CRO FILM DIRECTORS SEND OPEN LETTER TO CULTURE MINISTER

ZAGREB, Dec 23 (Hina) - The board of directors of the Croatian Film Directors' Association on Thursday forwarded an open letter to Culture Minister Bozo Biskupic relative to the airing of Jakov Sedlar's "File of Fours" in two parts on Croatian Television on December 26 and January 2, only ten days after its opening in theatres. The board believes such airing jeopardises the right of Croatian motion pictures to normal distribution. "File of Four" is about the mass killings of Croats shortly after the end of World War Two at Bleiburg, a field in southern Austria. A rule in force in Europe and Croatia is that a television airing marks the end of a film's distribution, the open letter reads. It adds this means that for one of Croatia's most expensive motion picture projects, the Culture Ministry invested a lot of money for the ten-day screening in one theatre alone, Zagreb's Tuskanac, as of December 16. "Given that the reasons for the television airing are evidently neither market-oriented nor artistic, we have to conclude that they are of a political nature, and considering the airing dates it is fully clear what is the purpose," says the letter. January 3 is the date of parliamentary elections. The film directors add the decision to air the film has shown our cinematography to be a game without rules and a system without order, and Croatian film to be a caricature political servant. The board of directors demands that the culture minister as soon as possible publicly take a position in view of protecting Croatian cinematography. (hina) ha mm