Домаћи трил­ери у иностраној режији: Обавештајне и саботерске активности против југосл­овенске кинематографије 1945–1955. године
Domestic thrillers directed by foreigner’s: Intelligence and saboteur actions against the Yugoslav film industry 1945–1955

Summary/Abstract: This article is dedicated to the study of rarely researched themes about interactions of political, economic and intelligence influence in Yugoslav cinematography. After World War II, influence of both Western and Eastern intelligence services paralyzed and hindered efforts to build a stable and powerful Yugoslav film industry. These influences, being based on the special interests of some national political and cultural elites, hindered the development of film industry and cultural homogenization of Yugoslavia. According to available documents, the United States and Great Britain have sought to re-establish control of film production in Yugoslavia, relying on the special interests of political and cultural elites of Croatia and Slovenia. Motivation was found in the effort of the two republics to retain their cultural dis- tinctiveness in relation to Yugoslavia as a whole, as well as in the need of cultural elites of Croatia, greatly compromised by collaboration with the Ustasha and the Nazis, to find new patrons. This was the basis for decentralization in the culture of Yugoslavia, with far-reaching consequences in the political sphere. At the same time, the similar winds blew from the East. The Soviet attempt to patron film production in Yugoslavia was also an attempt to subject it to the control from the USSR. Thus, film in Yugoslavia would have been marginalized and made into an additional market for Soviet film. In both cases, the ideological and political consequences would be full domination of foreign powers over the Yugoslav cultural space. Eventually, foreign intelligence activities have been reduced to the destructive influences and control, thus weakening defensive powers of Yugoslavia. One of the causes of its ultimate disintegration, among others, were these hardly visible tendencies and processes.

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