The first five-year plan of Yugoslav film (1947-1951)

I have been reading Petar Volk's extremely informative Istorija jugoslovenskog filma (History of Yugoslav Film) in which he describes the first five-year plan of Yugoslav film (pp. 130-135).  The five-year plan for film was of course part of the larger statewide five-year plan.  The foundation for the development of Yugoslav film was with the Decree on the Establishment of the Committee for Cinematography of the Government of the FNRJ on 28 June 1946, and by the establishment of the state enterprises "Zvezda film" on 16 July 1946 and "Jugoslavija film" on 30 August 1946.  The Yugoslav republics also each received a republican state film company, though these were in accordance with the times strictly controlled by the central authorities.  On 15 July 1946, the republican companies in Ljubljana, Zagreb and Belgrade were named "Triglav film", "Jadran film" and "Avala film," respectively.  These were followed by "Bosna film" in Sarajevo and "Vardar film" in Skopje on 1 July 1947, and finally by "Lovćen film" in Cetinje on 1 March 1948.  During the same period schools and academies were created for actors and for other film personnel.

Volk states that all of these film companies, combined with difficult economic circumstances, resulted in the production of only five feature films in 1951, whereas the ambitious plan had foreseen the production of forty films in that year alone.  For this reason, by the end of the first five-year plan moves were taken to start giving the republican film studios more maneuvering room.  In fact, on 7 April 1951, the Committee for the Cinematography of the Government of the FNRJ was abolished.

Nevertheless, Yugoslav film production during the first five-year plan was not minor in scale.  Volk counts 19 long and 3 short feature films and 263 documentary films.  The preponderance of the documentary genre undoubtedly reflects the propaganda needs of the new regime.

Those interested in the early socialist Yugoslav film industry should definitely also read Goran Miloradović's excellent article, "Stalin's Gifts: Yugoslav Feature Films, 1945-1955."