Jakov Sedlar

Sedlar was born in Split, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia in 1952. In 1972, he moved to Zagreb, where he studied Yugoslav languages, literature and philosophy at the University of Zagreb. After his graduation in 1977, he enrolled in the Academy of Dramatic Arts and studied theatre and film directing, graduating in 1981.

He started to play water polo in Split in 1966 and soon became a member of Jadran's first team and a candidate for the national team. He played 34 games for the Yugoslav youth national team.

In 1972 he transferred from Jadran to Zagreb-based Mladost, the world's best water polo club at the time. As the club in Split refused to give him a discharge letter (he would have had no problem obtaining the letter had he accepted the offer to play for any Belgrade-based club), he was not allowed to play in the Yugoslav water polo league for three years. During that time, Sedlar was allowed to play only international games; in 1975, he won the LEN Cup Winners' Cup with Mladost and the Super Cup (winning against Belgrade-based Partizan in Ljubljana 11:10). He ended his sports career in 1989.

In 1992, the newly elected director of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb Georgij Paro appointed Sedlar drama director. During his four-year-term the repertoire included plays by Shakespeare, Molière, Krleža, Brešan, Marinković and Goldoni, directed by renowned Croatian directors like Kosta Spajić, Georgij Paro, Božidar Violić and Ivica Kunčević. He took the drama ensemble on three world tours (Europe, USA and Canada, South America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand).

Sedlar was the Croatian Government's "official propagandist" during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, according to the historian Vjekoslav Perica.[4] Sedlar became known for films such as Gospa (Madonna) and Četverored (Four by Four), which portray the events of World War II and the Cold War from a Croatian nationalist perspective.[5] He also made a number of documentaries glorifying wartime President Franjo Tuđman and his party, the right-wing Croatian Democratic Union (Hrvatska Demokratska zajednica; HDZ). In an apparent bid to increase their credibility abroad, several were filmed in the English language, with actor Martin Sheen narrating.[2] In 1996, Tuđman persuaded him to accept the post of the first cultural attaché in the US (New York), where he remained until 2000. During that time, he launched various projects and organized numerous events to promote Croatian culture. Joe Tripician, who was hired to write the official biography of Tuđman and co-directed the documentary Tudjman with Sedlar (though Tripician claims he barely worked on the film and was shocked when he saw his name on it),[6] describes Sedlar as "The Leni Riefenstahl of Croatia — but without the talent."[7]

After his return from the US in 2000, the newly elected coalition government demoted Sedlar. Today, he is employed as a media consultant at the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb.

In the course of his career Sedlar directed 28 plays in professional theatres and ensembles in Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Sarajevo, Novi Sad, Sombor, Tuzla, Maribor and Mostar. He was awarded for directing the best play of the Gavella Evenings Festival in 1982 (The Gin Game, starring Mirko Vojković and Vjera Žagar-Nardelli), and in 1983 at the Small Scenes Festival in Nova Gorica (Slovenia) for the play Bent which starred Vicko Ruić, Željko Vukmirica and Boris Miholjević. His version of Macbeth was proclaimed the best visiting performance in Australia in 1996. He has staged plays in Europe, the United states, Canada, South America, Australia and New Zealand.

Sedlar was criticized for nationalism and politicization in his films. On 4 April 2016 his documentary Jasenovac - The Truth premiered. The documentary is about the alleged crimes committed by the communist authorities of the SFR Yugoslavia in the Jasenovac concentration camp between 1945 and 1951 following the Second World War, which, as claimed in the documentary, were covered up. The film also downplays and denies the extent of The Holocaust in Croatia and the World War II-era Genocide of Serbs in Croatia, contending that the number of victims were exaggerated through post-war Yugoslavian communist propaganda. At the end of the documentary, Sedlar leaves the alleged communist crimes, moves to the modern era and mentions various leftists who allegedly "cover up communist crimes" (naming Presidents Stjepan Mesić and Ivo Josipović, and Serb MP Milorad Pupovac) as well as various journalists who allegedly help them (Miljenko Jergović, Jurica Pavičić, Ante Tomić, Davor Butković and others), which was considered tendentious and irrelevant to the theme of the documentary, as well as a way of labeling people he considered inadequate.[8] Slavko Goldstein said that the documentary was "full of half-truths, lies and forgeries", and that the end in which some public figures are named was a "direct arrest warrant and indictment against individuals."[9]

Vladimir Matijanić wrote for the Slobodna Dalmacija that the documentary "does not prove that after the liberation, the partisans carried out mass executions of the prisoners, or that the Jasenovac concentration camp was solely 'working and internment camp'" (as claimed in the documentary).[10] Another controversy connected to the documentary is the alleged title in the Vjesnik newspaper from 1945 stating that corpses tossed into the Sava were reaching Zagreb from the direction of Jasenovac. Shortly after the premiere, journalist Lovro Krnić went through the Zagreb state archives and examined all the May 1945 issues of Vjesnik and found that no such headline existed. Upon closer inspection, Krnić discovered that the headline seen in the documentary had been crudely doctored, likely using Photoshop.[11] Attorney Veljko Miljević stated that Sedlar could end up in prison due to charges of falsification, denial of crime and hate speech against politicians and journalists.[12]

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