The connoisseurs of Yugoslav cinema from the 1950’s will agree that this program confirms Stojanović as one of its most original authors



In 2012, Tuškanac organised Days of Montenegrin film that included screenings of three interesting films made in the previous year. In the modest production of our neighbouring country, that was a record year that will not be matched easily. In the next edition of the Days of Montenegrin film only one new film was screened, together with two older titles, including the particularly interesting Lažni car (1955). This film was the first feature length in Montenegrin production and the debut of one of the most important Montenegrin directors Velimir Velja Stojanović (1921 - 1959), who directed fifteen acclaimed documentaries and four feature films during his only eight-years-long film career mainly within his native cinematography.

This time, the program of Montenegrin films is dedicated entirely to Stojanović and includes his feature films which, just as the previously screened Lažni car, he made in collaboration with the most important Montenegrin screenwriter Ratko Đurović (1914 -1998). The connoisseurs of Yugoslav cinema from the 1950’s will agree that this program confirms Stojanović as one of its most original authors. After Lažni car, the first historical film in the former state, Cursed Money (1956) for the first time introduced humorous elements in the portrayal of World War II through a story about a crate full of money of the refugee Yugoslav king that was left in a cave near Nikšić by the king’s entourage. Its accidental discovery sparks a series of incredible, often comic and grotesque events.

The grotesque elements are even more evident in Četiri kilometra na sat (1958), a story about a small train that runs in a circle. The film’s picturesque characters create an unusual and impressive portrayal of a society between the two wars, while the director uses a highly personal directorial style that partially abolishes the borders between subjective experience and so-called objective reality, thus announcing the changes soon to be brought by modernism.


In Mamula Camp (1959), that takes place during the World War II in an Italian camp on the island of Mamula by Herceg Novi, modernist expression is evident in the mixing of genres - action film and psychological drama. It is especially evident in the director's strong expressiveness that aims to integrate the entirety into a suggestive experience of the evil of war, felt by prisoners and their guards alike.

Without a doubt Velimir Velja Stojanović holds a special place at the top of Montenegrin cinema thanks to his efforts to find novelty in film expression and thematic advances he made from the dominant tendecies in Yugoslav cinema of the 1950’s. His films still manage to intrigue the audience and we can only regret that his life and career were so short, as his opus shows looming talent and skill which could have put him in an extremely important place in film history of this region.
(Tomislav Kurelec)