Festival Scandal

Vinko Brešan (Vinko Bresan), the most successful and most popular of all Croatian filmmakers in recent years, created first major scandal at this year’s Pula Film Festival. Morning after the premiere of his latest film Svjedoci, press projection had to be cancelled due to bad sound. Brešan felt that after that press conference, scheduled after the projection, was pointless and cancelled it.

Conspiracy theorists could very easily claim that the failure of Festival’s sound system wasn’t accidental. Brešan’s film deals with the subject which used to be taboo in Croatia – Croatian atrocities against Serb civilians. The movie, based on the novel Ovce od gipsa by renowned Split film critic Jurica Pavičić (Jurica Pavicic), was shot on location in Karlovac, city that used to be on the frontline during the war. Shooting of the film was condemned by local HDZ assemblymen and Brešan and his crew received numerous death threats during production.