Jadran Film is a film production studio and distribution company founded in 1946 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 ...

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 borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. In the period between the early 1960s and late 1980s Jadran Film was one of the biggest and most notable film studios in

Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

, with some 145 international and around 120 Yugoslav productions filmed at the studio during those three decades, including two Oscar-winning films and

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...

' 1962 screen adaptation of

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

's novel ''

The Trial ''The Trial'' () is a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best-known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, wi ...

''. The word ''Jadran'' refers to the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...

in Croatian. During most of its existence it was one of the two main film studios in

Yugoslav cinema The Cinema of Yugoslavia refers to the film industry and cinematic output of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which existed from 1945 until it disintegrated into several independent nations in the early 1990s. Yugoslavia was ...

(along with

Avala Film Avala Studios, formerly known as Avala Film ( sr-Cyrl, Aвала филм), is a Serbian film studio, founded in 1946 as the first studio founded in post-war Yugoslavia. As of April 2025, it is fully owned by the Czech "Sebre Avala Holding". Over ...

of Belgrade) and was one of the few film companies which played a major role in the post-World War II history of Croatian cinema, along with

Croatia Film Croatia Film d.o.o. (formerly Croatia Film d.d.) is a state-owned film production and distribution company based in Zagreb, Croatia. It began operations in 1946. The company produced the region's only animated features to date during the 1980s and ...

and

Zagreb Film Zagreb Film is a Croatian film company principally known for its animation studio. From Zagreb, it was founded in 1953. They have produced hundreds of animated films, as well as documentaries, television commercials, educational films and several ...

(which is mainly known for animated films). In the 1990s the company experienced a sharp downturn amid the

breakup of Yugoslavia After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, the constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia split apart in the early 1990s. Unresolved issues from the breakup caused a series of inter-ethnic Yugoslav ...

and most of the company's property was either sold or fell into disrepair in the ensuing

privatization Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

. The company still continues to produce films, although Jadran Film's once voluminous output has since dwindled to only a handful of films produced every year, mainly Croatian and regional co-productions.

History

Jadran Film was founded in 1946 and produced their first film the following year, Nikola Popović's 1947 Yugoslav feature ''This People Must Live'' (). The film set owned by Jadran Film located in the Dubrava neighborhood of Zagreb was soon separated into an independent company named Dubrava Film (which was later re-incorporated into Jadran Film in 1962). Jadran Film's most successful period came during the directorship of Sulejman Kapić, whose long-time assistant was producer Branko Lustig. Between the 1960s and 1990s Jadran Film was one of the biggest and well-known film studios in Central Europe, and some 124 Yugoslav feature films and 145 international co-productions were filmed at the studio during those three decades. The first international productions filmed at the studio were Italian-produced Biblical

B movie A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...

s in the late 1950s, most notably the 1960 release ''

David and Goliath Goliath ( ) was a Philistine giant in the Book of Samuel. Descriptions of Goliath's immense stature vary among biblical sources, with texts describing him as either or tall. According to the text, Goliath issued a challenge to the Israelit ...

'' which starred

King Saul Saul (; , ; , ; ) was a monarch of ancient Israel and Judah and, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament, the first king of the United Monarchy, a polity of uncertain historicity. His reign, traditionally placed in the late elevent ...

and Ivica Pajer as

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

. Jadran Film benefited from these early co-productions as Italian producers helped the company establish a number of auxiliary departments which provided stunts, horses, set construction and extras for large-scale historical films which were popular at the time, so Jadran Film studios soon began to be used routinely for filming scenes depicting

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

villages, Jerusalem or

Wild West The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that bega ...

. Another advantage which Jadran Film had been that local hotels were considerably cheaper compared to elsewhere in Europe, so Zagreb became a preferred choice for foreign productions employing large film crews. The Yugoslav-German-produced screen adaptations of the

Winnetou Winnetou is a fictional Native American hero of several novels written in German by Karl May (1842–1912), one of the best-selling German writers of all time with about 200 million copies worldwide, including the ''Winnetou'' trilogy. The ...

book series set in the

were one of the most well-known productions made at Jadran Film. The series, consisting of 11 films shot between 1962 and 1968 on locations in the

Paklenica The Paklenica karst river canyon is a national park in Croatia. It is near Starigrad, northern Dalmatia, on the southern slopes of Velebit mountain, not far from Zadar. It contains two canyons, Mala (Small) and Velika (Big) Paklenica. History ...

river canyon and at Grobnik near

Rijeka Rijeka (; Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman dialect, Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Ba ...

, were very popular in Germany at the time and are considered predecessors of the

Spaghetti Western The spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's filmmaking style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

genre. Episodes of several 1980s American TV series were also filmed in Zagreb by Jadran Film crews, including '' Winds of War'', ''

The Dirty Dozen ''The Dirty Dozen'' is a 1967 war film directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Lee Marvin, with an ensemble supporting cast including Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Richard Jaeckel, George Kennedy, Ralph Meeker, ...

'' and '' War and Remembrance''. Jadran Film also had a hand in two Oscar-winning films -

Alan J. Pakula Alan Jay Pakula (; April 7, 1928 – November 19, 1998) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Associated with the New Hollywood movement, his best-known works include his critically acclaimed "paranoia trilogy": the neo-noir m ...

's 1982 drama '' Sophie's Choice'' (starring

Meryl Streep Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress. Known for her versatility and adept accent work, she has been described as "the best actress of her generation". She has received numerous accolades throughout her career ...

