ISSN: 2560-1601 Vol. 21, No. 3 (HR) Sept 2019 Croatia social briefing: Ideological warfare in Croatian society: the unofficial political battle between General and The Diary of Diana B. over Croatian history Nikica Kolar 1052 Budapest Petőfi Sándor utca 11. +36 1 5858 690 Kiadó: Kína-KKE Intézet Nonprofit Kft. [email protected] Szerkesztésért felelős személy: Chen Xin Kiadásért felelős személy: Huang Ping china-cee.eu 2017/01 Ideological warfare in Croatian society: the unofficial political battle between General and The Diary of Diana B. over Croatian history Summary Two films this summer have raised public attention — General and The Diary of Diana B. Each of them presents one of the dramatic episodes in Croatian history, concretely, the War of Independence and the Croatian Nazism in WWII. Croatian society is deeply divided over the outcomes of these wars and therefore different actors in politics are trying to present and protect their view of history. The movie General, directly and highly financed and sponsored by the state, depicts the official and mythical narrative of Homeland War. The Diary of Diana B. presents the Croatian Nazi terror against non-Croat children in WWII. Both of them are emotionally intense movies, however, only one achieved success in the field of art and politics. The Diary of Diana B. received major film festival prizes and, in one instance, 8-minute applause from the audience. On the other side, General had received mostly very negative reviews. Again, Croatian ruling politics have severely intervened in film production and ruined a chance of finally creating an epic, high-quality and authentic movie about Homeland War. Introduction The summer before the presidential election was ideal time for waging propaganda wars in Croatian society. At the famous Pula Film Festival, two politically intense films raised attention like no other. The film General, depicting the life and war path of the widely popular war general Ante Gotovina, was highly funded by the state and enjoyed direct patronage from a leading political class. The intention of the film is to portray the official narrative of the Croatian war of Independence (the so-called Homeland War) through the idealized character of a war general in the form of a grand, national epic movie. Contrary to such film genre and intent, The Diary of Diana B. portrays the terror of Croatian Nazism during the regime of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) through the prism of the historical heroine Diana Budisavljević, who, in the midst of fascist terror and racial laws, rescued Serbian and other children from concentration camps. It is the unseen criticism of Croatian extreme nationalism on the film screen in recent years and has been perceived simultaneously by some circles of society as an attack on contemporary, ruling Croatian nationalism. The themes of both films 1 are very emotionally charged and seek to present real events in the horizon of their worldview. However, already by the reactions of the audience and the critics' assessments at the Pula Film Festival itself, it was clear who the absolute winner was and who was the absolute loser of this year's Croatian film production. The Diary of Diana B. won major awards for Best Director and for Best Festival Film, while the widely promoted and highly funded General won only a few minor awards (for Best Supporting Actress, Supporting Actress, and for Best Special Effects). What went wrong for the General? And why did The Diary achieve an eight-minute round of applause from the audience? The answer lies in the wrong and right relationship between politics and art. General: Aesthetically disastrous propaganda film that fills cinemas It's no secret that General has been in a very privileged position over other film productions. About 2, 5 million euros has been invested in the film, including the best Croatian cast. Marketing machine was at its peak and in line with dominant politics: all mainstream nationalist media promoted the arrival of a finally epic movie which pictures Homeland War. Even the President of the Republic of Croatia Kolinda Grabar Kitarović gave a speech before the film premiere in Pula, praising the production of the film, its depiction of war and national significance for Croatian identity. In that speech, which clearly exerted pressure on the jury, she particularly highlighted the film's director, Antun Vrdoljak, nicknaming him the "patriotic director". Vrdoljak is a very well-known state director who has been inclined towards all leading political parties and regimes. Nevertheless, Vrdoljak has directed excellent films throughout his career (for example, Glembays). However, General is not nearly a great moment of his career. Working on a political assignment, Vrdoljak voluntarily tried to do the impossible: he had to produce a grandiose movie spectacle from a TV series about the life of a well-known war