Happy Land

HAPPY LAND / SRETNA ZEMLJA

Goran Devic

Croatia, 50 min, 2009

AWARDS and FESTIVALS
Sarajevo Film Festival, 2009
Zagrebdox, 2009

PRESS QUOTE
“Dok NDH-ovac kao rješenje svih sukoba sa neistomišljenicima radikalno predlaže metak u čelo,
partizan se izjašnjava za nužnost osvještavanja i neke nove revolucije kojom bi se ugnjetavani izborili za svoja prava. Kao da ih gledam u svojoj (ne)sretnoj zemlji. I jedne i druge.” ~ Marinela Domančić, Sarajevo Film Festival

While NDH members have proposed a bullet in the head as the solution to all conflicts with those who do not agree with them, Partisan has declared the need to be brought back to one’s senses and letting a new revolution fight for its rights that would otherwise be oppressed. As I watch them in my (un)happy country, they also watch one another.. ~ Marinela Domančić, Sarajevo Film Festival

SYNOPSIS
We follow the preparations, journey and arrival of two busses to their final destination: the first bus’ “victorious” passengers are traveling from Rijeka to Kumrovec to commemorate and celebrate Tito’s birthday by visiting his birth house, the second bus going from Zadar to Bleiburg  “ships” the elderly and “defeated” as well as ideal youngsters to this historic place of defeat. What happened in these two busses is an expression of opposite ideo-logical positioning, for the author however it turns out to be something even more. Being an outsider and observer, he was caught by the ways these events manifested themselves in a dramatic and emotional “sameness”. What appeared to be most important was that the passengers in both busses lived in the past. This could have been perceived as “normal” and “reasonable” if the passengers in the busses were eye-witnesses and participants of the Second World War, but a large a gap exists between the generations of the Second World War and the majority of other passengers. Still, the past has bridged the gap and the memory of it has become our trans-generational heritage.