Vladimir Pogačić
Directing
Biography
Vladimir Pogačić (23 September 1919 – 13 September 1999) was a Yugoslav film director. Before World War II, Pogačić studied art history at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. In the late 1940s he enrolled at the Belgrade Film School. Between 1945 and 1947 he worked as a screenwriter and director at Radio Zagreb (present-day Croatian Radio) and as a director at the Zagreb student theatre, where he directed a local production of Señora Carrar's Rifles in 1947, the first-ever work by Bertolt Brecht staged in Yugoslavia). Pogačić's filmmaking career began in 1949 with The Factory Story (Serbo-Croat: Priča o fabrici), after which he went on to become one of the most prolific Yugoslav film authors of the 1950s. He directed several landmark films of Yugoslav cinema: The Last Day (Poslednji dan, 1951), which is considered the first Yugoslav spy film; Legends of Anika (Anikina vremena, 1954), a film based on Ivo Andrić's story, which was the first Yugoslav film distributed in the United States, and Big and Small (Veliki i mali, 1956), which was the first Yugoslav feature film to win an international prize, as it won Pogačić the Best Director award at the 1957 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. In addition, his 1953 film Perfidy was screened at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival in the international competition program. From 1954 to 1981, Pogačić was the director of the Yugoslav Film Archive. He also served as president of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) and vice-president of the International Council for Film Television and Audiovisual Communication (IFTC), the film division of UNESCO, from 1972 to 1979. Pogačić later worked as a lecturer at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Drama Arts and was editor of the influential Yugoslav film magazine Film danas (English: Film Today).
Known For
Three stories set in Belgrade by night: A loving couple who alarms public uproar for kissing in the street, a lonely boxing handler whose help isn't really appreciated, and two young people who never manage to get to know each other due to dress code issues.
Saturday Night
The movie Karolina Rijecka is loosely based on the legendary story of young Karolina Belinic. When the English fleet began firing cannons on the Adriatic port of Rijeka, young Karolina boarded the ship of English Admiral John Leard and negotiated a cease-fire to save the town from destruction.
Caroline of Rijeka
A story about a young man tempted to kill his rival for a girl, only to find out that he may be his illegitimate son. The story is set in XIX century Dubrovnik.
Perfidy
Pro-Nazi police arrests an ordinary man from the street because he is a dead ringer for a legendary resistance leader.
The Man in the Photograph
A group of partisans fight to the last man to cover a retreat, leaving only five, who take the newborn child of a dead woman with them. Based on the novel by Mihajlo Ranovcevic.
Alone
Based on a story by Nobel Prize-winner Ivo Andrić. When a young man's affair with a married woman ends disastrously he spurns the girl he'd once loved. She reacts to his contempt by becoming the town harlot.
Legends of Anika
Shortly after country's liberation, one of few factories tries to enhance its production. A group of reactionary individuals fails to stop its work and building of new production units.
Story of a Factory
Under a police pursuit, Pavle tries to transfer a group of illegals on a free liberated territory. Pavle hopes to find a hideaway at an old friend Stevan, but these expectations fail. However, help unexpectedly comes from Stevan's little son Aca.
Big and Small
A group of former members of the Gestapo participates in espionage activities, helped by a group of locals, dissatisfied with the new authorities. However, members of the Yugoslav secret police, the infamous UDBA, are on their track. This is the first Yugoslavian spy film.
The Last Day
With a single, basic plot theme, this well-wrought drama of ultimate tragedy engages the viewer and gives pause for reflection. The tale focuses on the marriage of a man who is dominated and controlled by his own egoistic needs and illusions.
Heaven without Love
Three children, two brothers and their friend, win a lottery ticket at sports forecasting. Upon deciding not to tell their parents in order to buy a ship, two criminals find out about this and try to steal their money.