''Agram, die Hauptstadt Kroatiens'' (, ) is a short documentary film directed by

Oktavijan Miletić Oktavijan Miletić (1 October 1902, Zagreb – 17 August 1987, Zagreb) was a Croatian cinematographer and director. His avant-garde work in the period from 1928 to 1945 remains as one of the foundations of Croatian film. Miletić was one of the ...

in 1943 in the

Independent State of Croatia The Independent State of Croatia (, NDH) was a World War II–era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Fascist Italy. It was established in parts of Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, occupied Yugoslavia on 10 April 1941, ...

. It was produced for

Tobis Film Tobis Film was a German film production and film distribution company. Founded in the late 1920s as a merger of several companies involved in the switch from silent film, silent to sound films, the organisation emerged as a leading German sound s ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and showed cultural activities in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

, as well as the main monuments of the city. The film was rediscovered in 2008, after being considered lost for more than 60 years. The film was first announced in September 1941 and was due to appear in theaters by the end of that year.

Jakov Gotovac Jakov Gotovac (; October 11, 1895October 16, 1982) was a Croatian composer and conductor of classical music. His comedic opera, '' Ero s onoga svijeta'' (''Ero the Joker''), Croatia's best-known opera, was first performed in Zagreb in 1935. ...

was scheduled to compose the music. However, the editing was completed only in 1943 and, for reasons unknown, narration and music were never made. It appears that the production company lost interest in the documentary, while Miletić was by that time preoccupied with '' Lisinski'' (1944), his feature film debut. The unfinished film was sent to the German

Reichsfilmarchiv The Reichsfilmarchiv ("Reich Film Archive") was the state film archive of the Germany of the Third Reich. It was first German national film archive. It was opened in 1935, and based in Berlin. It ceased to exist in 1945, when its film stock was eit ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. After the fall of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

, the film came into the possession of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

which confiscated the archive, along with the documentation. In 1990, the film material was returned to the Bundesfilmarchiv. However, the film had been misfiled as ''Pressburg, die Hauptstadt Slowakei'' (''Bratislava, the Capital of Slovakia''), and remained unknown until 2008, when Croatian film archivist Daniel Rafaelić discovered it in the archive. The restored film premiered at, and opened, the 2008

Zagreb Film Festival Zagreb Film Festival (ZFF) is an annual film festival held since 2003 in Zagreb, Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It border ...

References

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Agram, Die Hauptstadt Kroatiens 1943 films 1943 short documentary films Croatian black-and-white films 1940s rediscovered films Croatian short documentary films Documentary films about Yugoslavia Documentary films about Croatia