The Birch Tree

The Birch Tree

1967 · 92 min · ★ 7.6 · Drama, Romance

A beautiful but ailing girl is married to a harsh man who doesn't care for her. Only after she dies does he realize that he actually loves her.

Directed by Ante Babaja · Written by Slavko Kolar

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Cast

Make it a double feature

3h 54m together

The Birch Tree

Zorba the Greek

A close match in mood and era.

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Elbow (As Such)Elbow (As Such) · 1959
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★ 10.01959
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A tale of two brothers from babies to adulthood told without words. One brother is upstaged by the other from the crib onward. Eventually the tables are turned.
Do You Hear Me?Do You Hear Me? · 1965
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A meditative essay.
JusticeJustice · 1962
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A man and a woman quarrel in the street. Others take sides, and a brawl begins. The police finally intervene and justice is carried out in a manner befitting this stylised, slap-stick satire. - MIFF
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With the film Good Morning Ante Babaja took one last look in the bloodthirsty jaws also known as Time – with eyes wide open. Until then he did not spare his characters death and transience, and when the time came he directed a childishly inquisitive view on his own inevitable ending. He did it with a small miniDV camera and in a matter of seconds turned from a professional filmmaker to an amateur who films not only when he can and when the conditions are favorable, but always and everywhere because he feels a need to express himself through film and think in terms of film. At the end of his five decades long career, Babaja had the modesty and the inspiration to start again. As an 80-year-old he made his first feature-length documentary film, using digital technology for the first time. Good Morning impressively and consistently rounds up the artistic and life trajectory of a great modernist and paints a unique authorial trace he left in the history of our cinema.
Waiting RoomWaiting Room · 1975
Waiting Room
★ 8.01975
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Short Croatian documentary from the former Yugoslavia by Ante Babaja that captures the different faces in a waiting room.
A MisunderstandingA Misunderstanding · 1958
A Misunderstanding
★ 7.21958
MovieDrama
The local postal service makes a mistake delivering a small figurative sculpture to a miller and a miller stone to a museum. The museum curator, not aware of the mistake, starts celebrating this abstract shape, influencing even the local artists to imitate that kind of shapes when portraying people.
The Stone GateThe Stone Gate · 1992
The Stone Gate
★ 7.21992
MovieDramaRomance
A famous cardiologist with an interest in the afterlife almost dies from a heart attack during a jogging session, but is saved from by a vision of a mysterious and beautiful woman whom he starts seeing everywhere he goes.
The CabinThe Cabin · 1966
The Cabin
★ 7.01966
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A study of activity surrounding a changing room by a place of swimming.
The Emperor's New ClothesThe Emperor's New Clothes · 1961
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★ 6.61961
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The adaptation of Hans Cristian Andersen's tale filmed on a white background. It is also the first Croatian movie in color.
Gold, Frankincense and MyrrhGold, Frankincense and Myrrh · 1971
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★ 5.81971
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In an island town, a professor pensioned before his time, together with his wife, takes care of the hundred year old Maddona Makantuna, a dispossessed land owner.
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Lost Homeland
★ 4.61980
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The funeral in his native village evokes the main character's reminiscences from the childhood, but the bygone time exist only in his memories.
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A short documentary film that follows and describes the city of Rijeka through one day - its port, shipyard, fish market, streets, bridges, parks, houses and the old town of Trsat.

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