23/05/2024
Žarko, You Will Spoil the Child!, Veljko & Milivoj Popović (Croatia, France, 2024)
Young Tisja lived in Split, Croatia (then Yugoslavia), with her parents and grandparents in the 1980s. Using a combination of archival photos and drawings, she unlocks a handful of memories that reveal a deep love for her grandparents. On one hand, the tales are charming and universal enough to resonate with many, but what elevates the film beyond being too easy on the emotions is the peek we get at life during Tito’s Yugoslavia.
The film is based on the book U malu je uša đava by Tisja Kljaković Braić, who co-wrote the script with Veljko Popović. “The book tells the story of a time in which Tisja grew up,” says Popović. “What people might not know is that there is only a 5-day difference between me and my twin brother, Milivoj, exiting the maternity ward and her mother giving birth to Tisja. We might have even crossed paths in that Split hospital on June 30, 1979. The 1980s were a time of shared experiences. We all had the same furniture; our father's cars were all the same, each manufactured by our countrymen. We all shared a collective childhood. Tisja captured the spirit and emotions of that time, a time that is forever lost, left on the banks of the river of progress.”
The May 2024 survey of under-the-radar animated shorts currently travelling the festival circuit or new to online viewing takes a special look at five films to keep an eye on at animation’s second oldest festival.
