FILMSKI CENTAR SARAJEVO AT THE 80TH VENICE FILM FESTIVAL

We are proud to announce that the film Slike iz života udarnika, directed by Bahrudin Bato Čengić was nominated for the Venice Classics section, for best restorations of film classics. The film had its world premiere in 1972 at the Venice Film Festival and this year it returns with the restored 4K version.

In 2022, the Association of European Cinematheques (ACE) launched the Joint Restoration Grant within it’s a Season of Classic Films programme thanks to additional funding of the European Commission aimed at supporting trans-national collaboration of the film institutions in the field of film preservation. The restoration was also supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.

The Film Center Sarajevo, the Slovenian Cinematheque, the Croatian State Archive – Croatian Cinematheque and the Austrian Film Museum prepared an application for restoration of Life of a Shock Force Worker, directed by Bahrudin Bato Čengić. The jury, comprised of filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa, Pordenone Silent Film Festival director Jay Weissberg and director of the Cinema-Fiction Department of ARTE Claudia Tronnier, selected the film from a raft of proposals submitted by European film archives.

The 35mm negative was scanned at L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna. The positive was possible to digitized at Film Center Sarajevo, thanks to the project “Preserving BiH Film Heritage For Future Generations” supported by the US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation.The picture and sound restoration was carried out at Teleking and 001 Studios in Ljubljana. The restoration was supervised by the film’s director of photography Karpo Aćimović Godina.

Thanks to the supervision and collaboration of the general manager Ines Tanović, the project was excellent. General manger Ines Tanović involved young people (Enea Ahmedhodžić, Ema Muftarević, Emina Šehić, Mia Frleta and Nedo Mahić) in this project, giving them the opportunity to work on a world masterpiece.

 

 

The film premiered at the Pula Film Festival in 1972 – out of competition – and was considered a representative of the film movement called “Black Wave“. The jury of the Pula Film Festival thought that the film did not properly present the topic of miners, also known as shock workers, and that there was a dramatic difference shown in the comparison of two different periods, the pre-war and the contemporary one. These scenes were censored from the new version that was screened in 1973 at the Bosnian Cultural Centre (then known as the Đuro Đaković Hall) in Sarajevo.

 

 

Slike iz života udarnika (1972)

 

Genre: drama

Duration: 78′

Year of Production: 1972

Production company: Studio film Sarajevo

Country of Production: Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia

Format: 35 mm

Technique: colour

Language: Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian

Titles: English

 

Description:

The film was inspired by the lives of coal miners who, due to their efforts in the first post-war years of socialist Yugoslavia, were glorified as shock workers and considered national heroes. The main character is a coal miner who, despite being glorified for his hardworking achievements and considered an exemplary socialist worker, lives a life that is anything but glitz and glamour.

 

 

Directed by: Bahrudin Bato Čengić (as Bata Čengić)

Screenplay by: Bahrudin Čengić, Branko Vučićević

Director of Photography: Karpo Aćimović Godina

Producer: Sejfudin Tanović Babo

Executive Producer: Vera Mihić-Jolić

Music: Bojan Adamič

Editors: as Manja Fuks, Olga Skrigin

Costume Design: Saša Jakovljević

Production Design by: Veselin Badrov

Set Designer: Milun Petrović

Makeup Artist: Šukrija Sarkić (as Šućo Sarkić)

Wardrobe: Tea Fikais

Props: Miroslav Radojčić

Executive Producer: Pero Burić

Special Effects by: Islam Ibracić

Art: Uzeir Guta

Unit Manager: Arslan Ekinović

Lighting: Ivan Marković, Radivoje Matejić, Tanasije Nastić

Location Managers: Muhamed Muharemagić, Sulejman Bosnić, Halil Avdibegović, Mik Roman, Hazir Šećirović

Locations: Breza Coal Mine, Breza, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Hrastnik, Trbovlje, Zagorje Coal Mines, Bled Lake, Slovenia

Opening Titles: Florijan Hajdu

Driver: Avdo Kilalić

Consultant: Alija Sirotanović

Archive Materials: Yugoslav Film Archive

Technical Services and Sound Processing: CFS Košutnjak

Laboratory Processing: CFS, Westrex Eastman Color

 

Cast:

Adem Čejvan, Stojan Aranđelović (as Stole Aranđelović), Zaim Muzaferija, Ilija Bašić, Mida Stevanović, Štefka Drolčeva, Helena Buljan, Dragomir Bojanić Gidra, Faruk Zadić, Ivica Kukić, Borislav Cvetković, Paško Duplančić, Andrej Nahtigal, Slobodan Velimirović, Antun Mosina, Ibro Karić, Petar Lupa, Marko Martinović, Želmira Zujović, Smilja Miljković, Vladimir Filipović, Ranko Gučevac, Ivica Hizar

 

Shock workers featured in the film: Alija Sirotanović, Risto Mijatović, Edhem Škorić, Abdurahman Babajić, Džemal Ramović, Alojz Petek.

 

The miners of the Zenica, Kakanj, Tuzla and Zagorje mines participated in the film.