Skopje, 20 September 2023 (MIA) — The Macedonian feature film "Memento" (1967) by Dimitrie Osmanli will be screened at the Juraj Sizgoric City Library's multimedia hall in Shibenik, Croatia.

The screening was organized by the Croatian-Macedonian Tangent association. The audience will be addressed by Croatian-Macedonian Tangent president Sasho Georgievski and politician Tito Petkovski.

The film, with Renata Freiskorn, Stevo Zigon, and Dragi Kostovski in the main roles, was written by Osmanli, Jovan Boshkovski, and Tashko Georgievski.

The premiere screening of the digitized copy of the film was at the third Season of Classic Films, an initiative by the Association des Cinémathèques Européennes funded by the EU Creative Europe MEDIA programme, followed by screenings in several European cities, including Zagreb.

Earlier this month, "Memento" was also screened at the Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, as part of its "Black Wave to White Ray: Yugoslav Film of the 1960s" program.

According to MoMA, "the film speaks to conscience and contains some of the best montage committed to celluloid" and is "strongly reminiscent of the work of Alain Resnais."

"Set in Skopje in the aftermath of the 1963 earthquake that destroyed most of the city and ushered in unprecedented international aid, Memento follows a German conductor (Stevo Zigon) on his way back from Greece who meets the young student Yana (Renata Freiskorn) and drives her home.

"They grow close as they explore the city, retracing Yana’s steps to find something she lost only to discover a landscape which, even in the midst of destitution, bustles with life. Along the way they encounter irreverent youth, cabaret singers, pop bands, and the American military, and a simple love story gives way to an extraordinary cinematic diary about memory and what it means to reconstruct one’s life and begin anew," according to the MoMA website.

"Taking the earthquake as a backdrop for critical reflections on issues as varied as the Holocaust, nuclear catastrophe, and the Vietnam war—Memento is a kaleidoscope of the 20th century, and a person’s quest to find peace in a tumultuous world," it adds.

The film will also be shown at the Spanish Cinematheque in Madrid.

"Memento" is the second feature film by Osmanli (1927-2006), one of the pioneers of Macedonian cinema. mr/