This year’s laureate of Motovun Film Festival’s Maverick Award, given to authors for their free spirit and innovation in expanding the horizons of filmmaking, is the Belgrade filmmaker Goran Marković.
One of Yugoslavia’s favorite filmmakers, Goran Marković managed to pinpoint in his widely popular films the sore points of the society of those days. According to Motovun Film Festival programmer Jurica Pavičić, his films always “antagonized the mainstream, the ruling ideologies and the prevailing taste in cinema”. Huge turnouts and numerous awards (including two Golden Arenas for Reflections and Meeting Point) can be seen as evidence of success of his films.
Honoring the impressive body of work of this popular filmmaker, MFF will be showing remastered copies of two films from the early phase of his lengthy and fruitful career: National Class Category Up to 785ccm, awarded at Pula, and the temporarily shelved All That Jack’s.
The former, marked by excellent soundtrack and performances, is a true time capsule of the Belgrade pop culture in the 1970s. The film’s protagonist, 27-year-old rally driver “Floyd”, is doing his best to avoid any commitment in life, including military service. The latter, also considered a classic of Yugoslav cinema, immerses the viewer in a tragicomic microcosm of an elementary school where the retiring of a cleaning woman becomes an excuse for organizing a party at public expense.
