U oluji

Even on a global scale, it is very rare that the same author creates outstanding works in both feature and animated films. Along with Walerian Borowczyk, Vatroslav Mimica is perhaps one such famous case. Mimica studied at the University of Medicine in Zagreb, fought in WW II as a Partisan, and entered the world of film as a general, later becoming Creative Director of Jadran Film. He quickly devoted himself to film directing, having made his debut in 1952 with the criminal melodrama U oluji. After the black comedy Jubilej gospodina Ikla (1955), he became more interested in animated films. Together with Dusan Vukotic, Nikola Kostelac and Vlado Kristl, he became the key figure of the first generation of the Zagreb school of animated film, and his animated films Samac (1958), Inspektor se vratio kuci (1959) and Mala kronika (1962) represent an unavoidable point in any history of animated film. His exquisite modernist self-confidence and lucidity were demonstrated in the creation of his animated films. The theme of alienation in the dehumanized landscape of modern civilization was also characteristic of his later films in the second part of his feature films opus. The modernist trilogy Prometej s otoka Visevice (1964), Ponedjeljak ili utorak (1966) and Kaja, ubit cu te! (1967), bears testimony to his fascination with these themes. In his later films, among which Dogadlaj (1969), based on a short story by Chekhov, is the most intriguing, he gave up on the transparent poetics of modernism, finding himself more interested in the historical genre (Seljacka buna 1573, Banovic Strahinja). Vatroslav Mimica was the first consistent modernist of Croatian and Yugoslavian film, and one of those authors who brought to Croatian (and Yugoslavian at that time) film topics, film forms, and a creative ambition that were relevant throughout the world.