When Ships Don’t Come Ashore – a Yugoslav cinema club production’s dissent in-between the personal and the political

As in other Eastern European Countries, film industry and culture were of central interest for the newly established socialist Yugoslav state after Second World War. Besides institutionalisation a professional profitable industry, amateur cinema clubs inaugurated all over republics educative purposes field technical culture. Due to prevailing underestimation their activities specific, relatively liberal path, some these became hubs an experimental critical scene. This article discusses ‘Ships don’t come ashore’ (1955) which Mihovil Pansini – one leading figures made Cinema Club Zagreb his initial years as maker. It is discussed early example filmic counterpoint political ideologies mainstream themes. A detailed analysis reveals that dissent film, with its story person’s impossible escape from island, comes three dimensions: individual stance, artistic experiment, message.