Il était une fois en Yougoslavie

Disappointed to many scratchy clips of war films that all look like Where Eagles Dare, didn't Yugoslavia produce anything artistic and sensitive if so you'd have no idear watching this. The best parts were about the loyal projectionist obviously he with the most talent.

Thanks to my beautiful girlfriend I found myself at The Magnificent Seven documentary film festival earlier this year in Belgrade. Cinema Komunisto was shown that night, which is a very strong documentary depicting Yugoslavian cinematography 1946-1991. Film contains numerous original footage, such as parts of interviews with Alfred Hitchcock (filmed in Belgrade in 1962), Orson Welles, Jul Briner etc. The thing I liked the most regarding this documentary is its narrative style and attention to the details. I was very pleased that many TV journalists were present, so that they can learn about making great documentaries such as Cinema Komunisto. Final note: If you're unfamiliar with Yugoslavia, the life of Tito, Yugoslav marshall, or the Balkans 1945-1991 maybe you will find this film not so interesting.

Just to shed some light what this documentary is, and what it is not. This is a documentary about one of the studios in ex-Yugoslavia, "Avala" Film, Belgrade, Serbia. Mostly about production of partisan movies and President Tito's affinity to those movies and cinematography in general. Documentary material in this movie has been recycled from dozens of other documentaries seen many times on ex-Yugoslavian TV stations. For me, watching this was a waste of time because there was no new documentary material presented, but I have no doubt that foreign viewers could find it interesting.

So, this is not a documentary about Yugoslavian cinematography, like some people are trying to present.

Each republic in ex-Yugoslavia (6 of them) had its own studios and movie production plus independent movie studios. More information about Yugoslavian cinema and studios can be found on wiki page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Yugoslav_films

Communist Yugoslavia was a unique country in the history of the world. While communism meant stagnation and poverty everywhere else, Yugoslavia split from Stalin in the early days after WWII and became the only progressive communist country ever. The country was built on a communist foundation, but because of the mentioned split, Yugoslavia made close ties with the West. That meant a lot of freedom for its citizens. People could travel freely around the world (with a very powerful passport, they didn't need visas for almost any country), the small private businesses were allowed which helped the economy to thrive, the middle class was well off, and people were watching Hollywood movies and listened to western music, which brought country culturally closer to the West than East.

Cinema Komunisto is a brilliant documentary that depicts the history of communist Yugoslavia through the lenses of its movie industry. Yugoslavia should be studied in the history books as a unique and complex experiment that was very successful for some time until it spectacularly failed. Both events, the rise and the fall, should be studied, as many conclusions can be made from both of them. Cinema Komunisto doesn't try to take a holistic approach but documents the rise and the fall from a unique perspective. Anyone interested in the history of Yugoslavia will enjoy this film as it provides another view of that country that can't be found in any other documentary.

I was born in SFRJ and it fell apart when I was still little. I am really proud and sad in same time on all the things that we had in that imperfect country. It is realistic story of that time with a lot significant names speaking about the way things in movie making was done in Yugoslavia. The director made a really good story and made us wonder what happened with all this? Thank you for reminding us on this part of history, because propaganda is making us believe that it was all nothing and what now is happening is progress. I am happy watching Bata Zivojinovic, a true legend of movie, Veljko Bulajic and all other people speaking about a great nation and great history.