Branko Belan’s Concert is a masterpiece with no predecessor and no
successor in Croatian cinema. Inspired by the highly stylised film romancing of
Citizen Kane, (with much help from the scriptwriter Vladan Desnica
and cameraman Oktavijan Miletić) Belan created Croatian film masterpiece of the
20th century. The storyline depicts the destiny of a piano and the
unappeasable yearning of a physically, emotionally, and socially handicapped
piano player who has spent her life trying to master the damn object. However, the heroine
(Emica) will not achieve her symbolic fulfilment, even the socialist revolution
will not help her. This cruel story about the impossibility to act is surrounded
by an avalanche of dramatic events coming from outside: the war and political
changes that attack the actual place of being – Croatia.



The obvious influence of Welles and the literary influence of Krleža resulted
in something unexpected: a film that greatly resembles the sensual luxury of
Douglas Sirk, although Bauer had not heard of him yet. If psychoanalytic and
culturological filmology in Croatia were any more dynamic, the study of this
film would give us much more insight, not just into the film in question, but
into the important national traumas imbedded in the subtext of this great work.