A director who didn’t have any problems with the ruling regime, and who, in
the seventies, made the most subversive films in the history of Croatian film:
Lov na jelene (1972), a thriller about paranoia from “Ustasha” movement
and Novinar (1979), a drama about an idealist in Communist media.


If it weren’t for long directing breaks, the 81-years-old Fadil Hadzic would
stand out even more prominently as the most productive Croatian filmmaker. He
and Branko Bauer are the only ones in the history of Croatian cinematography who
each directed 14 films (a certain number of others in other republics of the
former Yugoslavia). And it seems that Hadzic came out as a winner, since he is
currently working on his 15th feature film.

Numerousness in art was never considered an advantage and therefore Hadzic’s
opus was often regarded as less valuable than his colleagues’, who chose their
films’ topics slower and more closely. And truly, some of Hadzic’s works are
scrambled-up wisecracks, that were sometimes scorned only by critics, and
sometimes also by the public. But, what remained from it is quite impressive,
for example his debut, Abeceda straha (1961.)! The realism and dynamics
of that war thriller left most of the film production of that time ashamed.
Maybe to the contemporary audience, the scenes in which Tatjana Beljakova and
Nada Kasapic dress and undress, look innocent, but in those days this every-day
eroticism was quite provocative and did not even exist up to that moment in
Croatian film.

With Abeceda straha Hadzic stepped onto the territory of classic
directing methods (at that time film modernism flourished in Europe), whose
dominant representative up to then was Bauer. Bauer’s big success with his film
Licem u lice (1963), made such an impression on Hadzic that he tried to
exceed him in two of his films: Službeni položaj (1964) and Protest
(1967). However, his questioning of the unexplored paths of the emerging “black
film” (in Druga strana medalje from 1965, shot in previously rarely used
locations in Rijeka) seems more interesting. Unlike Bauer, who during the
auteur movement in Yugoslavian cinematography found himself in a dead end
street, Hadzic instinctively found a way out through a despised kind of film:
Tri sata za ljubav (1968) and Divlji anđeli (1969) had the highest
ratings in Croatian theatres, and were the first among more solid ones.

It is a paradox, that a director who up to then had`nt had any problems with the
ruling regime (and was even considered to be the regime’s director), in the
seventies, made the most subversive films in the history of Croatian film:
Lov na jelene (1972), a thriller about paranoia of “Ustasha” movement and
Novinar (1979), a drama about an idealist in Communist media. Both of these
films were pulled from distribution and even discretely censored, after
successful premieres.

A resounding success of a short director’s retrospective on Croatian television
(only four films) is a good signal that Fadil Hadzic’s opus is ready to be
reappraised. Three film copies were restored: Abeceda straha, Druga
strana medalje and Protest, which only confirms that this program
should become an obligation for all film lovers. (Nenad Polimac)