Adriatic Adventure

 “The Paper / Novine” Season 1, directed by Dalibor Matanić, written by Ivica Dikić, 2016

This Netflix series is set in a working town on the Adriatic coast in Croatia, Rijeka, just below Trieste and the Istrian Peninsula.  The shadow of the reactionary wars to breakup the Yugoslav Federation still hang over this ‘modern’ seaport.  It was written by a former journalist, Dikić, whose picture of the city, country and people is dark and revealing.  While we don’t get to Ustaše-level corruption and violence, we get hints.  This is the first Croatian series to get international exposure.  

It centers around the last ‘serious’ newspaper in Rijeka city, Novine, which attempts to do real journalism while the other papers and websites are sunk in sensationalism, sex, scandal and shallow takes on everything.  We watch as this narrative of ‘investigative’ journalism breaks down.  After several betrayals, one veteran reporter comments that integrity and journalism can no longer be mentioned in the same breath.  He knows because he’s part of it, as he's most worried about holding his job, not 'the truth.'

The main journalistic issues are two: a deadly but mysterious late-night crash that killed 3 young people, which the powers-that-be in Rijeka want to cover-up; and a wealthy fraud ring using fake invoices involving the mayor, the police chief and a top construction magnate.  Good luck getting the journalists on the ‘last serious newspaper’ to crack these stories, though they try.  For one, Novine is first bought by the construction boss, who wants to use it for fraud and to manipulate public opinion.  Then the Mayor gets his hands on the paper through surrogates.  On two occasions, to save their jobs, the ‘editors’ burn cover stories by their staff that reveal the fraud ring.  With self-censorship like this, who needs official censorship?

And sweet Jesus, all these people drink constantly.  They repeatedly meet in a drab, smoky bar hashing over journalism but mainly their own personal issues. Flirting and smoking are de riguer.  Cheap Croatian pint beers, wine, whiskey and brandy come up in every scene.  Adultery is rampant, relationships are troubled and there is a serial rapist among the local ruling class.  The rulers trade favors to prop each other up, even the Catholic Archbishop who is part of the elite and wields his religious power like any other boss.  This is when the top dogs aren’t trying to jail or intimidate each other.  

One ‘star’ journalist takes a month off, giving up on research to wallow in personal issues and somehow remains employed.  Two editors and one journalist cover their asses and kill stories.  One careerist woman does what the crooked boss tells her, pretending to be an editor.  One journalist gets fired and becomes the spokesman for the right-wing Mayor running for President of Croatia, a clone of Hungary's Orban, a predecessor to Trump.  Another journalist who is fired ends up on a cheesy news website that scandal-baits.  Scandal is the main form of politics it seems, and post-journalism its message.  The Mayor is aided by a smart and efficient former Croatian spy who has mother problems.  The lead cop spends his time gambling and consorting with various criminals while doing cover-ups.  Over it all is a rich Mama, who seems to have hidden powers over her son and others.

The first season paints a picture of a corrupt and fucked-up Croatian city even among the white collars.  It is somewhat similar to Baltimore’s The Wire but more focused on the journalism angle, and without so many 'heroic' cops.  Journalism, a former bastion of ‘truth,’ is shown to be vulnerable and obedient to power.  The writer was a journalist in Croatia, so he knows of what he speaks.  Journalists and leftists will understand this portrayal of a former workers’ state now sunk in a creepy and reactionary form of capitalist restoration, with all the personal impacts on individuals that implies.

Prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left:  “The Post,” “When Journalism Was a Thing,” “Manufacturing Consent” (Chomsky); “Turning Off NPR,” “No Longer Newsworthy,” “Southern Cultural Nationalism,” “Yugoslavia – Peace, War and Dissolution” (Chomsky); “Welcome to the Desert of Post-Socialism,” “The Ghost of Stalin”(Sartre); “WR:  Mysteries of the Organism,” “Living in the End Times” (Zizek), "Comrade Detective."  

The Kulture Kommissar

February 11, 2021