Petar Krelja was born in Stip, Macedonia, on June 24, 1940. He is one of the leading Croatian documentary filmmakers, an acclaimed film critic and a long-time film programmer for Croatian Radio (former Radio-Zagreb). He graduated from the Zagreb University (literature). Author of emotionally engaged documentaries on social outsiders, particularly children and young people (for instance Return, 1975; Admission Post, 1977), and he also became prominent with his work dealing with extraordinary social-psychological phenomena (for instance Bids Under the Number..., 1969; Witches, 1971) as well as with his socially critical titles (Recital, 1972; Splendid Isolation, 1973). Confronting the consequences of the war in Croatia in the 1990s he frequently dealt with the theme of war refuges and war victims (for instance Zoran Sipus and His Jasna, 1992; Suzana's Smile, 1993), and this was the subject of his mid-length documentary omnibus Croatian Triptych (1993, he directed two pieces, while the third was directed by Edi Mudronja); particularly valuable is his documentary Ljubica's Gift (1991). Among his feature films the most prominent is Train Southward (1981).
Croatia