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A Meeting in Department IV F

A Meeting in Department IV F

Aleksandar Stasenko 1972 9 min Croatia

Miting_01

Miting u Odjelu IV F – Aleksandar Stasenko

Stasenko’s first professional film is an inspired take on the confrontational group therapy alcoholics underwent in Yugoslavia at the time.

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.