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The Melody Haunts My Reverie (You Love Only Once) Samo jednom se ljubi Director: Rajko Grlic Producer: Sulejman Kapic Screenplay: Rajko Grlic,Branko Somen Cinematographer: Tomislav Pinter Cast: Predrag Manojlolvic, Vladica Milosavljevic, Mladen Budiscak, Zijah Sokolovic, Erland Josephson Jadran Film, Zagreb,1981 35 mm / English subtitles / color / 103 min. Premiered at Official Selection Cannes 1981, “Grand Prix” and “Best Actor” award Valencia Film Festival, “Trinacrya Award” Erice Film Festival Italy, “Best Yugoslav Film 1981”, “Nazor Award”, Grand Prize and Public Award Nis Festival, Selected by Yugoslavian film critics among “Ten best Yugoslavian films ever made”.

“One of the rising stars in Eastern European cinema, Rajko Grlic explores the post-war origins of “certain current states of mind” in Yugoslavian culture. Melody is the story of an idealistic young partisan war hero who becomes a leader in the emerging socialist society of a small Croatien village, and finds adjustment to the ‘new Yugoslavia’ extremely difficult. In the course of his duties he meets and falls in love with a middle-class ballerina, presumable sent to the country for ‘cultural rehabilitation.’ Becoming involved with her bourgeois family and caught within the contradictions of his society’s shifting and evolving morality, he descends into disfavor with the authorities and is eventually imprisoned. In the end we witness the final tragedy of his emotional defeat as he fails to reconcile divergent currents of personal and cultural reality. Basing his story on a diary of actual events that followed World War II, Grlic’s strong direction recreates the harsh realities of a world in transition. The sobering truth within his film is that it is “a story . . . which could happen today as it happened in the period of the film.” Grand Prix Valencia Film Festival, 1981.” - Ellen Slatkin Critical Response: “...It was decided unambiguously to award Grand Prix to a Yugoslav film by Rajko Grlic ‘Samo jednom se ljubi’ for having presented in cinematheque language with great perfection the problems of a man confronted with the use and abuse of power...” - HOJA DEL LUNES DE VALENCIA, Spain “...Rajko Grlic’s film brought surprise to Cannes festival... “ - LE MONDE, France “...After ten years of being censured finally comes to our parts Rajko Grlic’s film... “ - SOIZINFORMKINO, S.S.S.R. “...The creation of a type, without stereotype, of this dedicated man destroyed by the early changing face of socialism, the sharply etched direction of Rajko Grlic and perceptive script, and fine acting by Manojlovic and Vladica Milosavljevic as his wife mark a new movement in Yugoslav film worth watching.” - VARIETY, USA “...Rajko Grlic’s film is a beautifully shot, exceedingly well-acted account of the self-destructive love affair between a raw ex-partisan and a bourgeois ballerina in the first years of the Communist consolidation. Although politics are mainly in the background, the film’s lush fatalism says it all.” - VILLAGE VOICE, USA “...Grlic’s movie also boasts one of the most disturbing endings in recent European cinema.” - MINNESOTA DAILY, USA “... Highly sensual romance between a crude ex-partisan and a well-bred ballerina whose love is as passionate as it is politically catastrophic.” - LOS ANGELES TIMES, USA