Puhovski Nenad

Paviljon 22
The film is about fully unknown and dark side ot the happenings that took place within the Zagreb Fair compound in the autumn of 1991, the year in which the war broke out. First established as a mobilisation center of police reserve forces, it soon became a transit camp and persecution centre.

I have nothing nice to say to you
The story of the unsolved murder of Ljubica Solar, a young woman from Sisak, which happened in 1991 spurred the director to talk about the generation of young people he himself belongs to and whose lives have been greatly influenced by the recent war and who face the eternal small town dilemma whether to leave or stay.

Lora - Testimonies
Film about the prison located in the frame of the military harbor "Lora" in Split where more than 1000 prosoners from Split, Dalmatia, Yugoslavia and Bosnia and Herzegovina were detained from 1992 till 1996. The testimonies given for this film are accusations of the heavy torture and also give evidence of the death or "disappearance" of some 70 prisoners.

Straight A`S!
The life story of Lidija Šunjerga, the first woman in Croatia who talked openly about her profession of a porn actress. From an unhappy childhood in a small village through trafficking and prostitution in Amsterdam to an acclaimed porn actress and the picture on the Playboy cover page...and then...again back to a small village...

Of Cows and People
When we first met Milan and Silvana, they seemed nice and just a little bit silly. They obviously loved each other, but were totally different. He, with his great love for cows and nature and she, wanting to open a hotel. They couldn’t help it but to quarrel all the time. Their marriage, seemed to us as a small but accurate sample of the modern world with it's conflicts: in between nature and civilization, tradition and modernity. We knew that we had a story, but we didn’t know how it would end. And when nature shocked us with a tragic accident during the shootings- it gave us a glimpse of the unwanted but inevitable resolution to this conflict. Milan and Silvana live in Medulin, a small coastal town in Croatia. Milan breeds cows on a nearby island, as many did before him, but Silvana wants more than that.

The Jesters Strike Again
At the beginning of the century, the Mayor of the Croatian coastal town of Split started organizing annual festive dinners for town jesters, beloved and famous for their humour and specific eccentric behavior. On that day they had the privilege of being acknowledged by city authorities. At the end of the century, the town of Split revives the traditional jesters' dinner.

Together
What is it that keeps people together? "Somebody gets on my nerves and I still love him", says Ratka about her lesbian partner Milka. "When I saw that she could clean around the house and iron clothes, I said, that's it!" - that is Vlado's disarming disclosure about his wife Marija, who, like him, is mentally handicapped. "I don't know what he sees in me, I'm not a beauty," admits Branka when asked about Kreso's love for her. Director Nenad Puhovski tries to get to the heart of love and desire through five very different stories about people who are, were, or want to be in a relationship.

Mimara Revisited
Almost overnight, the building of a grammar school from the days of Austria-Hungary was converted into a museum in which the items of the controversial art collector Ante Topić Mimara were housed. The ‘Louvre of Zagreb’, as it was nicknamed, witnesses the best about the hopes that were placed on this project. The Louvre of Zagreb is today mostly empty, its visitors are scarce; however, commercial activities taking place in it – fashion shows, auctions of paintings, book promotions, regional clubs – record good turnouts. Today, the classical architecture of this Austro-Hungarian grammar school provides an ideal setting for kitsch events of all kinds. The late donor thought of us as a ‘very primitive nation’, anyway.

Category: Optimist
Is it more important to clean up your apartment or to go out on a perfect sunny and warm day? What is really important in our lives? Can optimism be learnt? "Category: Optimist" is a film about facing a potentially lethal disease – leukemia – and everything that goes with it after treatment. If patients manage to live, due to a fortunate combination of medical science, doctors’ efforts, family and friends and their own persistence, their life will change. While facing the challenges ahead, the most important thing is to be an optimist.

Three
"Do we still need to keep talking about the war?" is the motto of this documentary by Goran Devic, who has decided to conduct confessional interviews with three men who were actively involved in the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. The first is the Serb Novica Kostic, who despite his best efforts fails to avoid conscription. During the war he was injured and he now recalls how easily a person can be turned into a "killing machine". Another protagonist is the rough-edged and slightly cynical Croat Ivica Petric, who joined up voluntarily and was convicted after the war for the murder of 16 Serb civilians. The last of the three is Narcis Misanovic, who saw his father and brother killed in front of his eyes. At the age of 11 he was already working in a military canteen and a few years later was fighting among the ranks of the Bosnian army. These interviews recorded during car journeys really bring the fratricidal conflict home to the viewer. Even though all three fought on different sides, they all agree on the inhumanity and absurdity of the war, the fact that politicians bear the blame, and that today everybody behaves as if nothing happened.

