Branko Bauer

18.02.1921, Dubrovnik - 11.04.2002, Zagreb

 

Director
He started his film career in 1949 in Jadran film where he worked as production manager and director of Film News. After several short films and documentaries, he directed several children’s films (The Seagull, Millions on the Island). Don’t Look Back, My Son (Ne okreći se sine, 1956) is one of his best-known films. It shows his inclination towards individualization and psychological profiling of characters. His next films include a melodrama Only People, his crucial work done in Macedonia Three Girls Named Anna (Tri Ane, 1959), the social-love urban comedy Martin in the Clouds (Martin u oblacima, 1961), a popular comedy One too Many (Prekobrojna, 1962), and the pioneering film of the Yugoslav black wave Face to Face (Licem u lice, 1963).
He was the first Croatian author to use the poetics of the classic (American) narrative film systematically and competently. He was the notable founder of several film genres and won sixty awards over the course of his career. During the 1970s he shot a successful film series about children in war - Winter Vacation in Jakobsfeld and A Farm in Mali Rit, which achieved great success among the general audience. His last film in 1978 was Boško Buha. In 1985, s group of film writers, lead by Nenad Polimac, made a monography about this great Croatian author.

Filmography

- Boško Buha (1978)
- Samoupravljanje - nada (Self-management-Hope, 1978); documetary
- Salaš u malom ritu (A Farm in Mali Rit, 1976)
- \Salaš u malom ritu\ (1975); TV series
- Zimovanje u Jakobsfeldu (Winter Vacation in Jakobsfel, 1975)
- Četvrti suputnik (Fourth Companion, 1967)
- Doći i ostati (Arrive and Stay, 1965)
- Nikoletina Bursać (1964)
- Licem u lice (Face to Face, 1963)
- Prekobrojna (One too Many, 1962)
- Martin u oblacima (Martin in the Clouds, 1961)
- Tri Ane (Three Girls Named Anna, 1959)
- Samo ljudi (Only People, 1957)
- Doviđenja Krapino (Goodbye, Krapina, 1956); documentary
- Ne okreći se, sine (Don’t Look Back, My Son, 1956)
- Milijuni na otoku (Millions on the Island, 1955)
- Vesna (1955); documentary
- Prva revija domaćeg filma (First Revue of Domestic Film, 1954)
- San male balerine (Little Balerinna’s Dream, 1954)
- Naprijed (Advance, 1953)
- Dani slave (Glory Days, 1953)
- Sinji galeb (The Seagull, 1953)
- Zagorje slavi (Zagorje Celebrates, 1952)
- Uzbuna (Alert, 1951)
- Naša djeca (Our Children, 1950)


Films by this director

Don’t Look Back, My Son

(Croatia, 1956 | Mjesto prikazivanja filma: Kulturno informativni centar KIC (Preradovićeva ul. 5))

Directed by: Branko Bauer
PHOTOGRAPHY: Branko Blažina
Synopsis:

A partisan returns to town to find out what happened to his son, if he remembered him at all. He finds out that his son is in the boarding school learning to hate communists and partisans. He decides to take his son to the freed territory, but that is not an easy task…

b/w, 112'

The Seagull

(produkcija Jadran film, 1953)

Directed by: Branko Bauer
PHOTOGRAPHY: Nikola Tanhofer
Synopsis:

The setting is a small coastal town in 1920. Ivo's long-lost father has returned. He dies shortly after and leaves the boy a rundown boat Sinji galeb (The Seagull). The villagers, however, demand the boat in recompensation fir the father's fraud. Ivo decides to return the debt. With his two friends he sails out towards a nearby stone-pit. They get caught in a storm and end up on an uninhabited island where they discover a smugglers' hideout…

b/w, 88 min

Millions on the Island

(Croatia, 1955 | Mjesto prikazivanja filma: Kulturno informativni centar KIC (Preradovićeva ul. 5))

Directed by: Branko Bauer
PHOTOGRAPHY: Branko Blažina
Synopsis:

Three boys, brothers Mladen and Željko and their friend Ivica, win a million dinars at the sports lottery. The boys plan to spend the money on summer vacations and dream about buying a boat and becoming pirates. Scalpers Tigar and Yellow follow the boys from Zagreb to the seaside trying to steal their money…

b/w, 97'

Only People

(Yugoslavia: Croatia, 1957 | Mjesto prikazivanja filma: Kulturno informativni centar KIC (Preradovićeva ul. 5))

Directed by: Branko Bauer
PHOTOGRAPHY: Branko Blažina
Synopsis:

