Uncle Žvane (1949)
Barba Žvane [SRP]

WWII. To aid the hungry partisans in Gorski Kotar, in Istria, the local peasants sent them some cattle. They chose an elderly man named Uncle Žvane to deliver the cattle, because he has experience with dangerous situations. Upon his arrival at the destination, Uncle Žvane joins the partisans, and together they free Istria in 1945. He returns to his village victoriously at the head of the partisan column.

At the time when the film was made, in 1949, no local film festivals yet existed (the first film festival in Yugoslavia, Pula Film Festival, was started only in 1954). There is no information about it being sent to festivals abroad. Instead, it ensured its audience through screenings in movie theatres and on television, most recently in 2022 when it was broadcast on Serbian television. In 2016 it was presented at the Pula film festival in an exhibition about films shot in Istria, entitled “Pozor… snima se u Istri” [Attention… Shooting in Istria] [HRV] curated by the Istria Film Commission and Daniel Rafaelić.

The making of Uncle Žvane [BOS] was discussed in detail in the Yugoslav press, especially in the specialized film journals, available today in the Library of the Yugoslav Film Archives [SRP] in Belgrade. The film is also regularly mentioned in the texts about the director Vjekoslav Afrić [HRV], crew members and the cast, foremost the leading actor Dragimir Felba [BOS]. Often, these articles criticize it for its naive plot.

Vjekoslav Afrić [HRV] (1906-1980) was a Yugoslav filmmaker and actor. He was born in Zagreb, Croatia, where he graduated from the state acting school (1927) and worked in the national theatre HNK (1931-1942). He joined the partisan movement in 1942, and together with a group of actors organised a partisan theatre troop. After the war he moved to Belgrade, where in 1946 he established the film school Visoka filmska škola [BOS]. After serving as its first principal (1947–1950), he was a professor at the Theatre Academy, and then the Rector of the University of Arts in Belgrade. He wrote and directed the first feature film produced in socialist Yugoslavia, war drama Slavica [HRV] (Avala film, 1947). Following Slavica, he directed only two more films, Barba Žvane [HRV] and Hoja! Lero! [HRV] (Avala film, 1952).