SERBIA/CROATIA: Once a prosperous Yugoslav-era studio, Serbia's iconic Avala Film is readied to be privatised, with film buffs fearing for its valuable film archive

Record ID: 839097

  • Title: SERBIA/CROATIA: Once a prosperous Yugoslav-era studio, Serbia's iconic Avala Film is readied to be privatised, with film buffs fearing for its valuable film archive
  • Date: 7th March 2013
  • Summary: BELGRADE, SERBIA (MARCH 2, 2013) (REUTERS) ENTRANCE GATE WITH SIGN READING: "AVALA FILM" DOG ON STREET IN FRONT OF GATE SIGN ABOVE GATE READING: "AVALA FILM" STORAGE ROOM WITH CARDBOARD BOXES CONTAINING FILM REELS CLOSE OF CARDBOARD BOX READING: "AVALA-FILM-GENEX-BEOGRAD" CLOSE OF CARDBOARD BOX READING: "KINEMA SARAJEVO" SHELVES WITH STACKS OF FILM REELS ZAGREB, CROATIA (MARCH 1, 2013) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) FILM DIRECTOR, VELJKO BULAJIC, SAYING: "Today, Avala Film and Jadran Film - as well as other film studios in the former Yugoslavia - are, in fact, cemeteries of films. Out of which, after so many years, through the efforts of filmmakers, especially the younger generations (of them), a new life is sprouting. That life is not like it once used to be, when all the countries - then (Yugoslav) republics - funded the film industry, as much was needed - and sometimes even too much."
  • Embargoed: 22nd March 2013 12:00
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  • Location: Croatia, Senegal
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  • Country: Senegal Croatia
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  • Reuters ID: LVAQY4IB7FIBZIRN4KOVG4DFZAF
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  • Story Text: On a forested hill above the Serbian capital, stray dogs nose through plywood film sets, the remnants of what was once one of the world's most prolific movie studios.
    Founded in the wake of World War Two by Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito, Avala Film fed his socialist federation on a diet of rousing war epics extolling a vision of 'Brotherhood and Unity' between its peoples.
    Richard Burton, Yul Brynner and Orson Welles brought the glamour of Hollywood, while Tito's army supplied the extras.
    But mirroring the fate of the country it once promoted, the long-since bankrupt studios such as Avala Film, now face being dismembered, picked apart and sold off to settle a debt.
    A similar fate has already befallen other Yugoslav-era studios like Zagreb's Jadran Film and Sarajevo's Bosna Film.

    "Today, Avala Film and Jadran Film - as well as other film studios in the former Yugoslavia - are, in fact, cemeteries of films. Out of which, after so many years, through the efforts of filmmakers, especially the younger generations (of them), a new life is sprouting. That life is not like it once used to be, when all the countries - then (Yugoslav) republics - funded the film industry, as much was needed - and sometimes even too much," film director Veljko Bulajic told Reuters.
    Bulajic had directed the best known and the most expensive Yugoslav-era war epic, the 1969 film Battle of Neretva, which starred a global cast including Yul Brynner, Orson Welles, Italian star Franco Nero and Russian actor Sergei Bondarchuk and even earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
    But the glory days were over by the 1990s, when Yugoslavia broke up and once prosperous state-funded studios were sold and went quickly downhill.

    "Privatisation was done, even today it is unclear under what circumstances at some studios, and with it, those companies effectively disappeared. Domestic film production disappeared. Avala Film is totally empty, it is not much better at Jadran Film either, Bosna Film was shut down completely," Bulajic said.
    The sell-off to settle a debt of 9 million euros ($11.72 million) could begin this month, with some 36 acres of prime real estate, film rights, costumes, props and studios potentially up for grabs.
    Now, filmmakers and cinema buffs in Serbia fear the loss of a national treasure, and with it a rich catalogue of hundreds of films spanning half a century.

