Restart is both a producer of documentary, hybrid and experimental films and also the sole specialized distributor of documentaries in Croatia. Their vast catalogue includes countless politically-engaged titles from unique artistic voices across the Balkans. Cinema Politica is proud to present a selection of Restart’s films, with thirteen essential works spanning from satires on electoral politics (Vedran Senjanović and Dejan Oblak’s UNITED FRONT OF OPPORTUNISTS) to invigorating protest docs (Igor Bezinovíc’s THE BLOCKADE) to poetic meditations on lost local cinemas (Ivan Ramljak’s ISLANDS OF FORGOTTEN CINEMAS).
United Front of Opportunists
UNITED FRONT OF OPPORTUNISTS follows the candidacy of the eponymous political party in Croatian parliamentary elections. It is represented by students of political science, whose main political goal was a parody of the entire democratic election process present in Croatia today. The documentary follows 14 candidates and the way they manage themselves on the political field. Hilarious experiment with even more hilarious consequences.
The Blockade
BLOKADA is a unique view from within on the most massive, longest, and politically most significant student protest in the country, since 1971, that started in April of 2009 at the Faculty of humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. The struggle against the commercialization of education and the blockade of teaching classes lasted for 34 days. The rebellion spread onto more than 20 faculties across the country and the students became an active and relevant political subject. The director followed everything: from the exhilarating preparation meetings and blocking of classes to the first signs of exhaustion, through personal situations and discussions late at night, from the initial support of most faculty members to the moment they turned their back to the movement and the attempt to reach the missing minister of education. This film shows that the blockade was not just physical and that it has a much broader meaning.
Islands of Forgotten Cinemas
A poetic documentary about the lost film culture in small villages on Croatian islands, during the second half of the last century. Six witnesses of the time are remembering their favorite films and events related to their viewing and screening experiences, which marked their lives.
