by Miljenko Jergovic
Here is how, according to Sedlar's concept, "In Four Rows" was supposed to come out: two peaceful and highly civilized inhabitants of Zagreb, a young actor and a make up artist, decided in May 1945 to leave the city in front of an unstoppable antifascist beast. They join columns of Domobrans [conscript army of the Independent State of Croatia, WWII Nazi puppet state in present Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina], the peaceful Croatian Army, city gents and youth, among whom are four or five Ustashe [Croatian pro-Nazi movement during and before WWII; the relationship between Ustashe and Domobrans is similar to that of SS and German Army in the Nazi Germany] of whom one is a criminal (probably because he lost an arm in the war). The column is bombarded by British airplanes and on the Bleiburg field they are captured by cynical British officers, who turn all of these highly cultured and civilized people over to the Partisans. After that, the Partisans slaughter them, execute by a firing squad, rape, rob, and to make the whole thing even clearer, at one point Soviet Red army soldiers show up to take away whatever the Partisans hadn't already snatched away, and in the process cut off a finger of a high school graduate from Zagreb in order to take his ring.
According to Sedlar's idea, the film ends after the surviving young actor, saved by the goodness of a Jewish Partisan, vows not to say a word about these events as long as he lives. The film refers to his act as the Croatian silence, in order to make it crystal clear on behalf of what and against what it was necessary to keep quiet.
For example, how does Jakov Sedlar imagine Partisan butchers? All of them are Serbs, men and women, from different parts of the former Yugoslavia. Their origin is suggested by their accents. However, then Sedlar decided that that was not enough, so that he made sure that every Partisan butcher nicely introduces himself or herself to their victims. Thus fat and mustachioed Danko Ljustina plays a murderer from Bosanska Krajina, Bozidar Alic portrays a slaughterer from Serbia, and Nives Ivankovic is supposed to be a typical Jane Partisan, a Croat Serb woman who is jealous because Partisans are mass raping refined Zagreb women, so that she kills them all with a machine gun. Sedlar's Partisans usually confine their acting to making facial expressions usually seen only on seriously constipated persons. It is surprising that Bozidar Alic did not end up with a hernia from all that hard work.
Of course, Sedlar had to explain why Partisans were so bloodthirsty. With that in mind a character, which is not really a character but is there just for the hell of it, reads Djilas' [Yugoslav Communist official] article from Borba [official publication of the Yugoslav Communist party] which clearly states what the attitude of Partisans towards Ustashe should be; from a public announcement system at a train station we can hear Tito's speech on the same topic, and it is indicated that one of the Partisans had been until recently a Chetnik [Serb nationalist and monarchist guerrillas during WWII], although it is not entirely clear whether Chetniks are worse or better than Partisans or whether that statement was simply supposed to indicate the origin of all partisans.
But, how come that in all of that, there is a good Partisan? Very simply: Sedlar's and Aralica's revisionist vision needed a place for a Jew. And since the authors drew their lesson from Tudman's "Wastelands of Historical Reality", they decided to replace unnecessary and senseless anti-Semitism by very deliberate filo-Semitism. It seemed smart to them to, in the film with which they intended to spread national hatred and destroy the last traces of Croatian antifascism, use a Jew as the most positive character. Hey, there are not any Jews in Croatia anyway and only fools would cause trouble about them. On the other hand, believe Sedlar and Aralica, if you are nice to Jews, you can do with Partisans and Serbs, as well as with the results of the war, whatever you like. A smart Croatian revisionist would always praise Jews.
The very idea to shoot "In Four Rows" was scandalous since Aralica's novel, on which the movie is based, was also scandalous. But the film was produced by four Croatian Ministries, the Croatian Privatization Fund, Croatian Tourist Association, Croatian Telecommunications, the City of Zagreb, Croatian Lottery, Croatian Oil Industry INA and many smaller and less impressive sounding producers, so that Sedlar's film is actually the result of a widely based social action and thereby similar to the Partisan films from the former Yugoslavia, such as "Sutjeska" and "Neretva".