general, which would be distributed to cinemas across the country intentionally at the August 5th — a national holiday victory in the war for independence of Croatia and victory for Croatian ethno-nationalism. The film is marked by amateur editing, cinematography mistakes, a black and white characterization of characters, a catastrophic scenario, and political mythomania. The latter was the only one successfully performed. The official Homeland War narrative is featured in the film in its entirety. Namely, that Croatia is exclusively the innocent victim and the moral winner of the war and that the Others, or more precisely, the Serbs are exclusively to blame for the outbreak of war. The righteous integrity of the Croatian side and the national hatred towards 2 the Serbs and all others who do not want an independent Croatian state are intertwined from the beginning to the end of the film. The film fulfilled the function of preserving and promoting the nation-building myth, but it has failed in its artistic dimension. Every day there were new reviews of the movie. The film criticism was almost unanimously judged as a pathetic, old- fashioned, boring kitsch that was not worth the money or time. On the other hand, the audience wholeheartedly embraced it and filled the cinema halls for weeks, almost surpassing the national viewership record. This reaction gap between film critics and the ordinary audience is only explained by the emotional connection of the audience with the direct and indirect experience of the Homeland War. The propaganda machinery for the General was delivered from the state at the level of the Third Reich’s support for the film Triumph of the Will. However, the General did not realize the artistic quality of the Triumph of Will. If it were, the movie theatres wouldn’t be almost empty after a month of screening and the national hysteria would have continued. The Diary of Diana B.: Croatian version of Schindler's List On the other side of the ideological spectrum of Croatian society, the film The Diary of Diana B. was produced, which won both audiences and critics. The film's production quality can be compared with the best contemporary genocide and WWII movies, and by content with the well-known film Schindler's List. It is also based on true story: the heroine which led the most massive humanitarian action in Europe during WWII. Diana Budisavljević, a humanitarian who rescued tens of thousands of Serb children from certain death in the concentration camps of Croatian Nazis, was not appreciated in socialist Yugoslavia because she was of Austrian and citizen origin and did not participate in the official national liberation struggle. Her anti-fascism was civil, humanitarian, their communist, revolutionary and that is why she has been marginalized to this day. In defiance of marginalization, the memory of Diana remained in the children she rescued and in the diary records she zealously kept, which helped director Dana Budisavljević faithfully reconstruct the fascist period in which Diana Budisavljević manifested her heroism. The film is primarily a critique of the NDH regime, led by Croatian Nazis (aka Ustashas), and aided by Croatian Catholic clergy. Croatian radical nationalism and Catholicism are two pillars of the modern identity of nationalist Croatia and the film The Diary demythologizes their role in World War II. The official truth today is that the Croatian people were victims of World War II and the Catholic Church is and ever was the most important moral guardian of Croatian national identity. The film shows through the 3 situations in which Diana Budisavljević found herself that this official thrust are myths that do not fit the historical reality at all. Unlike director of General, the film director of The Diary of Diana B. harnessed the great emotional potential of the historical experience by turning it into a masterpiece which the Croatian public will remember for a long time. The audience was delighted, giving the film a high average rating of 4.90, and critics unanimously confirmed it with the reviews mentioning the extraordinary artistic and moral quality of the film. Croatian film production, inheriting an unfortunate historical experience, created the Croatian version of Schindler's List. At a time when the film's national epic about a war general was supposed to secure the fervour of nationalism among the masses, the movie about the saviour of children from Croatian Nazism appeared and, therefore, ruined the attempt of the ruling class for post-war political profiteering. Conclusion Both films have raised publics’ attention, especially because of the informal electoral campaign for the up-coming presidential election. Each of them in their own way. General for openly defending the official narrative on the Homeland War and revision of history; The Diary for the open attack on the Nazi past (and, in so far, the present) of Croatian society.