THE RIJEKA OF MY YOUTH, 1st episode

The first episode of the documentary series about the musical and social history of Rijeka, a port city in the north of the Croatian Littoral, opens with the period immediately following the end of World War II. Rijeka was still in ruins, but parties and dances in hotels, bars and restaurants had already started happening because people were eager to attend them. The second half of the 1940s and the following decade, the 1950s, was a time of the popular melodious schlager ballads, which were greatly influenced by the famous Italian music festival in San Remo. Croatian cover versions of their hits were performed the next morning in the program of Radio Rijeka, which had its own revue orchestra and fine musicians. Among the noted names in music of Rijeka and Kvarner at the time was the singer Bruno Petrali. One day the radio music editor and songwriter Mario Kinel played him the song Samo jednom se ljubi /You Only Love Once/, later sung by Ivo Robić, the greatest singing star of the then Croatia and Yugoslavia. Kinel wrote the lyrics for it and wanted to hear Petrali’s opinion, but the end result was that Petrali started singing it when he performed in Kvarner hotels even before Robić recorded it. However, the story of that time doesn’t stop there. The schlager ballads, lulled on the laurels of their popularity in the early and mid ‘50s, suddenly faced a serious threat; brought to Rijeka by the US sailors, it was called - rock’n’roll!
Director: DAVOR BORIĆ
Researcher and Narrator: VELID ĐEKIĆ
Writers: VELID ĐEKIĆ, ALEKSEJ PAVLOVSKY, DAVOR BORIĆ
Chief Cameraman and Cinematographer: DUŠAN VUGRINEC
Editor: IRENA KORPES
Original Music by: IGOR KOŽIĆ
Sound Engineers: SREĆKO ČABRAJA, BORNA CVITANOVIĆ
Sound Processing: ROBERT STANIĆ
Lighting: LJUDEVIT FIŠTRIĆ, DAMIR STANEKOVIĆ
Colorization: ROBERT CECELJA
Assistant Director: ŽAKLINA KOMLJEN
Producer: SANJA IVANČIN
Managing Editor: ALEKSEJ PAVLOVSKY
Runtime: 28.11 min.
Production: HRT - HTV Culture Program Department, 2023