) and the German film ''

The Tin Drum ''The Tin Drum'' (, ) is a 1959 novel by Günter Grass, the first book of his Danzig Trilogy. It was adapted into a 1979 film, which won both the 1979 Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1980. To "beat a ti ...

'' (directed by

Volker Schlöndorff Volker Schlöndorff (; born 31 March 1939) is a German film director, screenwriter and producer who has worked in Germany, France and the United States. He was a prominent member of the New German Cinema of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He ha ...

, winner of the 1979

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

) were both in part filmed in Zagreb. Another notable film co-produced by Jadran Film was

' 1962 screen adaptation of

's novel ''

'' which was shot on location in Zagreb and starred

Anthony Perkins Anthony Perkins (April 4, 1932 – September 12, 1992) was an American actor. Born in Manhattan, Perkins began his career as a teenager in summer stock theater, summer stock programs, although he acted in films before his time on Broadway the ...

Jeanne Moreau Jeanne Moreau (; 23 January 1928 – 31 July 2017) was a French actress, singer, screenwriter, director, and socialite. She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française. Mo ...

and

Romy Schneider Rosemarie Magdalena Albach (23 September 1938 – 29 May 1982), known professionally as Romy Schneider (), was a German and French actress. She is regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses of all time and became a cult figure due to ...

. Then, in 1983, British Producer Fuad Kavur brought to Jadran '' Memed, My Hawk'', because the filming of it had been banned in Turkey where the original novel takes place. ''Memed My Hawk'' starred

Peter Ustinov Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (16 April 192128 March 2004) was a British actor, director and writer. An internationally known raconteur, he was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits for much of his career. Ustinov received #Awa ...

who also directed the film. In the early 1990s, amid the

fall of communism The revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, were a revolutionary wave of liberal democracy movements that resulted in the collapse of most Marxist–Leninist governments in the Eastern Bloc and other parts of the world. Th ...

, and the ensuing

Croatian War of Independence The Croatian War of Independence) and (rarely) "War in Krajina" ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Рат у Крајини, Rat u Krajini) are used. was an armed conflict fought in Croatia from 1991 to 1995 between Croats, Croat forces loyal to the Governmen ...

, Jadran Film lost most of the advantages it offered, and foreign film productions began to shift towards other post-communist countries which could offer experienced film technicians and comparatively cheaper locations to Western productions. Jadran Film experienced a downfall, the number of employees shrank from 300 to 80 and film equipment and sets owned by the company fell into disrepair as maintenance work effectively ceased. In addition, the

of the once state-owned company also contributed to Jadran Film's problems. The huge plot of land in Dubrava in the eastern part of Zagreb which was once used to build film sets was sold in the 1990s and turned into a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

. The circumstances of the deal were described by the media as shady. In the late 1990s and well into the 2000s, Jadran Film continued to disintegrate, and it effectively lost the ability to support large co-productions which were once the staple of their film-making business. However, the company survived and continued to produce films, although their output had dwindled to only a handful of Croatian films every year with limited international appeal.

Notable films

International co-productions

*''

'' (1962, directed by

) *'' The Ravine'' (1968, directed by

Paolo Cavara Paolo Cavara (4 July 1926 – 7 August 1982) was an Italian screenwriter and film director. He is best known for collaborating with Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco E. Prosperi on the 1962 mondo film ''Mondo Cane'', and for directing the ficti ...

) *''

The Day That Shook the World ''The Day That Shook the World'' (, lit. ''The Sarajevo Assassination'') is a 1975 Czechoslovak-Yugoslav-German co-production film directed by Veljko Bulajić, starring Christopher Plummer and Florinda Bolkan. The film is about the assassinati ...

'' (1975, directed by Veljko Bulajić) *''

'' (1979, directed by

) *'' Sophie's Choice'' (1982, directed by

) *'' Memed, My Hawk'' (1983, directed by

) *'' Armour of God'' (1986, directed by

Jackie Chan Fang Shilong (born Chan Kong-sang; 7 April 1954), known professionally as Jackie Chan,; is a Hong Kong actor and filmmaker, known for his slapstick, acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, and innovative stunts, which he typically perf ...

) *'' The Pope Must Die'' (1991, directed by Peter Richardson) *'' Death Train'' (1993, TV movie, directed by David Jackson) *'' Grbavica'' (2006, directed by

Jasmila Žbanić Jasmila Žbanić (; born 19 December 1974) is a Bosnian film director, screenwriter and producer. She has received numerous accolades, including nominations for the Academy Awards, Academy Award and two British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA Awards. ...

) *'' The Hunting Party'' (2007, directed by

Richard Shepard Richard Shepard (born 1965) is an American film and television director and screenwriter. Biography Shepard was born in New York City, New York. Shepard's father was from an Austro-Hungarian-Jewish background and his mother was of Armenian des ...

)

Big Golden Arena winners

Below is the complete list of films produced by Jadran Film which won the Golden Arena for Best Film, the main award at the

Pula Film Festival Pula Film Festival () is an annual Croatian film festival, established in 1954. It is held in a Roman amphitheater known as the Pula Arena. Pula Film Festival is the oldest Croatian film festival and is usually held in the summer, in July or Aug ...

. The festival served as the Yugoslav national film awards (i.e. the local equivalent of the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

) since its establishment in 1955 until 1990. Due to the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, the festival was re-branded as the Croatian film awards in 1992. A total of 11 Jadran Film films won the award in Yugoslav competition, and another two won the award since 1992.

References

External links