DOKU FEST review: Punk under communist regime (2025)
DOKU FEST
Slanted & Enchanted: Music on Film
In repressive times and with stagnant music, Slovenian punk reignited the true meaning of rebellion.
In 1977, when the so-called countercultural music of The Beatles or The Who began to feel too stagnant, it provoked frustration among the youth, who were hungry for a sharper edge, a new spark to rebel against the unsatisfactory reality. And then, into this void, this deafness, crashed Pankrti—the first punk rock band from behind the Iron Curtain, igniting a new era in Yugoslav music. In 2025, Andrej Košak, whose feature debut “Oustider” (1997) already touched upon the topic of Yugoslav punk subculture, returned with a documentary that delves into the raw core of that movement. Taking mugshots of its representatives and eccentric individuals, he captures not literal crimes, but the radical act of self-expression under a communist regime that treated it as such.
Punk Under Communist Regime, which premiered at the 24th Dokufest in Prizren, Kosovo, does not especially attract attention with its title. Though it sounds more like a TV reportage than a cinema movie, it surprises its viewers from the very first seconds, cutting straight to the point. When Tito visited Ljubljana on 25 April 1977, some of the youth realised that, compared to the West, they were repressed. Pankrti has just begun performing, introducing a kind of music that was still unknown on the Balkan peninsula. “That raw, honest, and so loud noise was to inspire everyone to become creative themselves”, says Gregor Tomc, member of the band. Soon, new punk bands started springing up like mushrooms after the rain, each angrier and louder than the last.
Košak smartly introduces all the influential bands from the time: Berlinski Zid (“The Berlin Wall”), Grupa 92 (Group 92), Otroci Socializma (The Children of Socialism), 4R (The Fourth Reich), and more. In total, members from fifteen different bands appear in the documentary, sharing reflections on their peak years. Alongside them, journalists like Igor Vidmar and Ali Žerdin offer an external lens, grounding the story with context and commentary. And the number of perspectives is vast, because punk means something different for everyone. For 14-year-old Rok Župan (Buldogi), it means singing loudly and writing your own lyrics. For 16-year-old Esad Babačić (Via Ofenziva), it means screaming out his frustrations without fear. For 18-year-old Mario Selih (Lublanski Psi), it is about dressing differently from their parents’ generation. Yet for all of them, it is rebellion, a possible change, expressed through words that once carried more power than they do now.
Punk Under Communist Regime is a patchwork of archival footage and material from the band members’ personal collections. Newsreels about the country’s development and political affairs are juxtaposed with gritty concert photos, present-day talking-head interviews, and cleverly selected recordings from the past. In one striking moment, when the question about a popular youth magazine and teenage behaviour is raised, we do not get a retrospective answer – we hear the voices of those living in the 1970s themselves. All of that is driven by a relentless punk soundtrack, which pulls the viewers even deeper into that world and helps them feel why youth longed for a revolution. The result is exactly the impression the punks themselves wanted: told in their words, through their leather jackets studded with defiance, and their refusal to conform to anyone or anything.
The journey through these raw, almost anarchic years extends up to Tito’s death in 1980, and the ripple effects that followed, most notably the so-called “Nazi-punk affair”, a near-fabricated scandal designed to criminalise and silence the movement. By then, many bands had begun to dissolve, as members were gradually pulled away, one by one, into mandatory military service. And yet, Košak leads the narrative as if punk never truly died. Despite changing times and ageing faces, the rebellious energy still simmers beneath the surface. The documentary concludes on neutral ground, still illuminated by the spark of youthful nonconformity, but now tinged with a hint of nostalgia. It closes not with a full stop, but with a raised fist – a reminder that even if the scene faded, its echo still refuses to be silenced.
Original Title: Punk pod komunističnim režimom
Runtime: ‘85
Country: Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia
Directed by: Andrej Košak
Written by: Andrej Košak
Co-written by: Dušan Moravec
Production: Vlade Production
Producer: Zoran Dževerdanović
Co-producers: Goran Radovanović, Teodora Stoilova-Doncheva, Stanislav Donchev
Director of photography: Gregor Kitek
Main animation: Vessela Dantcheva
Editing: Maja Kokić
Graphics design and animation: Saša Nikić
Sound designer: Ekaterina Ivanova
Make-up designer: Anita Ferčak
With: Primož Petkovšek Petko, Aleš Drobnič, Miran Potocki, Matej Sršen, Marko Banič, Gregor Tomc,
Jani Sever, Alenka Maršenič, Robi Pajer, Boris Cibej, Brane Zorman, Damjan Zorc, Rok Župan, Janez Fifolt,
Robert Berovšek Maček, Esad Babačić, Zoran Železnik, Bojan Lapanja, Dare Kavrič, Andrej Stritof,
Davorin Bešvir, Srečko Ritonja, Goran Janjević, Marjan Zver, Matjaž Učakar Maki,
Marin Rosić, Igor Vidmar, Jožica Brodarič, Ali Žerdin, Nada Vodušek
