Yugoslavian films on DVD

[djvaso]

Das Lied der Schwarzen Berge (Fantom Durmitora) (1933), the very first survived feature film shot on locations in Montenegro will be released on DVD. The project is a joint effort of Montenegrin Cinematheque and Cultural and Informative Center of Zagreb - Croatia with the participation of Bundesarchiv and Montenegrin Film center. I hope that the release will be commercially available and on pressed disc unlike Non v'è resurrezione senza morte (Voskrsenja ne biva bez smrti) (1922) release which is not.

They will publish a book of the same name and the DVD soon.

[thirtyframesasecond]

Thanks for the recommendations of vendors of Yugoslavian films. Is there generally good availability of films from the Black Wave period? Makavejev (I'd love to find a copy of Manifesto), Petrovic, Pavlovic, Zafranovic etc

[djvaso]

After long hiatus, Slovenian Film center has released no less than three Blu-rays in Si-Fi Klasika edition:

[Calvin]

Has anyone got any thoughts on Farewell Until the Next War? I thought that Pavlovic's Zaseda was a highlight of Il Cinema Ritrovato last Summer so I'm very interested in seeing more of his films. Does this release have English subtitles?

[vertovfan]

I received the Slovenian blu-rays today and re-watched "Farewell until the Next War" (I'd seen it quite a few years ago on DVD, but didn't remember much about it). Like many of Pavlović's other films, it's dark and pessimistic but also quite good. Per the back cover:

"[...] by far the most ambitious, honest, bitter, and controversial Partisan film produced in the country that was about the collapse in flames and genocide only a decade later. Based on an equally uncompromising novel by Vitomil Zupan, the enfant terrible of Yugoslav literature, Farewell until the Next War continues the comprehensive deconstruction and demythologization of the official narrative of Partisan heroism, initiated by Pavlović three years earlier with Manhunt." Jurij Meden, in: Retrospective o partigiano! Pan-European Partisan Film, Austrian Film Museum & Viennale, 2019.

And from the inner liner notes:

With its critical and direct message about the senselessness of war, Farewell until the Next War - a film of lavish production, long takes, close-ups, and details that possess symbolic value - focuses on a chance encounter between a former Partisan and a German soldier, which triggers a series of flashbacks to the time of not only the struggle against the occupiers but also the fratricidal war. The more liberal critics labelled this anti-war drama as the end of Partisan film, while the official reviews were extremely harsh. Today, the work ranks among the most remarkable achievements of Slovenian cinema.

There are English, Croatian and Slovenian subtitles for the feature, but none for the extras (a short film about the restoration, and a documentary film about author Vitomil Zupan). The cover and interior notes are written in both Slovenian and English.

Sreča na vrvici (Hang on Doggy!) has English and Croatian subtitles, while Po isti poti se ne vračaj (Don't Come Back by the Same Way) has English, Croatian, Italian, German, Hungarian, French and Portuguese subtitles.

[djvaso]

Thanks to Vertovfan, I found out about the latest Blu-ray disc of the Cinematheque of North Macedonia "Five Macedonian Enthographic Films" and after a somewhat complicated procedure I bought it.