Film ‘Freedom from Despair’ A Living Document of the Truth about Croatia
By Domogaj Margetic, Jounralist Indicted by the ICTY
Translated by Tereza Brkusic
In Croatia it is very seldom to be able to watch a documentary film substantiated by facts. Not in the case of the documentary film ‘Freedom from Despair,’ by Brenda Brkusic, an American director with Croatian roots. Her film was shown in Zagreb on Sunday November 12, in the Cinema Europa as a part of the Documentary film festival about Croatian emigrants, which that was organized by the Association of Croatian Emigrants.
Freedom from despair is a journalistic biography in which Brenda Brkusic shows the life of her father just after 2nd World War in the very beginning of communism and Tito’s dictatorship in ex Yugoslavia. But through Kruno Brkusic’s destiny, Freedom from Despair presents a film about the national destiny of Croats in ex Yugoslavia. Many families and individuals are able to identify with the destiny of the people in this film directed by Ms. Brkusic. I was sitting in the cinema and watching the film with a few political prisoners from ex Yugoslavia, and one of them was previously condemned to death numerous times but each time the verdict came up his death sentence was converted into a longer prison sentence instead. Those are the people who know best that Brenda Brkusic didn’t make up anything in this film, as they are the witnesses of that time, the victims of this inhuman and godless dictatorship which the film ‘The freedom from despair’ represents so well.
And really, in her film, Brenda Brkusic talks without compromising, without fear, without desire or intention to appease anyone or to agree upon a middle-ground truth. She brings out the truth about Croatia that many journalists are silent about. Brenda’s film certainly isn’t politically in fashion right now, but the truth rarely is. Freedom from Despair is a document of the time that many young people in Croatia know almost nothing about, for them that kind of the truth about Croatia doesn’t exist, that truth is constantly kept hidden by forces, under old dusty carpets in the political morgues of the past. Anyhow, the young American-Croatian director settles accounts with today’s hypocrisy, and shakes off the dust to reveal the truth about the communist dictatorship in Croatia, with reference to ex Yugoslavia. Through the stories of the people who were victims in the communist regime, the film reminds us about the things we kept inside but things we hoped to express about events from just about ten years ago, which today are forbidden due to conformity: there is just one truth, there is just one truth about Croatia! The truth doesn’t recognize any agreement or settlements. The truth doesn’t recognize convenient and inconvenient moments to talk about the truth. The truth doesn’t accept and doesn’t admit reasons for silence. The truth must be loud, the truth must be said. Brenda Brkusic’s movie, as a living document about Croatia, warns us about it. It is a document that is a living monument to the Croatian victims of communism and a warning to the generations to come, to those who didn’t grow up during those unhappy times when many Croatians were looking for a way to achieve their own ‘freedom from despair.’
‘There are no good or bad times. There are just good and bad people in time…’ said the assistant bishop Valentin Pozaic in his speech for the 10 year anniversary of the Church of the Holy Mother of the Freedom in Zagreb. At that moment, images from the film Freedom form despair dawned on me, images that clearly explained those bishop’s words. Images from a time of temptation, suffering, sacrifice. Images of the exodus of Croats from their homeland to the Diaspora and testimonies from good and bad people during that time might be remembered to some as decades of hate, but we might also remember them as decades of love for those who suffered and endured and sacrificed themselves for the Homeland. ‘Freedom from despair’ in one way is a memory of those Croatian martyrs and it pays homage to their sacrifices for Croatia. Because of this they are revered and our future generations can take part in that reverence.
Film ‘Izbavljenje iz ocaja” – A 3/4 ivi dokument istine o Hrvatskoj
PiA!e Domogaj Margetic, Hrvatski novinar i publicist / HaaA!ki optuA 3/4 enik
U Hrvatskoj rijetko moA 3/4 emo vidjeti dokumentarni film toliko potkrijepljen cinjenicama, kao A!to je to slucaj sa dokumentarnim filmom americke redateljice hrvatskoga porijekla Brende BrkuA!ic: ‘Izbavljenje iz ocaja” (‘Freedom from Despair”), koji je prikazan u Zagrebu, u subotu 12. studenog u Kinu Europa, u sklopu festivala dokumentarnog filma o hrvatskim iseljenicima, kojega je organizirala udruga Hrvatska dijaspora”.
