Podne (Noon). 1968. Yugoslavia. Written and directed by Mladomir Puriša Đorđević. With Ljubisa Samardzic, Neda Arneric, Faruk Begoli. In Serbo-Croatian with English subtitles. DCP. 85 min.
Mladomir Puriša Đorđević, the maverick artist whose career spanned eight decades of cinema until his death in 2022, created some of the most challenging, experimental, and satirical films of the 1960s. Noon is a lyrical mosaic of people’s lives during the spring of 1948. A shoe-shiner on Belgrade’s Slavija Square is the chorus, a group of actors on the border between Serbia and Bulgaria introduce themselves, and, as manifestations in the Soviet Cultural Centre unfold, the young girl Neda (Neda Arnerić) marries the Russian Mishko (Faruk Begolli). Unbeknownst to all of them, the Tito-Stalin split looms on the horizon. The film’s mix of monochrome and color photography, socialist iconography, star actors, archival footage, re-enactments, and fourth-wall breaks are regular features of Puriša’s signature style. Winner of the Silver Arena Award for Best Film at Yugoslavia’s prestigious Pula Film Festival, and nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, Noon portrays a society out of time and place, and the hopes for a future that never was. The film is a great tribute to the acting profession and an inspirational reminder that all things are possible.