In practice, thousands of Croatian citizens have ended up in the role of passive co-producers of "In Four Rows". Perhaps, all of those who have paid a single Kuna of taxes to the Croatian state budget deserve such a credit. That does not mean that all of us share guilt for "In Four Rows", but it is the fact that all of us have been involved in "In Four Rows" and that only unprecedented Sedlar's lack of talent saved us from worse consequences. God himself, if that was him indeed, saved us from ignominy which we would not have been able to wash off for a long time, by denying Sedlar all that is needed by a human or a creature to be an artist.
It is wonderful to have Sedlar and Aralica whose greatest trickery is to include a Partisan-Jew. There is nothing more harmless than filo-Semitic anti-Semitism, although it is sickening and disgusting, but at least it is so obvious and clear as every act rooted in unclear conscience. It is wonderful to have Sedlar because of his fascination with male haircuts. Namely, as in "Mother of God" [Gospa] the hairdo on the head of Martin Sheen, even after hours and days of torture looked as if it had just been sealed under a hairdryer of a provincial hair salon, thus in "In Four Rows" the hairdo of Ivan Marevic is tussled in the same seductive manner both at the start and the end of the Croatian Cavalry. Unfortunate Jakov Sedlar does not see such things and exactly that saves us from his idea. It is also wonderful to have Sedlar because of the fact that his main character can hardly speak the Croat language. Actually, he speaks it as every Australian, Canadian, or American of Croatian origin, and he is supposed to be a young actor from Zagreb in the movie. What wonderful cynicism: In the most Croatian of all Croatian movies, the most valiant Croat cannot speak Croatian. Something so mean would not have occurred even to the most evil of the Partisan butchers from "In Four Rows".
After watching "In Four Rows", it is hard to understand why the Croatian TV decided to show that movie two days after Christmas and on a day of electoral silence. Sedlar's and Aralica's work is hardly good propaganda; it cannot change anyone's opinion, apart from being a sanity check for those who will watch TV that night and nevertheless vote for HDZ. Essentially, for the democratization of this country and even for the opposition, it is useful to show "In Four Rows", and then repeat it as often as possible until the last one among us realizes what has remained of the Independent State of Croatia fifty five years after the war, and to what the old Ustashe have been transformed. Budak's "Hearths" [Ognjista] are for "In Four Rows", both the book and the movie, a highly articulate, non-ideological and modern work of art.
However, something in all of this is still very sad. People did die in Bleiburg and in the Croatian Cavalry. It does not matter how many of them were killed because they were definitely too many. Various people suffered and it is not the most important whether they were civilians, soldiers, innocent people or criminals. The fact that behind they left relatives who for years could not find out the truth about their fates and who hoped for years that they would eventually return. In some parts of Croatia and especially Bosnia-Hercegovina there are very few families which haven't lost someone in Bleiburg. In principle, they do not care whether their loved ones were criminals or innocents, murderers or conscripted children. Uncertainty and empty hope with which those people lived is the greatest and usually totally undeserved punishment. Ivan Aralica and Jakov Sedlar arrogantly and mercilessly played with emotions of the relatives of the victims of the Croatian Cavalry. Thus a huge and horrible topic, which deserves human sympathy, and probably also books and films that it will never greet, has been wasted. Bleiburg, ignoring history and focusing on people from our homelands, is a sad story about those who waited and do not know when exactly they stopped waiting.
[2] The surname of director Sedlar is pronounced saddle-ar
[3] Mile Budak was an Ustashe official during WWII and a writer. "Hearths" is his best known novel. He is infamous for his participation in the organization of the genocide of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies in the Independent State of Croatia. Since the independence he has been a sort of a poster boy for Croatian nationalists and his name has been given to many streets throughout Croatia.