When an interested person start to read one of the few new books of the history of Yugoslav cinematography, he will immediately notice that the space dedicated to the cinematography between the two World Wars (1918-1941) is incredibly small and quite disproportional in relation to other periods. There are a lot of reasons for that but basically we can give the following:
- In the period 1918-1941 an especially in the firs decade of it's existence (1918-1929) in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia there was no continual film production especially almost no feature film production.
- The number of produced feature films in that period was around a dozen.
- The quality of those films was on really low quality and esthetical level.
- Most of the prints of those movies due to various circumstances today doesn't exist anymore, and those films are classified as lost.
The terrible and bloody war (WW I 1914-1918), was ended and the newborn state (Kingdom of Serbians, Croats and Slovenians) and its government were in a very slow process of formation continually threatened by separatist movements. The Serbian economy, almost completely destroyed, was raising very slowly without any chance for a fast and successful recovery. The film production of the Kingdom of Serbians, Croats and Slovenians during the 20's was followed by numerous problems the biggest of course was poverty. The State Government was responsible for the cultural policy however there was no enough money for the development of the cinematography. The failure of few educational films produced by the State laboratory for film production under the supervision of the Ministry of public health in the beggining of the 20's as well as the unfortunate end of shooting of the first national feature film Kačaci na Topčideru in the 1924, lead to the position where the State refused to give any help in the process of the popularization and spreading of the new cinematographically art. That's how in the first decade of common living of close south Slovene people; ended politically with the assassination of a Croatian deputy in the Parliament in 1928 and the introduction of dictatorship by King Aleksandar I; where produced barely 10 feature films.
One of the most important and one of the few left films from that period was Rudareva sreća (The Miners Luck) from 1929, directed by the prominent pioneer of Yugoslav cinematography Josip Novak. Till the 60's it was considered that the prints of this film where lost, however after a detailed research in the Yugoslav Film Archive most of the parts of this film were found. The reconstruction and preservation of this film started in the 1992 and was successfully ended less than two years ago, this reconstruction represents the first preservation work of the Yugoslav Film Archive, after the 10 year break due to the war and the end of former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavija (SFRJ), the UN embargo against FR Yugoslavia and the extremely difficult position of our Archive in that period. The realization of the preservation was carried on by a team of experts under the leadership of the now former Head of archive of Kinoteka Mr. Stevan Jovičić, who did the research and identification of the materials, the editing was done by Ph.D. Marko Babac, the editing of the sound by Svetislav Ristić while Mr. Vartkes Baronijan selected the music. The new version is 51 minutes long and was made on the base of the original nitrate print, however it is shorter for about 10 minutes than the original 1929 version.
About the author
Josip Novak (February, 23rd 1902, Slavonski Brod – May, 22nd 1970, Beograd), is of the most important pioneers of the Yugoslav cinematography. He was a mechanic, but as very young he got interested in cinematography and as a member of the Film Club he took part in the shooting of the unfinished film "Kačaci na Topčideru" in 1924 which was directed by Boško Tokin and Dragan Aleksić. After this episode he finished a film school by Bavaria Film and in 1926 he and his friend Milan Hofman established the company "Pobeda film" ("Victory Film"). According to some sorts they produced around 15 short feature-commercial films by the beginning of the 30's. The most popular and well known was Sve radi osmeha (Everything For A Smile) from 1926, a commercial for the toothpaste "Kusaković". His gift for editing is best showed in the film Balkanski rat (1928) where he edited several war materials filmed by one of the first Serbian film producers Djordje-Djoka Bogdanović from 1912-1913 in a great film. At the beginning of the 30's thanks to the Head of the State Press office a cooperative named "Jugoslovenski prosvetni film" (Yugoslav Educational Film) was formed. In the following five year period more than 40 documentary, propaganda and commercial films were produced with the financial help of the State. Working as a producer, screenwriter, director, director of photography and supervisor Josip Novak emerged as the most significant author in this powerful film production company. In the 1932 with his film Simfonija vode (The Symphony of the Water) he brings to Yugoslavia the first international film award, the award for poetical photography of the Berlin Festival. After the assassination of King Aleksandar the 1st the film industry suffered a big decline after which Novak with the director of photography Stevan Misković moved to Bulgaria, there he shoot his first sound film Pesma Blakana. (Pesenta na Balkan/The Song Of The Balcan"), where he will stay for the next 15 years. In Bulgaria he establish his own film company and film laboratory and in 1939 he direct the film Strahil vojvoda (Strahil Voevoda), according to a lot of people the best Bulgarian feature film before WW II. After the war he become the Head technician of the Bulgarian cinematography, but in 1948 after refusing to sign the resolution of the Inform biro he went to jail for the next 4 years. Released in 1952 with seriously damaged health he returned to Yugoslavia where he worked until his death as cameraman and director of photography in documentary and feature films. His best works were the Krv slobode (Blood Of Freedom) from 1955 and Fabrike radnicima (Factory To The Workers) from 1958 both directed by ®ika Eukulić where he worked as cameraman. In the same period he works as director of photography on 4 feature films, most successfully in Zenica (1957) of Jovan Ivanovic and Miloš Stefanovic. However his most important film remains the Rudareva sreca or Blago cara Radovana (Miners Luck or The Treasure Of Emperor Radovan) from 1929 in which he succeeded to successfully combine three extremely different stories: a naturalistic story of miners life, a love triangle with happy end and the commercial propaganda for the new Jerma mine.
About the film
Josip Novak, a young Belgrade film maker in the mid 20's got the original idea how to start his own film production. In the Yugoslavia of that period there were a certain number of rich people that wanted to immortalize their business successes through the new form of art – the cinematography. Combining with lot fantasy sentimental and love topics, modern at that time with commercial propaganda materials about the owners of the big companies and their products and very beautiful landscapes by which Yugoslavia was always famous, the young director managed to produce interesting and unusual films. Films that are even more interesting today to film historians and fans than at the time when they were made. The film Rudareva sreca is the typical representative of that kind of films but this film was also remembered beside its obvious qualities for an unusual curiosity. The two principal role actors (both amateurs) Čedomir Penčic and Ljubica Jovanovic secretly foiled in love and escaped before the end of the shootings. That's the reason why Josip Novak had to finish the film using materials from the casting and trial shooting. We have to pay special attention on the extraordinary photography by Josip Novak who was also the director, the editor, the art director and the screenwriter (together with Milan Hofman). Extremely interesting are the frames shot from the moving train, shouted in a very advanced way in compare to the rest of Yugoslav film production of that time. In this film are showed landscapes of unique beauty as Zvonacko ®drelo, Odorovaeka Klisura, Vlaška Klisura, as well as the ancient monastery of Sv. Jovana (St. John) and its surroundings. In order to satisfy the order of the film the Eskontna banka from Belgrade which was the owner of the Jeram mine, Josip Novak shot some materials on the celebration party of the first "birthday" of the mine, with the traditional dance kolo, the colorful traditional costumes and the participation of the Governor of the National Bank, Mr. Ignjat Bajloni. Working in very hard conditions, almost amateurishly, Josip Novak in the Rudarevoj sreci achieved the most important thing in all the documentary films and that's the truthful representation of the time in which the film was shot and as I have said once "that's the value which will never become obsolete".
Aleksandar Erdeljanovic: Head of Archive.
Manager of the Film Library of the Yugoslav Film Archives since 2001. Born in Zemun on January 20th 1963. Degree of Political Faculty at the Belgrade University. Author of numerous articles on film published in daily papers and specialized periodicals. Winner of the quiz show "100 Years of Film" in 1995. Speaks English.