Predrag Bojanić, a war invalid who lost a leg is recovering in the hospital where he meets Ljubicu Romić, a girl who lost her eyesight. Ljubica awaits the operation after which she might regain her eyesight. Predrag and Ljubica fall in love. Inspite of her love, Predrag still feels uncomfortable sharing with her the truth about his handicap.

b/w, 101'

One Too Many

(1962)

Directed by: Branko Bauer
PHOTOGRAPHY: Branko Blažina
Synopsis:

Malena secretly follows her boyfriend, Mikajlo, who went to work in voluntary brigades. Malena arrives in his brigade where they accept her although they are full. Mikajlo, however, transfers to the student brigade where he starts courting Nada. Nada pays no attention to him, so he returns to his brigade. Now Malena has lost interest in him so he tries to prove himself to her and signs up for a course in tank driving.

35 mm, b/w, 94 min

Nikoletina Bursać

(1964)

Directed by: Branko Bauer
Synopsis:

The mother of war hero Nikoletina Bursać leads an imaginary conversation with her dead son's monument placed at the town square. We watch the story of Nikoleta's life: how he fought in the battlefield, how he joined the partisans with his neighbour Jovica Jež; the encounter with the Jewish girl Erna; his arguments and friendship with commander Pirgo and commesary Zlatko; his love affair with Girly; the breakthrough through the German lines with nurse Branka; the incident with Tanasi…...

b/w, 100 min

Winter Vacation in Jakobsfeld

(Yugoslavia, 1975 | Mjesto prikazivanja filma: Kulturno informativni centar KIC (Preradovićeva ul. 5))

Directed by: Branko Bauer
PHOTOGRAPHY: Branko Blažina
Synopsis:

A partisan unit decides to send home before the winter the boys who have joined them. Little Milan Maljević is returning to his mother in Moldovia accompanied by Raša, a boy from town. Raša gets sick on the way and they have to find refuge in a Banat village inhabited by ethnic Germans. Having hid Raša, Milan goes to the village and under a phoney name finds a job at the house of a rich landowner, Jakob Jerich.

color, 108'

A Farm in Mali Rit

(Yugoslavia, 1976 | Mjesto prikazivanja filma: Kulturno informativni centar KIC (Preradovićeva ul. 5))

Directed by: Branko Bauer
PHOTOGRAPHY: Branko Blažina
Synopsis:

The setting is a village, Mali Rit in Vojvodina, in the summer of 1944. Several German soldiers represent the new government, but the villagers pay little attention to them. Nevertheless, an incident occurs when Pera Maljević defends his younger brother from a German soldier who has accused him of stealing his fish. Shortly after, a German sergeant slaps little Vasa. For revenge, the boy and his friends set fire to German grain.

color, 126'

Three Girls Named Ana

(1959)

Directed by: Branko Bauer
PHOTOGRAPHY: Branko Blažina
Synopsis:

Marko Petrić finds out that there is a chance that his daughter Ana, who had disappeared in the war, has survived. He sets out to look for her, but it turns out that there are three girls who may be his daughter…

b/w, 97'

Naša djeca

(1950)

Directed by: Branko Bauer
Synopsis:

Uzbuna

(1951)

Directed by: Branko Bauer
Synopsis:

Martin u oblacima

(1961)

Directed by: Branko Bauer
PHOTOGRAPHY: Blažina Branko
Synopsis:

Mladi studentski par Martin i Zorica žive odvojeno kao podstanari i žele doći do vlastitog stana da bi mogli živjeti zajedno. Dok su mu gazde na putu, Martin da u podnajam stan u kojem živi Talijanu Carmineu i njegovoj kćerki šiparici, da bi zaradio neke novce. Preko strica dolazi do veze koja bi mu trebala omogućiti kupnju stana u novogradnji, nesvjestan da je ta 'veza' zapravo prevarant... Produkcija: Jadran film

b/w, 107'

Licem u lice

(Croatia, Yugoslavia, 1963)

Directed by: Branko Bauer
PHOTOGRAPHY: Blažina Branko
Synopsis:

Uoči projekcije u utorak, 14. prosinca u 18:30, uvodnu riječ održat će filmski kritičar Silvestar Mileta. U građevinskom poduzeću sazvan je partijski sastanak na kojem se treba raspraviti slučaj radnika Miluna koji je ustao protiv odluka direktora poduzeća Čumića, inače svog ratnog sudruga. U partijski komitet, na čijem je čelu novi sekretar Radovan koji je naslijedio donedavnog Iliju zbog njegove navodne bolesti, stiglo je i anonimno pismo u kojem se kritizira direkcija poduzeća...

b/w, 35mm, 80'
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