Ante Babaja
Directing
Biography
Ante Babaja was a notable Croatian film director and screenwriter. Babaja finished high school in Zagreb before going on to enrol at the University of Zagreb where he studied law and economy.
Known For

A beautiful but ailing girl is married to a harsh man who doesn't care for her. Only after she dies does he realize that he actually loves her.
The Birch Tree

A tale of two brothers from babies to adulthood told without words. One brother is upstaged by the other from the crib onward. Eventually the tables are turned.
Elbow (As Such)

A man and a woman quarrel in the street. Others take sides, and a brawl begins. The police finally intervene and justice is carried out in a manner befitting this stylised, slap-stick satire. - MIFF
Justice

After writing a book about life after death, a cardiologist experiences a heart attack while jogging, exactly the same thing he wrote about in his book. After that, he meets beautiful and mysterious woman.
The Stone Gate

The funeral in his native village evokes the main character's reminiscences from the childhood, but the bygone time exist only in his memories.
Lost Homeland

In an island town, a professor pensioned before his time, together with his wife, takes care of the hundred year old Maddona Makantuna, a dispossessed land owner.
Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh

Not everyone sleeps at night in Zagreb. An exploration of various night-time jobs.
Not Everyone Sleeps at Night

The local postal service makes a mistake delivering a small figurative sculpture to a miller and a miller stone to a museum. The museum curator, not aware of the mistake, starts celebrating this abstract shape, influencing even the local artists to imitate that kind of shapes when portraying people.
A Misunderstanding

The adaptation of Hans Cristian Andersen's tale filmed on a white background. It is also the first Croatian movie in color.
The Emperor's New Clothes
An experimental film about children around a mirror that addresses important issues about small people in a complex world in a free and poetic form.
Mirror

A short documentary film that follows and describes the city of Rijeka through one day - its port, shipyard, fish market, streets, bridges, parks, houses and the old town of Trsat.
One Day in Rijeka

Short Croatian documentary by Ante Babaja that centers around the everyday lives of elderly Yugoslav women.
Old Women

Short Croatian documentary from the former Yugoslavia by Ante Babaja that captures the different faces in a waiting room.
Waiting Room
A tribute to the human body.
Body

With the film Good Morning Ante Babaja took one last look in the bloodthirsty jaws also known as Time – with eyes wide open. Until then he did not spare his characters death and transience, and when the time came he directed a childishly inquisitive view on his own inevitable ending. He did it with a small miniDV camera and in a matter of seconds turned from a professional filmmaker to an amateur who films not only when he can and when the conditions are favorable, but always and everywhere because he feels a need to express himself through film and think in terms of film. At the end of his five decades long career, Babaja had the modesty and the inspiration to start again. As an 80-year-old he made his first feature-length documentary film, using digital technology for the first time. Good Morning impressively and consistently rounds up the artistic and life trajectory of a great modernist and paints a unique authorial trace he left in the history of our cinema.
Good Morning

A study of activity surrounding a changing room by a place of swimming.
The Cabin

A meditative essay.