It is all the fault of Zjelko and Svonimir. Each year at the UNICA Festival they encourage me to come to Croatia and the festival they organise in Pozega, a charming town in the beautiful northern area of the country known as the Golden Valley. They are such good company that in May 2006 I gave in and agreed to join the jury there. Now I have to tell you that when the Croatians have a film festival the accent is on the festival part. The Croatian Minute Movie Cup was started after the civil war and 2006 was its 14th year. The films were great - see below - but the hospitality was out-of-this-world.

Day One - Thursday

I flew from Heathrow but there is also a service from Luton - both are very reasonable. I left a Britain that was cold and wet and reached Zagreb, which was 34 degrees. A cold beer was the first order of the day while the festival driver and I waited for a connecting flight from Poland . That arrived bringing Agnieszka Wlazel, the lively organiser of workshops and training groups especially for young movie makers.

We had a very quick tour of the capital before picking up the film director Ognjen Svilicic and his girlfriend Vanja Juranic. The four of us, together with the festival's founder, Mile Beslic, would be the final jury. The drive from Zagreb to Pozega where the event is held took about an hour. On the way Ognjen told me about his award-winning feature film Sorry for Kung Fu, which is available albeit with slightly dodgy English subtitles, from amazon.com in the USA for $18. The 'making of' material was shot by Vanja, who specialises in documentary work. Ognjen comes from Pozega so the pair of them could visit his family while they were there.

Zjelko Balog and Svonimir Karakatik.	Vanja, Ognjen and Agnieszka at the festival cinema.	Cover of Ognjen's film.

Most British visitors to Croatia head for the beautiful Dalmatian Coast, but the north of the country is very attractive. This is a wine-growing area, a fact the festival team were determined to prove at every opportunity. No meal began without a range of aperitifs, went unaccompanied by a range of wines, or ended without local brandy. Pozega is on the edge of a huge bowl of fertile land whose slopes make great vineyards. It has been famous since Roman times. No wonder fellow Brits, Reg Lancaster and Brian Dunckley, who had served on the jury in previous years, warned me to pack hangover cures!

We settled in to a small, comfortable hotel. I went down to the restaurant in search of a cup of tea. To my horror there was a cake shop attached to the hotel with completely irresistible goodies! Croatians do not normally smile on making eye contact, but their grins are just waiting to break out as soon as there is reason. Seeing my gaze at the cream, chocolate and pastry confections made the lady in the patiserie smile. People were very friendly - and everyone has had basic English at school for generations. In Pozega most of the younger ones were taught English by Zjelko Balog, the main mover behind the festival.

I was about to head upstairs to unpack when the door opened and in came German film maker, Frank Dietrich with his wife and daughter. So it was back to the table and beers all round. Frank made the unforgettable movie A-Wiwiwi about training dwarf geese to fly. It was a hit at BIAFF a couple of years ago. The sequel to that lovely film was scheduled for this year but the outbreak of bird-flu has put paid to it for the time being.

Imagine a town built round a castle on a hill. That's how Pozega began. The castle has vanished, the hill is an informal park, and inside the mound are a number of caves. We were taken to one such cave for the opening buffet. It was fitted out as a wine cellar. There was a table groaning with food of all sorts. But first the spirits - a glass or two to celebrate our arrival and the start of the festival. A Belgian film-making couple arrived - on their honeymoon - so another toast was made. Then came the wine … more film makers from other countries and more toasts ... local organisers turned up and more wine was quaffed. Everyone quickly made friends. I staggered back to the hotel about midnight and I was probably first to leave!

Day Two - Friday

After breakfast Agnieszka and I visited the headquarters of the Pozega Movie Makers Club which hosts the event. Volunteers were packing delegate bags with brochures, posters and leaflets. A partition split the meeting and seating area from a small technical zone with editing computers, DVD burners etc. Behind that was … the club wine cellar and beer fridge! Why don't our clubs have such features?

Mile Beslic, the festival's founder, joined us to complete the jury when we assembled later in the morning and worked through the 60 shortlisted movies, of which more anon. Our discussions were in English, thank goodness, and we quickly agreed a top ten. Sorting out the final winners took longer. We were done by lunchtime. This was just as well since lunch seemed to mark the public start of the festival. A coach load of mainly young people arrived from Zagreb. Everyone was seated in the restaurant of the town's largest hotel for a slap-up meal … with, of course, spirits and wines.

I tried to sleep a little in the afternoon - and grabbed a sandwich about 6pm because our evening meal was scheduled for after the awards at 11.30pm.

That evening the public show took place … in four separate venues around town showing the same programme. The main theatre, in the town hall, was packed and much fun was had with seat prizes - some very generous - before the shows began. All 60 shortlisted movies were shown. After an interval the top ten were shown again. Finally prizes were awarded. At the show I met Diane Nenadic with whom I had been on the UNICA jury last year and was interviewed by a couple of journalists.

Then we went to a nightclub where an enormous hot and cold buffet was supplemented with free wines. Live music made conversation difficult but I treasure half an hour spent with the Jakupecs, two Croatian film makers. Zdravko had some German, Gordana had some English. Frank Dietrich and I muddled along in both languages … but we talked about the common problems and delights of making movies. A burly young man with his crew-cut shaved into intricate artistic patterns talked about trying to convey the world of the blind on video. It was a great crowd of interesting people. I gave up shouting over the music after 3am.

