Drežnica on Screen

We invite you to the premiere of the film “16.-23.2019. Drežnica” by Matija Kralj, produced as part of the research project “Heritage from Below. Drežnica: Traces and Memories 1941-1945”. It will be screened on May 21, 2021, 5 pm at Tuškanac Cinema. We will also screen the short 1963 documentary “Drežnica”, by Slavko Goldstein.

The movies will be followed by a discussion about the films, life in Drežnica from the researchers’ perspective, community engagement, and memorialization practices. The discussion will be moderated by Aneta Vladimirov, with the participation of Sanja Horvatinčić, Ivona Grgurinović, and Matija Kralj.

Due to restrictions, we kindly ask you to confirm your attendance to the following email: ivona.grgurinovic@gmail.com

Film program:

Drežnica, Slavko Goldstein, 1964., 14'42''
In 1964, Slavko Goidstein made a short documentary titled “Drežnica”, which was awarded at the 1964 Festival of Documentary Films in Belgrade. In this film, Goldstein returns to Drežnica where, being a Jew, he hid in 1942 with his mother and brother and joined the partisans as a 15-year old. The film includes conversations with the inhabitants of Drežnica and the surrounding villages. They discuss the hardships of everyday life at the time, the lack of jobs and depopulation, but also their pride in the region’s antifascist history.

16.–23.9.2019. Drežnica, Matija Kralj, 2020., 14’22’’
The film consists of fragments of an eight-day research stay in Drežnica, Croatia, in September 2019. The camera follows an international group of researchers seeking for World War II locations and narratives, intertwining memories of the historical conflict with images of contemporary life in Drežnica. The legacies of conflict and wartime solidarity resonate in today’s societies, as people on the move continue to experience violence in Croatia’s borderlands. The film outlines the complexity of microhistorical temporalities and the continuity of social injustices in marginalized communities at the EU borders.

“Heritage from Below. Drežnica: Traces and Memories 1941-1945” is an international research project focused on contemporary history and heritage of the Drežnica region, which is carried out at the Institute of Art History in Zagreb. More about the project here.

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Contact: Sanja Horvatinčić