ARCHIVALIA OF THE MONTH (JUNE 2014)

The Shooting Script for the Film Na svoji zemlji (On Our Own Land)

19471948
Original, 25 cm ! 35 cm, 102 pages

Reference code: SI AS 467, Triglav film, box 67.

Apart from films on film and video tape and recently also on digital media, the Slovenian Film
Archives (SFA) at the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia also keeps textual film related archival
records. Two of our most important film related fonds are Triglav film and Viba film, state producers
that were the backbone of Slovenian film production from 1945 up until Slovenias independence in
1991. Also important are fonds of the distribution company Vesna film, production company
Filmservis, and more recent Slovenian Film Fund and Slovenian Radio and Television. SFA keeps
about 1880 archival boxes of textual records as well as extensive collections of around 60,000
photographs and slides.
For this months archivalia we wish to focus on the textual records of Triglav film. The fonds has a
reference code SI AS 467 and consists of 82 boxes. Founded in 1946, the company continued its
work until 1974 when it merged with Viba film.
Textual records include documents common to all companies, such as statutes, rules, minutes of
works council sessions, and also some particularities, such as contracts on film shooting, contracts
with other producers, film budgets and accounts, permits for playing individual film, as well as scene
sketches, film music, posters, scripts and shooting scripts. Triglav film produced a number of
Slovenian classics, among them some that have made a lasting impression on Slovenian collective
memory such as Kekec, Vesna, Ne !akaj na maj, Ples v de"ju and Dolina miru.

In 1948, Triglav film also produced the very first Slovenian
feature film Na svoji zemlji. Kept by the SFA among the records
and films of the Triglav film is also a shooting script for that
particular film. At the time, the making of a feature film was
considered a pioneer work with which Slovenian film industry
finally proved to the authorities and also to itself that it is
capable of making a feature film. The epic film about the
national liberation struggle was based on the 1946 novel O!ka
Orel by the Slovenian writer Ciril Kosma". The original title of
the film (which today would be called the working title) was V
srcu Evrope and it wasnt until later that the film was titled Na svoji zemlji. Ciril Kosma" also wrote
the script for the film. There were several candidates for the director, but eventually France #tiglic
finished the task and went on to create a number of Slovenian film masterpieces and share his
knowledge and experience not only in Slovenia but in other republics of the former state of
Yugoslavia. The story holds water even today since Kosma" was able to provide a fairly realistic
portray of the other side, both Italian and German.

The story takes place in Primorska region, in Ba$ka grapa to be
exact, a Slovenian national territory that was annexed to Italy after the
First World War. It was thanks to the partisan movement at the end of
the Second World War that this territory was once again joined with
the rest of the Slovenian territory. This fact alone gives the film a
special emotional note. In the film several stories are being
intertwined. The main story line is a national liberation struggle of the
local Slovenians against the Italian and German occupation
authorities, who set out to repress any tendencies that Slovenians
have for their freedom. Unique scene in the film is when a German
commanding officer orders four village people to be shot and one of
the women takes off her shoes to walk barefoot across our own land
for the very last time. It was probably this deeply moving scene that
provided the film with its title. There is also a love story featured in the
film about a boy torn between his loyalty toward occupying army and
his love for a girl who favors the partisans, the rebels. The boy joins the partisan movement, but is
sadly killed. The film also predicts the partisans unhealed wounds which is the city of Trieste.
Although conquered by the partisans with the help from the Yugoslav army, Trieste was eventually
passed on to Anglo-American units.

The purpose of a shooting script is to give detailed description of individual scenes based on the
actual script. The scene most often referred to is recorded on page 52 and under the column
description there is a following text The soldiers take the hostages away. Angelca, who stands the
first in line, stops and takes off her shoes that are too big for her. In the column dialog on the same
page there is a following text: I am taking off my shoes because this is the last time that I am
walking across our own land. This example demonstrates perfectly that a shooting script is a
necessary requisite in shooting any film; it provides concrete instructions for the whole film crew,
from director to cameraman, as well as for the actors.



Literature:
- Filmografija slovenskih celove!ernih filmov 19311993. Ljubljana: Slovenski gledali$ki in filmski
muzej, 1994, pp. 3031.
- Frelih, Tone: France #tiglic: od epopeje do nostalgije. Ljubljana: Dru$tvo Slovenska matica, 2008,
pp. 2137.

Lojz Tr$an
Tatjana Rezec Stibilj
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