Zivoti Koste Hakmana (2005)

The goal of the film was to shed light on the fate of a great Yugoslav and European painter, but also to explore the influence of the major historical events of the 20th century on artistic destinies, culture and spirit, especially on the Balkans. This film is dedicated to the extremely turbulent fate of painter Kosta Hakman (1899-1961), one of the most influential artists of the former Yugoslavia. During World War I Hakman was imprisoned at the age of 15 as the youngest member of the freedom movement "Mlada Bosna" whose aim was to liberate Bosnia and Herzegovina of Austro-Hungarian occupation. After the WWI he studied in Vienna, Krakow and Prague, and lived in Paris as well, where he received Gold Medal for his paintings at the World Exhibition in 1937. He spent World War II in prisoner of war camps in Germany. Upon his return to Yugoslavia in 1945 he encountered a new, forcefully imposed Communist regime that did its best to revoke and marginalize pre-war civil traditions. As a professor Hakman educated many elite painters of the entire former Yugoslavia. As chance would have it, his opus remained posthumously connected to turbulent historical events, literally until these very days. Well-known artists and experts appear in this film: Ljuba Popovic, Milic od Macve, Momo Kapor, Dusan Batakovic and others. A lot of the material and information has now been made public for the first time. Some of the elements of the film are: - The aesthetic vision of the artist himself and its relation with the trends of its times. The reception of that aesthetics then and now. - The private and intimate world of Kosta Hakman. Destiny. - The historical fate of one of the great generations of Serbian and Yugoslav culture. - The cultural platform of that generation, the degree in which it was accomplished or thwarted. The reception of their cultural values today. The rich visual and documentary material allowed the possibility of presenting micro-worlds, of art and fate, but also of portraying the epic fresco of several epochs that make the 20th century one of the most moving periods in the history of the Balkans and the entire world.