Croatian documentary maker Goran Devic charts the long-term aftershocks of a catastrophic company collapse in his latest Sarajevo film festival competition contender What’s to be Done? Spanning almost a decade, this elevated exercise in reportage chronicles the bitter, protracted union battles surrounding TŽV Gredelj, a state-owned Croatian railway rolling stock company founded in 1894, which was declared bankrupt in 2012 with hundreds of workers dumped on the scrap heap.
A capsule summary of What’s to be Done? makes it sound like a daunting slab of drab, all earnest social realism and flinty ideological dogma, especially as it borrows its title from one of Lenin’s best-known pre-revolutionary pamphlets. But Devic and his team have some playful aces up their sleeve, including a colourful leading man in the form of union organiser Zelijko Starcevic, plus a few stylistic tricks that elevate newsy reportage into more left-field docu-fiction territory. A fine-grained examination of how industrial policy plays out on a political, emotional and psychological level, this artfully crafted documentary is playful and polished enough to engage casual viewers, with further festival interest very likely.
Not a man burdened by too much modesty, Zeljko is a gift to the film-makers, a natural performer whose years of union experience have clearly honed his flair for rabble-rousing oratory and attention-grabbing street theatre. When first discussing crisis negotiations with management, he flips between smooth-talking officialese and pugnacious picket-line rhetoric. “I will definitely confront them in a cultured and intelligent way,” he assures his co-workers, “I won’t tell them to go fuck themselves.” Later, in the angry aftermath of bankruptcy and mass redundancies, he breaks back into the factory to salvage his old protest banners. “This is human evil at its worst,” he rages on camera.
Ever the savvy political operator, we later find Zeljko cheerleading for a newly elected right-wing government minister, Tomislav Karamarko, whose promises to help the abandoned Gredelj workers inevitably come to nothing. Devic’s film does not cover this but Karamarko’s ministerial career imploded in a corruption scandal mere months later, helping to bring down the entire Croatian government. As the years pass, Zeljko exhibits more conciliatory warmth towards former workplace rivals he once threatened to punch on the nose. How much of this is performative and how much sincere is a moot point, but he remains a lively, larger-than-life screen presence throughout.
In its final stages, What’s to be Done? moves beyond the grammar of a standard observational documentary into a more self-aware, meta-film mode. After nine years of shooting, film crew and cast gather to review their earlier footage. This meeting becomes a cathartic group therapy session of regretful confession and tearful reconciliation. In a delightful closing flourish, Devic takes several former workers back to the semi-derelict Gredelj factory to stage a short musical memorial to their past lives, an oddly moving blend of modern dance and performance art set to a mournful choral piece by composer Arvo Pärt. More of these stylised Brechtian interludes would have been very welcome, but this is still a sublime coda to a fine film.
Director, screenwriter: Goran Devic
Cinematography: Damian Nenadic
Editing: Iva Kraljevic
Producer: Hrvoje Osvadic
Production company: Petnaesta Umjetnost (Croatia)
Venue: Sarajevo Film Festival (Documentary competition)
In Croatian
79 minutes
