Even today legends are told about and nostalgia is evoked by the Film Author Studio among filmmakers of independent spirit



Better known in short as FAS, it was the first independent film production house before Croatia became an independent state, founded in 1967 within the Croatian Film Clubs (today’s Film Clubs’ Association), amid an enthusiasm that spread from Zagreb and Split film clubs. The clubs’ “alternatives” that were then called “amateurs” wanted to make new and different films but in better, more professional and free conditions, which were then offered by the founder and producer of FAS, Kruno Heidler. When in the first films the idea got more concrete – number one was the short documentary Ljudi (u prolazu) II by Lordan Zafranović - the low budget FAS became attractive to professionals for whom their mainstream cinema burdened by ideology and bureaucracy became too constricting, and they eventually joined the studio.

Unfortunately, the enthusiasm and professional conditions did not last long. FAS was closed down after six years (1973) leaving behind a list of about forty short and five feature films. Among them were some shorts or features, first or early professional films of Croatian and Slovenian authors (Franček, Grlić, Karpo Godina, Krelja, Kursar, Martinac, Mikuljan, Petek, Puhlovski, Radić, Ranfl, Tadić, Zafranović...), films by more experienced professionals (Hadžić, Majer, Relja, Sudović, Vunak...), as well as authors who later distanced themselves from production and devoted their careers to other fields, such as the film theoretician Peterlić and film historian and politician Škrabalo. Among other, FAS opened its doors to first Croatian female directors (Ljiljana Jojić and Milica Borojević), and welcomed some other more famous authors such as Bauer, Berković and Ivanda so that the studio managed to survive the politically and economically unlucky Croatian 1970s.

Luckily, we still have most of films that were made within FAS. The reels are being cleaned of the deepest signs of wear and tear so that new generations of domestic and foreign film lovers may enjoy them. Publishing of the DVD edition of Tomislav Radić’s Živa istina from 1972 and the first DVD compilation of short (experimental, documentary and feature) films, are a continuation of the mission to revive the most valuable of FAS’s holdings of “different” and “independent” film that started with the publishing of Peterlić’s feature film Slučajni život. This is also a good occasion to remember the films from a production house that has been a role model to generations of independent film producers. (Diana Nenadić)