engleski

Secularity, sexual education and women’s rights in the pioneering (and banned) works of director Nikša Fulgosi (1919–1996)

This paper will focus on the pioneering work of Split born director Nikša Fulgosi, who’s life work centred around documentary film, right after his feature length debut (Little Jole / Mala Jole, 1955.) was forcedly cancelled by Jadran film company in the finishing stages of production. The film used a story of Jole (Ksenija Urličić), the female ship commander who deals with rugged male sailor crew and manages to show them that she is also able to perform “a man’s work”. It was the early sign of what interested Fulgosi the most: social commentary and social change in already fast developing Yugoslav pace of modernization. Fulgosi moved to working with several companies (Zora film, Zagreb film and Ozeha) producing educational films, mainly dealing with health, job seeking, safety in traffic and the dangers of alcohol abuse. Finally in 1978, after few film essays about the nature of foul language and cursing in Yugoslav cinema (Sto kletvi na sekundu, 1971.) and the real backside of women’s beauty pageants (Sto ljepotica na dan, 1971.), he manages to launch his crown work: Ljubavni jadi Pepeka Gumbasa i Marijete Buble (Love Troubles of Pepek Gumbas and Marijeta Buble), a 13-part TV series shot on film about sexual education and relations between sexes. In a manner of Monty Python satire, with deadpan comments by author himself, he developed early documentary-educational-feature hybrid that tested the public’s ability to digest raw sexual education data, with children actors and short sketches that made fun of religious stands toward sexuality and women’s rights. Unfortunately, the series was soon banned by Zagreb Television Centre (TVZ) after the first airing caused outrage and protests. The rest of the remaining 12 episodes were put in a bunker, safely locked away from public. For a 2014 documentary “Tko je taj Nikša Fulgosi?”, I have researched all remaining unscreened episodes of the first Yugoslav sexual education documentary series and compiled first (almost) complete filmography of the author who is scarcely known only in documentary circles, but deservers much more. Also in this paper, I will ask the main question concerning a culture that is ‘past’ and a culture that is ‘now’: why is it that obscure 1978 series is much more advanced in secular and sexual views, than recent film and media climate in Croatia, a country that still struggles to make sex education a public school programme. (Željko Luketić)

film ; cinema ; film studies ; television studies ; Nikša Fulgosi ; sexuality

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