每当我们离别时

Lukas Nola (1964 - ) has interdisciplinary interests and therefore holds a special position among his generation. He is an offspring of the family of reputable pioneers of Zagreb Television (his father, Ante, was a leading scenographer, and his mother, Nena, a legendary secretary of a director - a position which these days could be called assistant director). Nola was a student at the Academy of Arts, he graduated from the APA, was a rock musician (he founded, played guitar and sang in the rock-group Fuj tajfel), skilfully writes texts for his theatre pieces ("Nocni let" [Night flight] in the Theatre & td, for example) and also the screenplays for his films. He became famous through his first medium-length film, Dok nitko ne gleda (While No One is Watching, 1993). He did not wait around for the state money and optimal conditions for his first feature film but was satisfied with the modest possibilities of television production, obviously aware that motion pictures have their aesthetics regardless of the technology and that they reach a wider audience if broadcast on television. 　　Hence, he made Svaki put kad se rastajemo (Each Time We Part Away, 1994) on 16mm film, originally designed only for TV, and only later transposed it to 35mm tape. The film received awards from several Golden Arenas and Oktavijans. Using his experience as a military policeman, who was on duty on the streets of Zagreb in the time of air alerts, Nola created impressive small records of the destiny of a father-soldier (played by the director's brother, Filip Nola). The father arrives in Zagreb to seek refuge for his daughter (Iva Zivkovic), after his wife is slaughtered and his house burned in a Slavonian village. Strongly focusing the story on the vagrancy of these two refugees, Nola complements it with a credible atmosphere of Zagreb at war, and also makes an effort of linking these elements to several memorable and specific characters, far removed from any stereotypes. An image of the war without pity is interlaced with humorous and bizarre situations without devaluating the respect toward the fate of war victims. These features were an indication of the novelties that Lukas Nola and other members of his generation were introducing into Croatian film.