A City of Film – A Factory of Dreams

If you are a film buff, make sure to visit the Zagreb City Museum featuring the exhibition “A City of Film – A Factory of Dreams”. Zagreb’s film history dates back to 1896. Since then it has been a location for numerous films and TV series.

Until November 2nd, the Zagreb City Museum will feature the exhibition “A City of Film – A Factory of Dreams”. Visitors of the exhibition will discover the cinematic side of Zagreb, which has lived with film for over a century, almost since the very dawn of cinematography. The story began back in 1896, when the first film screening in Zagreb was held in the building of the “Kolo” Croatian Singers’ Association, located on the site of the modern day Academy of Dramatic Arts in Marshall Tito’s Square. The citizens of Zagreb and film have been in love ever since. Throughout its film history Zagreb has been one of the most important film production centres in the region, and it has kept this status until today. Numerous renowned directors have shot their films and TC series in the Croatian capital. Therefore, the exhibition features photographs from the set of the film “The Trial” by Orson Welles, and images of the Upper Town during the filming of Alan J. Pakula’s excellent film, “Sophie’s Choice”, which was nominated for five Oscars. Zagreb was also the location for the filming of two episodes of the well-known American TV mini-series “The Winds of War”, while the American actor Jackie Chan performed his famous stunts at Dolac Market during the filming of “Armour of God”…

Visitors of the exhibition will also have the opportunity to see the Oscar statuette which Dušan Vukotić won in 1962 for his animated film “Ersatz”. It was the first non-American animated film to win the award. The exhibition will also feature a poster for Veljko Bulajić’s film “The Battle of Neretva”, designed by Pablo Picasso. This film also won an array of international awards. A stroll through the exhibition will also provide visitors with an insight into what the first film studio in Zagreb looked like after it was built and opened in 1926 by the great aficionado of film art Franjo Ledić, whose ambition was to turn Zagreb into Hollywood.

Since most of the exhibits were borrowed from other museums, archives and private collections, visitors can expect an interesting journey through Zagreb’s film history. The preparations for the exhibition revealed much preserved material, which stands witness to Zagreb’s prolific film history, and in a way represents the first step towards the establishment of the Museum of Film.