What does heritage represent to us and do we know how to repay it? What does it even mean? Do we know where we live and who is the person whose name the street we walk on bears? In whose footsteps do we walk and thanks to what foundations do we move forward today? Who actually opened the shutters of our windows to the world and who brought the world to us?
We may never all know the answers to these questions, but thanks to those who ask them and who do not forget, we have the opportunity to understand who we are, how rich, but often careless, we are.
Although it seemed that everyone had forgotten him, it turns out that was not the case. Name and work Dušan Vukotić Wood, marked the world cinema of the 20th century, building and developing the field of animation in the Yugoslav region and giving it a new dimension on a global level... The director, screenwriter, cartoonist and film pedagogue won the most prestigious film award, the Oscar, at the age of 35, becoming the first winner outside the United States in his category, and in the continuation of his career and creative enthusiasm, he created a number of other various achievements, while remaining a memorable name in the pedagogical profession.
That he seems forgotten can be seen at the very beginning of the film "Vude, you won", directed by Senad Šahmanović who, with this film of his, and in fact, of all of us and the entire world, brings him back to life and reminds us of his character and work, wiping the dust off the only Montenegrin, and even Yugoslav, Oscar.
Premiered at the opening of the 16th UnderhillFest International Documentary Film Festival, in front of several hundred people, on an unprecedentedly full field in Njegošev Park in Podgorica, the film “Vude, you won” opened not only the festival program, but also the hearts and minds of every individual present, making them both proud and ashamed at the same time. A much-needed work, a necessary memory, an eternal testimony, proof of a great victory, but also a belated apology... Šahmanović successfully brings Vude back among his own, revives him and awakens him, directing us to him.
It is worth recalling that Vukotić's short animated film "Surrogate", which he drew and directed based on a script Rudolf Sremec, perhaps as an outsider from Yugoslavia, in fierce competition, he won the Oscar in the category of short animated films in 1962, breaking the dominance of the Disney studio. As Vukotić himself said, and Šahmanović reminded us with his documentary, the initials VD and DV are the same, there is something to that. Walt Disney After that, he offered Vukotić to make a 52-episode series with the same main character in his studio called "Mister Surrogate", which the Yugoslav author refused, thus opposing the commercialization, even banalization, precisely the "inflating" of everything, which is what he expressed his opinion about in "Surrogate".
“Vude, you have won” abounds in clips from Vukotić’s films. The transitions are appropriate, subtle, and powerful, and at the same time show both mastery and universality, or the eternity of a good deed. This makes the film even more important, thanks to the balance, the golden mean, and the thread that gently guides us from beginning to end. Although in the film industry the phrase “from beginning to end” is challenging, often difficult to achieve, this film has it all, a striking introduction that continues to pulsate throughout the entire film, experiencing a kind of climax at the moment of the backbone of the film and life, a kind of vicissitudes, imposed by life, artificially created by the system/s, so that the end comes as the last point of the circle, the most important for completeness and, with all that, adequate duration and conciseness.
One might say that the film is not a classic biographical portrait, although it portrays him superbly and makes Vukotić close to the viewer, but rather a map of an authentic character, but also of a time in which an individual remains upright despite the pressures of politics, nationality and oblivion. Šahmanović found the right approach to take the audience through Vukotić's life and the circumstances in which he lived, showing him exactly as he was, what he became in the meantime and bringing him to what he is today, without embellishment or additional glorification.
The film “Vude, you won”, furthermore, not only evokes the memory of one of the most significant authors in the history of Yugoslav and Montenegrin cinema, Dušan Vukotić, but also reflects on society’s attitude towards a greatness that it cannot even measure, let alone embrace. And society is a dangerous field, almost a minefield, where one step represents both danger and life’s success.
“The time came when countless honorable people withdrew... Vukotić was one of them,” is a quote from the film, which refers to the period of the 1990s. At that time, in Croatia, and even in Zagreb, it was not easy to “be a Montenegrin,” it is further emphasized.
That sentence echoes like a silent refrain of the film, like a backbone. Vukotić, without noise and without the need to prove himself, stood outside of it, above politics, media games and narrow-mindedness, and that is precisely why he was abandoned, left behind, not integrated into the noisy schemes of identity and division. But the cruelty of society, the system, the war, the inability to work and create, were quietly killing him. His late wife also states in the film that his dismissal from the Academy of Theatre, Film and Television in Zagreb actually killed him...
"He died that day," she says, and it seems that he would only die slowly in the sequel. Director Rajko Grlić He recalled numerous encounters and memories of Vukotić, one of which was precisely related to that period - quiet, alone, powerless, on the sidelines.
Šahmanović precisely dissects the mechanism of how politics uses culture, often as an excuse, while actually trying to reduce it to an obedient tool, a silent aesthetic decoration. Šahmanović also shows Vukotić as a party member, during Josip Broz Tito and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, bringing that time period into the segments. But, although he was the first (and only) Oscar winner from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the question is whether the system ever accepted, celebrated and preserved Dušan Vukotić, especially in moments when everything was falling apart? Perhaps even more so because of that, Vukotić remains great and has been enjoying fame in Croatia for years, perhaps too late, but now, it seems, he is slowly returning to Montenegro, or rather Montenegro to him.
"Wood, You Win" is a quiet and powerful film that does not judge, does not criticize, but encourages critical thinking, questioning, while revealing and depicting... Its strength and importance lies in the simplicity of expression and depth of thought, but also in the reminder of responsibility, the importance of a culture of remembrance, the necessity of facing the past, accepting mistakes, and ultimately, in the importance of apology and remorse, the true one.
In the end, although it seemed that everyone had forgotten about him, the film convinces us otherwise, while the title reminds us that Wood, indeed, conquered everything, with which Šahmanović superbly and symbolically played with Wood's work itself. The audience greeted the film and part of the crew with thunderous applause that lasted several minutes, bowing to the audience, together with director Šahmanović.
As the evening continued, Šahmanović described the difficult, long-term process that preceded the premiere on Wednesday evening, and his impressions were shared by those present in the audience, who continued their conversation informally, accompanied by music, about the film, Vudu itself, and what is yet to come at Underhill.
There is only one conclusion - Dušan Vud Vukotić is alive (again), the story about him will once again travel the region, and probably the world, and, inevitably, he won.
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