Feature film
On Our Own Land
Na svoji zemlji
France Štiglic · 1948
Synopsis
The last two years of the war, in a village of the Slovene Littoral that Italy had held since the Treaty of Rapallo. After the Italian capitulation, the German army takes the occupier's place. The villagers, almost all won over to the liberation movement, see in the partisans' struggle the chance to throw off foreign domination at last, and the narrative follows both the fighters and those who remain in the village, around old father Orel.
Context
Ciril Kosmač wrote the screenplay from his own short story, which he changed a great deal, and received the Prešeren prize for it in 1949. The film was shot in the Baška grapa; the photography and editing are by Ivan Marinček, the music by Marjan Kozina, played by the Slovenian Philharmonic, with Lojze Potokar, France Presetnik and Štefka Drolc. It was released on 21 November 1948 at the Union cinema in Ljubljana. It was digitally restored in 2017.
Who it is for
A little under two hours, in black and white, in Slovene, Italian and German; a war and village film, easy to follow.
Prizes and reception
First sound feature film of Slovene cinema; it was presented at Cannes as early as 1949, with great public success at home.