FROM THE ARCHIVE: The Eternal Return of the Same

The selection begins with King’s Barber (1971), which may appear to be a satire on the immensity and obstinacy of individual obsessions, but human nature reveals itself in a desire or belief in something higher and greater than reality, which is represented in this film by loss. However, sometimes wishes do come true, and the boy in the saving scheme advertisement Another day, Another Coin (1957) uses his savings to buy a bike. To highlight the major advertised idea, the film employs the desire to better one’s financial or social status, as well as the drive to attain goals—something modern advertisements strive for as well, but have substituted advice on saving money with adverts for loans. Curls (1971) features the then-new trends in long hairstyles for men. The film’s cyclicality may be seen not only in the emergence of new trends, but also in the conservative response and aversion to change that follows. Hair becomes a symbol of a paradigm shift of the so-called proper way of life, gender norms, and dread of the unknown. Comrade Telephone (1958) explores the significance of telephony and its impact on numerous parts of life. The narrator best describes the relentless wheels of progress, saying, “Oh, how we change, how these years and decades fly by! No sooner had you taken a good look around, you were considered old and obsolete. Still, let us not worry too much about that, since the faith of our descendants will be quite the same.”

The documentary Cukrarna (1972) portrays the bitter faith of people who, for various reasons, are unable to serve as “productive” members of society. The film On Love Skills or Film with 14441 Frames (1972) was supposed to be a propaganda film ordered by the army, but Karpo Godina refused and converted it into the ‘make love, not war’ jewel of the Yugoslav Black Wave that same year. The insanity of armed conflict is demonstrated by the repeated occurrences of failed encounters between hundreds of girls and soldiers. Finally, in Breath (1976), human presence becomes a mere whisper, lost among the newspaper articles moving across the city. The film provides a meditative contemplation into the passing of time or a captured moment, accompanied with sounds recorded on location in the city we live in. Matej Bandelj, Špela Pipan