The Birch Tree

Breza

Yugoslavia

1967

92 Min

Color

Serbo-Croatian

Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
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SCR Ante Babaja, Slavko Kolar, Božidar Violić

CAST Manca Košir, Velimir Bata Živojinović, Fabijan Šovagović, Nela Eržišnik, Stane Sever.

A classic of Croatian cinema and director Ante Babaja’s most important film, THE BIRCH TREE is inspired by a folk painting which recounts the tragic death of a beautiful but frail peasant girl, Janica (Manca Košir), who is metaphorically linked to the slender and vulnerable birch tree.

Using the unsparing naturalist approach, garnished with grotesque ideas, modernist narration broken into pieces and the anthological “existentialist” countdown “… jedna pura, dva pandura, svakom dojde smrtna vura”, Babaja made this highly suggestive film about the misery of human existence and the unusual vulnerability of those individuals who stand out from the tyrannical and mediocre masses. Brilliant and beautiful lensing by Tomislav Pinter, one of the most renowned Croatian cameramen. A portrait of the peasant life laced with tragedy, humor and sentiment.

Director

Ante Babaja

Ante Babaja (6 October 1927 – 14 January 2010) 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. He started working in filmmaking in 1949, and his first job was as assistant director to Krešimir Golik on the making of Golik’s 1950 feature film Blue 9 (Plavi 9). Babaja’s directorial debut was the 1955 documentary short Jedan dan u Rijeci. He went on to film several short films before directing is first feature film The King’s New Clothes (Carevo novo ruho) in 1961, a screen adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s short tale.

In the mid 1960s Babaja made several experimental documentary films, before filming The Birch Tree (Breza, 1967), his most well known film which is today regaded as one of the classic films of Croatian cinema. In the following decades Babaja turned to directing documentary films and only made a handful of feature films. Nevertheless… read more

Ante Babaja (6 October 1927 – 14 January 2010) 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. He started working in filmmaking in 1949, and his first job was as assistant director to Krešimir Golik on the making of Golik’s 1950 feature film Blue 9 (Plavi 9). Babaja’s directorial debut was the 1955 documentary short Jedan dan u Rijeci. He went on to film several short films before directing is first feature film The King’s New Clothes (Carevo novo ruho) in 1961, a screen adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s short tale.

In the mid 1960s Babaja made several experimental documentary films, before filming The Birch Tree (Breza, 1967), his most well known film which is today regaded as one of the classic films of Croatian cinema. In the following decades Babaja turned to directing documentary films and only made a handful of feature films. Nevertheless, films such as Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh (Mirisi, zlato i tamjan, 1971) and Lost Homeland (Izgubljeni zavičaj, 1980) were also met with considerable critical acclaim.

He was also a longtime professor as the Zagreb Academy of Drama Arts and in 1988 he was awarded the Vladimir Nazor Award for Life Achievement. ~~———~~ wikipedia

Ante Babaja is an author of a diversified, but integral and consistent world which has two fundamental emanations — one that is stylized and playful/satirical and one that is realistic/naturalistic/documentary. A (critical) interest in human nature and social surrounding in addition to the questioning and investigation of the formal possibilities of film is the bond that connects them. Babaja’s representative character (lonely, introverted) is a sensitive individual, unhappy on the one hand due to the inherent uneasiness of his being, and on the other hand, under the influence of the dominant mediocrity of his surroundings (including political persecution).

Ante Babaja has made an indelible mark in three film forms — feature, documentary and experimental, and, at the very least, his three films Body, Birch Tree and Lost Homeland, are anthological achievements in Croatian cinema which have also earned him a special place in the realm of European and world cinema. Even though the public in general, and the majority of critics attribute his undeniable status as a classic of Croatian film solely to his film Birch Tree, it should be emphasized that within the framework of Croatian cinema, Babaja’s entire feature length opus is exceptional (The Emperor’s New Clothes and Smells, Gold and Thyme). It would also be difficult to find something to equal his short length opus (with the peak of excellence achieved in Elbow, Justice, Jury, and Love), and his Can You Hear Me? together with Can You Hear Me Know?, undoubtedly belong in the highest category of documentary film works, while his Body is an immeasurable contribution to experimental film which, at the time, had world wide relevance. In short, Ante Babaja is one of the most intriguing and most creative personalities in Croatian film. —Damir Radić

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