Innocence Unprotected

Synopsis

When Innocence Unprotected premiered in 1971, New York Times critic Roger Greenspan hailed Dusan Makavejev's eccentric masterwork as "different enough from any other movie you are likely to have seen." Makavejev brilliantly assembles footage from the very first Yugoslavian sound film, a campy drama written, produced and directed by a good-natured acrobat, Dragoljub Aleksic. Unfortunately, the film was made during the German occupation so after the war the communist authorities accused Aleksic of being a collaborator and banned his debut. Twenty six years after Aleksic's film was made, Makavejev manages to find the escape artist and intercuts his missing movie into a defining chronicle of the Yugoslav state.

Director Biography

Dušan Makavejev (born 1932) is a Serbian, former Yugoslavian, filmmaker most known for his works which contributed to the Black Wave film movement. Makavejev's first three feature films, Man Is Not a Bird, Love Affair and Innocence Unprotected all won him international acclaim. He won won the Silver Bear Extraordinary Prize of the Jury at the 18th Berlin International Film Festival. His 1971 film W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism was banned in Yugoslavia due to its sexual and political content. The political scandal surrounding Makavejev's film effectively ended his domestic career and caused him to leave Yugoslavia and work abroad in Europe and North America.