Plastic Jesus was banned immediately after production in 1971 by the Yugoslav authorities and the young writer-director Lazar Stojanovic was locked up in jail for three years. The comparison in the film between Nazism and Titoism, was apparently too much for the censor, although the metaphorical (hence subversive) use of certain archive material and the spirit of freedom in which the film was made certainly must have contributed to the reaction of the powers that be.In the film, clearly influenced by compatriot Dusan Makavejev (especially his WR – Mysteries of the Organism), interwove a minor narrative line, existing newsreel footage, song and political and sexual slogans.Tomislaw Golovac, the bearded protagonist, plays an anarchist film-maker, whose Kroatian-American girlfriend keeps singing country and western songs – one of which is ‘Plastic Jesus’. She leaves him, he finds another woman and goes on to get into trouble with the police. As well as this plot, we witness several murders. The shots of the wedding of one of Tito’s secret agents was cut out and destroyed after the film was banned. In the present version only a still is left of this section. The film also comprises singular archive material, such as the opening of the fascist Kroatian parliament in Zagreb in 1942 and shots of the student rebellion in 1968 in Belgrade.
