ZAFRANOVIĆ: SOME DENY THEIR OWN HISTORY TO GAIN POWER

PALE, OCTOBER 12 /SRNA/ – Croatian film director Lordan Zafranović said that those who speak negatively about his film The Final Cut ’42 – The Children of Kozara are denying their own history, pain and trauma in order to gain power.

“Filmmakers know the tools of their craft, but they do not engage in confrontations with the politics of their own countries. This has been completely absent in all Western European countries over the past 20 or 30 years,” Zafranović told the press in Pale. He pointed out that, all of a sudden, there had been peace and coexistence with authorities, along with small, insignificant films about family problems. “There are no longer those hard-hitting films that were banned and condemned, with directors being driven into exile, as happened to me,” Zafranović said. He announced that, during a lecture for participants in the Film Campus – Student Programme, organised by the Republika Srpska Film Archive, he would discuss how cinema can influence politics, both positively and negatively, and how politics dealt with films. Zafranović said he would explain to students what awaits them if they deal with the truth. If they choose to focus on entertainment, Zafranovič says, then their work has no purpose at all. “There is no point in using an authentic medium such as film, which has extraordinary potential, for nothing. A film can cause a scandal, polarise the public and audiences, and create a little turmoil, but in the long run, it has little chance of achieving much,” Zafranović said. Politics, as he says, follows its own path, while art follows another. “I am talking about film as an art form, not film as a production that means little beyond providing two hours of entertainment, if it even does that,” he said. He explained that there are two types of films. “One is experimental, unconventional that must be professionally made and take the audience into account. The other type requires a professional filmmaker to ensure that Chinese, Japanese, Croat and Serb audiences can understand the film and watch it with interest,” Zafranović said. He highlighted the situation surrounding his film The Final Cut ’42 – The Children of Kozara, noting that people who have not even seen the film are discussing it, which is, as he is emphasizing, particularly while speaking about it negatively, calling for film maker’s death. “On the other hand, chaos is being created in which a sacred place such as Jasenovac is pushed into the background in the struggle for power. This is beyond absurd. They are denying their own history, pain and trauma in order to gain power,” Zafranović stressed.