‘Izbavljenje iz ocaja” biografski je film u kojemu Brenda BrkuA!ic dokumentarno prikazuje A 3/4 ivot svojega oca u bivA!oj Jugoslaviji neposredno nakon II. Svjetskog rata, u prvim godinama komunizma i Titove diktature. Medutim, kroz sudbinu Krune BrkuA!ica, ‘Izbavljenje iz ocaja” predstavlja film o nacionalnoj sudbini Hrvata u bivA!oj Jugoslaviji. Mnoge se obitelji i pojedinci mogu poistovjetiti sa sudbinom ljudi o kojima govori film redateljice BrkuA!ic. Sjedio sam u kinu i gledao film sa nekoliko dugogodiA!njih politickih zatvorenika u bivA!oj Jugoslaviji, od kojih je jedan i nekoliko puta osudivan na smrt, ali je stjecajem okolnosti preA 3/4 ivio, i njegova je presuda na smrt svaki put preinacena u dugogodiA!nju zatvorsku kaznu. Ti ljudi najbolje znaju da Brenda BrkuA!ic nije izmislila niA!ta u svojemu filmu, oni su svjedoci vremena, A 3/4 rtve jedne neljudske i bezboA 3/4 ne diktature o kojoj govori i film ‘Izbavljenje iz ocaja”.
I doista, Brenda BrkuA!ic u svojem filmu beskompromisno, bez straha, bez A 3/4 elje i namjere da bilo kome ugada ili se pogada oko istine, donosi istinu o Hrvatskoj o kojoj mnogi hrvatski novinari danas A!ute. Brendin film zasigurno danas i nije politicki najkorektniji, ali istina rijetko jest i moA 3/4 e biti politicki korektna. ,,Izbavljenje iz ocaja” dokument je vremena o kojemu mnogi mladi ljudi u Hrvatskoj ne znaju gotovo niA!ta, za njih ta istina o Hrvatskoj ne postoji, tu se istinu stalno nastoji sakriti pod praA!njave tepihe politickih hipoteka proA!losti. Pa ipak, mlada americka redateljica hrvatskoga porijekla obracunava se s licemjerjem danaA!njice i otresa praA!inu sa istine o komunistickoj diktaturi u Hrvatskoj, odnosno u bivA!oj Jugoslaviji. Kroz price o sudbinama ljudi koji su bili A 3/4 rtve komunistickog reA 3/4 ima film nas ponovno podsjeca na ono A!to smo prije samo desetak godina stalno govorili, a sada pomalo konformisticki zaboravljamo: postoji samo jedna istina, postoji samo jedna istina o Hrvatskoj! Istin ne poznaje dogovore, nagodbe, istina ne poznaje zgodne i nezgodne trenutke da se o njoj govori, istina ne poznaje i ne priznaje razloge za A!utnju. Ona mora biti glasna, istinu se mora govoriti. Film Brende BrkuA!ic nas na to opominje, kao A 3/4 ivi dokument istine o Hrvatskoj. Dokument koji sada predstavlja A 3/4 ivi spomenik hrvatskim A 3/4 rtvama komunizma i opomenu generacijama koje dolaze, a koje nisu A 3/4 ivjele i odrastale u to nesretno vrijeme kada su mnogi hrvatski ljudi traA 3/4 ili svoj put za ‘izbavljenje iz ocaja”.
‘Ne postoje dobra ili loA!a vremena. Postoje samo dobri ili pak loA!i ljudi u vremenu …”, rekao je ovih dana u svojoj propovijedi na desetogodiA!njicu Crkve Svete Mati Slobode u Zagrebu pomocni biskup zagrebacki Valentin Pozaic. Tada sam prede ocima imao slike iz filma ‘Izbavljenje iz ocaja”, slike koje jasno svjedoce te biskupove rijeci. Slike o jednom vremenu iskuA!enja, patnje, A 3/4 rtve, slike egzodusa Hrvata iz Domovine u dijasporu, svjedocanstvo o dobrim i loA!im ljudima u tom vremenu koje cemo pamtiti kao desetljeca mrA 3/4 nje, ali i desetljeca ljubavi onih koji su patili i trpili i A 3/4 rtvovali se za Domovinu. ‘Izbavljenje iz ocaja” na svoj je nacin spomen na te hrvatske mucenike i zahvala na njihovoj A 3/4 rtvi za Hrvatsku koju su sanjali, a naA!e generacije ju dosanjale.