Orbanici Unplugged
"Orbanici Unplugged" is a story about fame without glory. Alen Vitasovic lives in the small village of Orbanici in the Croatian region of Istria. He would have had an ordinary life if he had not been the most popular singer in Croatia three years ago. His huge overnight success changed Alen's life dramatically - no longer was he able to live the ordinary life of a village boy. His dreams came true, but not in the way he had imagined them...

Deorubicaing
This film depicts the issue of white plague (depopulation) on the example of a village in Slavonia, becoming symptomatic of the current conditions in the country.

Skinhead’s Diary
A documentary on the life of a skinhead and the informal skinhead movement in Zagreb, presented in the form of a diary.

The Blockade
"The Blockade" is a unique view from within on the most massive, longest and politically most significant student protest in the country, since 1971, that started in April of 2009 at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb. The struggle against the commercialization of education and the blockade of teaching classes lasted for 34 days. The rebellion spread onto more than 20 faculties across the country and the students became an active and relevant political subject. The director followed everything: from the exhilarating preparation of meetings and blocking of classes to the first signs of exhaustion, through personal situations and discussions late at night, from the initial support of most faculty members to the moment they turned their back to the movement and the attempt to reach the missing minister of education. This film shows that the blockade was not just physical and that it had a much broader meaning.

Basil in the Stone
Three generations and six decades ago a young man disappeared for four years. During this time both him and his family suffered wounds that broke them for years. This young man was my grandfather, and his family is my family. For decades the subject of grandfather’s prison days remained taboo. Our family was built on screaming pain hidden under the veil of silence. With the fall of communism we learned that my grandfather was interned in the Gulag-like camp Goli Otok (Naked Island). Last year a group of our close family friends appeared in a newspaper, and the headline read - Naked Island survivors speak out for the first time. Through grandpa’s fellow inmates, members of our family and sealed archives I am able to find a connection to my grandfather which I did not have in his lifetime.

Nenad Puhovski was born in Zagreb where he graduated sociology, philosophy and film directing. He made his first, amateur film, when he was 15. As a professional director, he directed more than 250 productions in theater, film and television.His documentary films deal with social problems and fine arts. Many of them have been screened and awarded worldwide.In 1997, Puhovski founded FACTUM, which soon became the largest and most influential independent documentary film production in Croatia. He produced over 60 documentary films which were screened and awarded all around the globe. He also received four awards for the best production at the Croatian national film festival.In 2004, he founded ZagrebDox – largest documentary festival in the region. Today he works as its director.Apart from the school in Zagreb where he started a new documentary MA program, Nenad also taught documentary filmmaking in many schools in Europe, Asia, North & South America, Middle East and Africa.. In 2009 he got EDN award for his “outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”.Nenad Puhovski is a member of European Film Academy.

And the Evening and Morning Were the Seventh Day, documentary (with D. Tralić, 1965) Činča, documentary (1972) The Phone Booth, fiction (1973) Toyota Corolla 1000, fiction (1974) The God of Play, fiction(1975) Bijelo dugme, documentary (1976) Dead Harbor, documentary (1976) Boarder's Fairy Tale, fiction (1978) Fever, fiction (1979) Five Films on Nives KK, documentary (1980) In Quest of Šutej, documentary (1981) Television America, documentary TV series (1983) The Rear, fiction (1984) Bućan – a Triptych, documentary (1986) Volunteers' Stories, documentary (1987) Borderlines of Hunger, documentary (1989) Zagreb, City of Music, documentary (1990) Cloudy with Rain, fiction (1991) Vukovar, Untamed City, documentary (1991) Dubrovnik War Trilogy, documentary (1991) U spomen ratnih reportera, documentary (1992) Sarajevski svjedok, documentary (1994) Graham and I, documentary (1998) Pavilion 22, documentary (2002) Lora – Testimonies, documentary (2005) Together, documentary (2009) Generation '68 (in production)