OCCUPATION IN 26 PICTURES

Yugoslavia, 1978, 90 minutes, Colour.
Frano Lasic.
Directed by Lordan Zafranovic.

Occupation in 26 Pictures is in the vein of so many films remembering World War Two, Nazism, persecution, holocaust and atrocities. This Yugoslav film focuses on the free city of Dubrovnik and makes it a symbol of war and occupation. The structure of the film with its selection of incidents (the 26 pictures) is generally compelling though there are abrupt transitions from one section to another and many of the details of the pictures are not repeated. The direction is compelling but the screenplay is often flat and rhetorical, especially in its adulation of the State and the oncoming communist revolution. There are some scenes of particular atrocity which are not absolutely necessary for the film in such grotesque detail. On the other hand, one can't deny the truth of their historical happening. A frequently moving film, with many flaws.

1. A Yugoslav view of World War Two? The lived experience and memory? The importance of reliving the past in film?The purging of hurt? The memory of hatred? The jolting of conscience? The interpretation of the war and the occupation in the light of the subsequent communist revolution, the Tito period, almost 40 years of Yugoslav (Croatian and Serb) history?

2. The focus of the title and the screenplay on 26 pictures of the occupation? The audience response to each sequence? The audience having to do the linking by the response? The screenplay not doing the linking? The selection of aspects of war and occupation? The necessary incompleteness? The highlighting of points to be made? How well does this kind of screenplay work? The concentration of the audience's response?

3. The rhetorical and simplistic dialogue: the inserted speeches, Croatian and Serb history, the emergence of Yugoslavia, race difficulties and clashes, class difficulties, wealth and the workers, the community anti-fascist revolution? How persuasive the speeches - within the drama? In the light of Yugoslav history?

4. The impact of Dubrovnik itself? The visual impact: the sea, the buildings, homes, the factory? The recalling of its history? Its tradition of freedom? Its place in Croatian history? Anti-Serb? feeling? The Italians living in Croatia and their acceptance and non-acceptance? The influence of Germany and groups welcoming the Germans? The aristocracy and wealthy of the city, the workers? The alliance between rich and workers against occupation? The building up of a Resistance? The contrast with so many accommodating both Germans and Italians? The anti-Semitic attitudes in the city? The arrests, the violence, the torture? The emergence of Yugoslavia? The heroism of an older generation, the influence on the generation of resistance and communist revolution?

5. The focus on the three younger people and their history during the occupation? The three young men and their bonds, the atmosphere of the mediaeval carnival? Gaiety, sense of history? Propriety, the chasing of the prostitute? The Italians and Jews settled in Croatia? The atmosphere of Dubrovnik in the '30s? The three young men and their response to Anne? Their propriety in sending her home as they went merry-making? The detailed establishing of these characters? Their fate followed throughout the film? The highlighting of the change in each? Their response to the fascist occupation? To persecution? To the resistance? The torture, deaths? Anne and Toni and the ultimate tragedy? Nikko and Miho going off to the resistance?

6. Baldo and his representing the older generation, the aristocracy? His skills as a captain of a ship? Family bonds? The young man in the worker's family hostile towards him - and his later being one of the major persecutors and torturers? Baldo's hostility towards Germans and Italian fascists? His suspecting Toni? His consent to the wedding? The wedding celebrations? His wisdom in assessing the situation, his anti-fascist stances? His winning Nikko's loyalty? Alienating Anne and Toni? His ousting Toni? His presence at the meetings, his allowing the Resistance to meet in his home? The rhetorical speeches put in his mouth and the anticipation of the future Yugoslavia? His relationship with his wife, with his father? His walking his father and the arrest? The alleged confession? The hooded prisoners and the later story of his death? A hero of Yugoslavia? The change in attitudes of the aristocracy to support a more equal regime?

7. Nico and his place amongst the three young men, bright, wealthy? His attraction towards Mara - and his later joining the Resistance and working with her? His skill in fencing? His friendship with M1ho and Toni? His watching the occupation - with its comic touches? His going to the fascist social evening, watching the film about the occupation, his leaving? His turning Mussolini's picture upside down? The discussions with his father and his moving towards his father's point of view? Going to the meetings, walking in the city square? Watching the arrests - and the irony of Anne's wedding? The fencing demonstration before the occupying forces? Seeing Mihoexcluded from the fencing club? His response to his father's arrest and death? His staying in the home, Toni's arrival, their confrontation, playing the piano with its memories of happier days? His shooting Toni? His going off with Miho to the Resistance?

8. Miho and his place in the group, with the whore during the carnival, his place in the fencing school, his father and the management of the shop, his being excluded from the club, the confiscation of the goods in the shop, the arrest of his parents, his witness to the grotesque torture in the bus, his escape and return?

9. The impact of the arrests: the young man and Ton!, the older man in the bus, the types arrested - Croatians, Serbs, the Russian orthodox priest, the Jews? The detailed visualising of the atrocities - to what purpose? Revulsion? An overstatement of the case for an audience's emotional response?

10. Toni and his place in the group, his Italian family and his father's wearing the black shirt, feting the Italians, welcoming them into his home? His change towards the group, his becoming a fascist soldier, the arrest of Miho, Anne's leaving home and her pregnancy, the marriage? His arresting Baldo as revenge for being ousted? His taking over the house and confrontation with Nico, his being killed by Nico? Anne and her gentleness at the beginning, her looking out the window at the group at the beginning and the end? Pregnant? Refusing to listen to her father, leaving how, the loneliness of the marriage with its arrest and executions, the isolation of her return home?

11. The portrait of the town itself: the workers and their demonstrations, the forming of an Underground, Baldo and the representation of the aristocracy, the priest (and his greediness) and the Church? The authorities, especially the mayor, welcoming the Germans? The long sequence of the German occupation, the Italian march into the city - with its farcical overtones with people slipping? The significance of the brothel sequence? The Church and its support of the occupation? The Russian orthodox and his execution? So many adapting to the occupation? The implicit cruelty in people - the young man and his arresting people? The older man responsible for so much torture and death - and his later coming to the priest when there was an illness in the family? How valuable is this kind of glimpse into history? The Yugoslav perspective? History, interpretation. conscience?