cannes, Berlinale , Rotterdam and Karlovy Vary, where several films had their world premiere and got awarded, while the International Federation of Film Critics awarded the Croatian film Armin as the Best Foreign Film in 2007.

Croatian cinema regularly produces between 6 and 9 feature films per year. The Ministry of Culture also co-finances approximately 60 minutes of animation per year, plus some twenty documentaries and dozen of shorts. It is interesting that Croatia nourishes already for decades experimental film production, a scene that is extremely vibrant and enjoys in Croatia a higher cultural esteem than in other countries of the former Yugoslavia.

For all these reasons, we have chosen Croatia to be our Country in Focus this year. With several guests, film directors, actors and producers, an exciting lecture and many Dutch premieres, ENFF 2010 vividly presents the Croatian cinema with engaging films like the classic from the 70-ties and Biggest Croatian Hit of all times – Tko pjeva, zlo ne misli/ Who sings, means no evil, by Kreso Golik. We also got hold of the only officially forbidden Croatian feature fiction, the satirical comedy that got approved by censors only 25 years after having been made – Ciguli, Miguli by Branko Marjanovic from 1952. And we have the latest production of exciting feature fiction, shorts, animation and documentary films that tackle intriguing subjects given within a modern cinematic language.

• New fiction films from Croatia
• Forbidden film from Croatia
• Old Hit from Croatia
• New docs. , animation and shorts from Croatia

The complete information about the film program will be available very soon. Please subscribe for our monthly newsletter and be the first to know about the program!!