    "I wish this country had a bit more interest and money so that this too would be taken care of properly. So that we don't get into a situation in which people from Avala and me, and other individuals from Kinoteka's archive, have to collect films (piece by piece), one reel here, another reel there...," said employee of Yugoslav Film Archive Kinoteka, Radojko Radetic.
    At Kinoteka, a threadbare staff is carrying out the painstaking work of repairing and archiving thousands of reels of film found in Avala's rotting premises.
    Critics say Serbia's murky record in privatising state assets, and its weak commitment to supporting culture, offer little hope Avala Film can be saved in one form or another.
    For almost two decades, through the bloody collapse of Yugoslavia in the nineties and Serbia's transition to democracy since 2000, the studios were left to rot, reels of film scattered on the floor of a leaking warehouse.
    Sub-tenants, including a car mechanic and an Italian TV production company, moved in.
    Cultural heritage in the former Yugoslavia, however, can be a prickly subject for governments, which often prefer to forget certain periods while lauding others. Tito's legacy is still fiercely disputed.
    In Serbia, culture struggles for the attention and resources of a state still emerging from the disastrous rule of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic until 2000, when war, guns and gangsters dominated society and independent thinkers were deemed subversive.
    Now gripped by recession and a jobless rate of 25 percent, the country trails most of its Eastern European peers in the money it sets aside to support cultural life - just 0.6 percent of the state budget.

    "In this country, the way culture is treated is disastrous. A record low percentage (of the state budget) is set aside for culture, I don't think there's a country that spends less. From the already slashed budget, nothing is spent on film, it is completely ignored, as if it does not exist. It really makes me sick when I see the Prime Minister mingling with film stars, repeating empty phrases about how important culture is, while heading a government that does not care one bit about culture," film director Goran Markovic said.
    Governments across the former Yugoslavia have struggled to come to terms with their turbulent joint past, brushing over some periods while lauding others.
    Tito remains loved by some, loathed by others.
    Avala's films embodied his rallying call of 'Brotherhood and Unity' between the peoples of Yugoslavia, who were then torn apart by nationalism a decade after his death in 1980.
    Kinoteka's director Radoslav Zelenovic expressed concern about the fate of film rights in the impending privatisation.

    "Somebody will buy rights for those films, they will come to Kinoteka archive like it is a warehouse, and will say (pointing their finger) 'from here to there I need (film) negatives, from here to here I need positives, I want to put out a DVD edition, or whatever, so I can recoup my investment'," said director of the Yugoslav Film Archive Kinoteka, Radoslav Zelenovic.
    With corruption blighting much of Serbia's post-Milosevic privatisation process, filmmakers fear Avala Film could suffer a similar fate to Belgrade Film, the state-run owner of 14 mainly pre-WWII cinemas in the capital.
    The much-loved cinemas were sold in 2007 for 9.2 million euros to a Serbian businessman who pledged to restore their Art Deco and Bauhaus glory, but have all been boarded up or taken over by squatters.

    "There's a huge amount of work ahead, if nobody takes care of that, then I'm afraid about the fate of Avala Film, what is happening to it right now is nothing compared to what it might happen to it in the future," Zelenovic said.
    Vladislav Cvetkovic, director of the Privatisation Agency currently assessing Avala's assets and readying their sale, defends the privatisation, saying the archive has been secured and is in the process of being catalogued for eventual sale, while the land will be at the state's disposal and not sold for commercial use.

    "Our task boils down to very simple maths - you've got this property that is worth something, you've got evident financial obligations. Once you pay the obligations and when creditors no longer have any interest in pursuing Avala Film, then this property belongs to the state," Vladislav Cvetkovic said.
    Once the debt is settled, Cvetkovic said, the government or the Serbian film industry is welcome to offer "a vision of how to restore Avala's shine."
    Serbian Culture Minister Bratislav Petkovic said this week that his ministry was "following closely, trying to help and give our opinion," but offered no solution.
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