Name: Retro Film Review: How the War Began on My Island (Kako je počeo rat na mom otoku, 1996)
Item: How the War Started on My Island
Rating: 50
Author: @drax

(source: tmdb.org)

As I write this, Croatian director Vinko Brešan is just shooting Witnesses - very first Croatian film that deals with Croatian soldiers' atrocities against local Serb civilians during past decade's unpleasantness - the subject that was inconceivable in Croatian cinema only few years ago. This is not the first time Brešan broke some of Croatian film taboos connected to the events here known as "the Patriotic War". In 1996, only a year after fighting had stopped, he took the seemingly thankless task of portraying those events as a comedy in How the War Began on My Island.

The plot of the film takes place on the small Dalmatian island in September 1991. Few months ago Croatia has seceded from Yugoslav federation, but the garrisons, arms depots and other military installations remained in Federal hands. When local authorities demand the garrison to be surrendered, they expect this to be formality, because its commander, Major Aleksa Milosavljević (played by Ljubomir Kerekeš) had married a local girl. To their big surprise, Major not only refuses but actually barricades himself and the troops and threatens that he would blow up ammunition depot and half an island with it in case of any hostile action. What follows is tense stand-off in which local militia and inhabitants use various methods to persuade Major to change his mind. The matters are further complicated with an arrival of Blaž Gajski (played by Vlatko Dulić), art historian from Zagreb. Among Croatian conscripts trapped behind barracks walls is his son, and Gajski after a while devises risky and almost insane scheme to get him and his comrades out.

How the War Began on My Island represented something like a small miracle for Croatian cinema industry. In 1996, after many years in which Croatian cinemagoers (with good reasons) had avoided Croatian films like plague, it managed to beat Independence Day at the box-office. But even more significant were some somewhat unconventional elements in Vinko Brešan's portrayal of the most recent Croatian history. The plot was inspired by true events that took place around Šibenik, native region of Vinko Brešan's father Ivo, famous Croatian playwright and writer of the script for this film. Brešan Senior in his script used opportunity to show his skill by humoristic portraying of small-town communities, and in doing so he undermined some of ideological dogmas of Tuđman's Croatia. Until this film, Serbs were portrayed as nothing more than primitive drunkards, rapists and utter incompetents, while Croatians were portrayed as nothing short of noble, virtuous and heroic freedom fighters or tragic victims. In this film main Serb villain is actually very intelligent and competent, and protagonists must use all of their ingenuities to defeat him. Brešan also shows that things weren't always black-and-white - some of local militia leaders are reminded of their Communist and Federal military past; Aleksa, before taking the side of Croatia's enemies, used to be the most popular part of local community. The seemingly sacrosanct war is shown in its more absurd and surrealist aspects - locals try to take over military garrison by setting up 24 hours village show at its front gates and bombarding soldiers with speeches, poetry and all kinds of live music. Only at the end this surreal image takes darker overtones, which was probably Vinko Brešan's way to conform with the dogma and thus get his film financed by national authorities.

Of course, like in many other cases, time wasn't very kind towards How the War Began on My Island. In its days it was breakthrough film, giving some glimmer of hope for stagnating Croatian cinema (and the country in general; its premiere coincided with the first and last major demonstrations against Tuđman's regime). But from today's perspective, its humour is weak (with many jokes competely incomprehensible to viewers unfamiliar with Communism or complexities of former Yugoslavia and its violent break-up), and Brešan's directorial skills leave much to be desired. The main plot isn't even that original - Croatian director Antun Vrdoljak used somewhat similar WW2-era incident for his more serious 1979 film Povratak - and the acting is many instances so-so (hardly surprising, because most of Croatian actors employ acting style more suitable to stage than films). Yet, this film should nevertheless be praised because it served its historical purpose. We must hope that Brešan's filmmaking skills would improve when he makes his next landmark piece.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on February 14th 2003)