A volunteer fills delegate goody-bags.	Mile Beslic - festival founder.	Zjelko Balog announces the awards.

Day Three - Saturday

The festival seemed over ... but there was more to come. On Saturday we gathered outside the clubrooms and were taken to a vineyard. As we stepped off the buses we smelled roasting meat. Two hogs were barbecuing on spits. We were led into a large hall where an amazing meal was presented to us. It started with two soup dishes: one meat and one fish - not a choice, one of each. They were almost as thick as goulash. Salad and roast meat followed and sweet deserts. Meantime a live group played and sang folk songs from the area and the surrounding countries. Such groups are usually male, but this one was all schoolgirls from Pozega. They played several sets - always exciting and well sung. People joined in songs and there was dancing. Oh and wine. And spirits. The guys from "and" gave me a taste of a lovely brandy. They live on the border between Bosnia & Herzegovina - hence they explained, they come from "and".

In late afternoon we returned to town and I strolled round trying to sightsee and work off some of the lunch … in order to make room for the evening meal that really does close the festival. I climbed the hill in the centre of town and my trail down again went through the grounds of a café. A group waved me over. They were film enthusiasts from Zagreb who run a movie website and plan a festival of their own. I was interviewed and fed coffee while we chatted. Then we had the final meal, which took place in the courtyard of a restaurant. Many delegates brought gifts for the organisers and everyone was given a present to take home … local wine.

Day Four - Sunday

I was driven back to Zagreb and had, in theory a day to explore it before my flight home. In fact my excursions were limited … I had a lot of sleep to catch up on. But Zagreb is one of the great cities of Europe and even a couple of hours exploring is worthwhile.

The festival is a very happy, very sociable affair. Next year I hope that Jan and I can go to it and then take one of the cheap internal flights to the Dalmatian Coast afterwards to enjoy that aspect of Croatia too.

The Films

As for the movies … they were very good indeed. In the UK we are used to treating one-minute movies only as jokes. There were indeed a lot of jokes in the festival but there were also serious themed pieces. There were abstracts, animations and live action. Only two of them required a translation - my fellow jury members helped me there. But they were just two of the 60 on show. The rest were readily understood, with many in English or sporting English subtitles. Among the ones which specially took my fancy were:

	St. Valentine's Shoe - Borislav Vavrinka An excellent piece of animation with bugs taking the Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta roles in an over-the-top , lustful romantic meeting ... interrupted before they can really get together.		KRV (Blood) - by Petre Capovski & Mitze Capovski. This Macedonian film begins with three tough, knife-wielding men coming together, each with the tattoo of a different religion on his hand. Blood is shed but not as you might fear.
	The Shadow - Yang De Hua, Chem Yunn Ru, Wang Chia Wei, Lu Wen. One of several powerful public-service announcements made by Chinese clubs for local tv. Here the hands of fighting parents, shown in shadow, are grasped by the little girl until they cradle her. The message: domestic violence ruins children's lives.		Kad Policija Trenira 2 - Antonio Gabelic, Dinka Radonic, Martin Birac, Silvije Magdic This local comedy spoofs the Police Academy series and other movies while having its own good joke at the end.
	Physical Examination - Frank Dietrich and the Senftenberg Club Superb production value and a huge cast make this joke about the repetitious nature of a doctor's work into something very special. The story is not new but the presentation is so elaborate that the punch-line arrives before we anticipate it.		Unkempt - Marton Szirmai, Gabor Mihalyfi, Zsolt Bredar A boy offers bread to a tramp in the park. Only gradually do we learn he is the boy's father.
	Opasna Profesija - Goran Durdevic This was a local entry from Pozega, starring one of the organisers as a call-girl given an unusual job by the driver of the white van who stops beside her. It won the audience vote award.		I Fought The Law - Ivan Klepac, Monkia Gajic, Slave Lukarov. The story of a bungled robbery told entirely in flash cards and sound effects. An astonishingly effective little masterpiece.
	U Vinca (You Vincent) - Michaela Copikova A thoughtful, sometimes menacing look at Van Gogh through distorted and animated versions of his work.		The First Slovak Guy Who doesn't Run Only After Money - Jan Kuska, Jaroslav Chomo, Janka Kuskova A stunning snowy landscape, the ringing sound of metal, then comes an old man bowling an iron hoop ... simple and brilliant!
	Cut Along The Dotted Line, Please - by Kunyi Chen A deceptively simple line drawn animation from Singapore begins with a dotted line while a child's voice read the instructions, which are the film's title. A scalpel slices the line and worm-like things emerge. Only then do we pull back to see that the dotted line was round someone's wrist. The jury was haunted by that naive voice and the implication that a child's suicide might be the result of simply following instructions. It received the Grand Prix Award.		The Whistler - Layla Atkinson This charming UK animation is not for cat lovers! Suffice to say that the canary gains its freedom through ingenuity and invention.

For news of the Croatian Minute Movie Festival 2007 - click here.

- Dave Watterson

Photographs on this page by Dave Watterson, Jan Kuska and Frank Dietrich.

Page updated on 14 February 2008

Authors' views are not necessarily those of The Institute of Amateur Cinematographers

Free JavaScripts provided
by The JavaScript Source