24th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
The Makavejev Case or Trial in a Movie Theater
director: Goran Radovanovic
original title: Slučaj Makavejev ili proces u bioskopskoj sali
country: Serbia
year: 2019
running time: 73 min.
synopsis
In 1971, the film WR: Mysteries of the Organism, an outstanding example of the Yugoslav Black Wave, was enthusiastically received at the Cannes Film Festival. Back home, however, this radical and ironic exploration of sexuality and communism was banned by the Yugoslav regime, and director Dušan Makavejev subsequently emigrated. The ban was decided during the film’s premiere screening, which turned into an unofficial trial. The Makavejev Case plays a newly discovered audio record of the debate in its entirety, accompanied by images of the incredulous faces of people listening to the audiotape recording: actors from Makavejev’s film, random passers-by on the street, and monkeys in a cage.
„Makavejev - is my favorite Serbian director. WR: Mysteries of the Organism became a symbol of Makavejev’s heritage: a film language as a play game and an everlasting experiment in in directing." G. Radovanovic
biography
Former film critic Goran Radovanović (1957) has since the 1980s focused primarily on short- and medium-length documentaries, including Casting (2003), in which he called attention to the difficult economic situation of people in eastern Europe; Pileci izbori (2005), a look at life in the Serbian countryside; and his portrait of contemporary Cuba titled With Fidel Whatever Happens (2011). He also directed the fiction film Enclave (2015).more about film
| director: | Goran Radovanovic |
| cast: | Svetozar Cvetkovic, Milena Dravic |
| producer: | Goran Radovanovic |
| script: | Boris Trbic, Goran Radovanovic |
| photography: | Dragan Djordjevic |
| editing: | Maja Kokic |
| music: | Ognjan Milosevic |
| sound: | Ognjan Milosevic |
other films in the section
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The Betrayed Square
MML collective
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section: Between the Seas
World Premiere
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section: Between the Seas
Czech Premiere
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section: Between the Seas
International Premiere
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section: Between the Seas
International Premiere
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section: Between the Seas
International Premiere
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Péter Forgács
Hungary / 2016 / 133 min.
section: Between the Seas
International Premiere
Slovak director Marek Kuboš has not shot a film in 13 years. His first film ever – a student exercise at film school – was a self-portrait. The circle is closed, the source of creativity has seemingly dried up. All that is left to do in the last self-portrait is to clean up after oneself, to recapitulate one’s successes and failures, and to bid farewell to one’s protagonists. This introspective meta-documentary is not so much a study of a creative crisis as it is a self-therapeutic process and an attempt at offering a comprehensive profile of the filmmaker at a time of unstable certainties. Appearing in the role of Kuboš’s consultants are essentially all leading Slovak documentary filmmakers."I’ve long felt that through documentary filmmaking I can’t say what I want to, what calls out to me. I’ve butted against internal and external boundaries that have paralyzed me as a documentarian. " M. Kuboš
The Last Self-portrait
Marek Kuboš
Slovakia / 2018 / 72 min.
section: Between the Seas
International Premiere
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Trapped By Law
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section: Between the Seas
World Premiere
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section: Between the Seas
World Premiere
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section: Between the Seas
Czech Premiere
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section: Between the Seas
World Premiere
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Depth Two
Ognjen Glavonić
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section: Between the Seas
Czech Premiere
