Political and Ideological Focus of Croatian Feature Films in the 1990s

Abstract

the country itself. During Croatia’s struggle for survival and against aggressors attacking its borders, the film industry also had to undergo its own rebirth. The Homeland War as an artistic theme, of course, could not be avoided. Therefore, it was exploited beyond measure by filmmakers for whom the themes of patriotism ––no matter how vain, uninspired, or manipulative––brought a certain social and/or financial satisfaction. Film and politics have always been connected in Croatian cinematography and used for direct manipulation. The frequent division of directors into suitable and unsuitable was also maintained by the newly enthroned regime, only according to other criteria. The paper provides an overview of glaring examples of the political and ideological focus of Croatian feature films from the beginning to the end of the 1990s, especially regarding their contextual, thematic, and stylistic features. It is shown that the response of Croatian film art from that period to the active aggression that suppressed fundamental human rights––the right to life, freedom, and security ––was also (passive) aggressive, in the form of discrimination, intolerance, and exclusivity, which resulted mainly in the low qualitative range of Croatian filmography in that period.

Keywords

• political suitability, manifest patriotism, political and propagandist approach to the theme of war, polarization of characters into good and evil