Occupy, sit-ins, or punk performances in churches – civil disobedience is spreading like wildfire across the globe. In Zagreb, too, students of the Philosophy Department were no longer willing to accept the constantly rising tuition fees and decided to organise a student strike, the biggest since 1971. The revolt quickly spread to other universities. What started more or less spontaneously out of anger soon developed its own rules. Democracy needs practice, too, and there are no manuals on how to keep the protests going, mobilise the public and find an appropriate form of resistance; there’s only the process itself. Director Igor Bezinovic used to be a student of this department. His film is an anatomy of the asynchronous processes, the shifting hierarchies, the debates about opposition and opportunism, the fear of failing under public pressure. The Minister of Education on the other side knows exactly where the weak points of such a protest lie. How long will the students hold out and know that the teachers are on their side once the money stops coming? “Blokada” openly sympathises with the students but does not conceal how lonely and wearying it can be to be radical. The filmmaker is always present and very precise in his observations. Despite the many different perspectives Bezinovic managed to make a very coherent film.
– Cornelia Klauß