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A Gaze into the Dusk

A Gaze into the Dusk

Aleksandar Stasenko 1967 9 min Croatia

Pogled_01

Pogled u sumrak – Aleksandar Stasenko

The most acclaimed film of his amateur phase, Stasenko’s poignant portrayal of his father’s final days reveals him as a fully formed auteur even before entering professional cinema.

Director

Aleksandar Stasenko

Aleksandar F. Stasenko (1933–1990) was an archetypal loner figure of Croatian cinema and also one of its best-kept secrets. Born in Split as the son of a Ukrainian immigrant, he graduated in electrical engineering and made eleven 8mm amateur films between 1965 and 1970. In 1970 he sacrificed his university career to become a professional filmmaker. Until his untimely death, he wrote, directed, and edited eleven more shorts, working mostly in and around his hometown and staying true to his highly idiosyncratic vision, both in terms of style and subject matter.

A firm proponent of the extreme close-up and a master of expressive editing, Stasenko kept his focus on solitary, resolute individuals waging their battles in silence, typically surrounded by unforgiving landscapes. Deriving visual poetry from harsh realism, his films can be seen as paeans to human perseverance, permeated with nostalgia for the disappearing Mediterranean of old.