I am constantly watching so many Banjalučani (people from Banja Luka), glued to their mobile devices, consuming huge amounts of video from either youtube or facebook.

Few people know that the owners of the first cinema in Banja Luka was Moritz Gottlieb, who opened the first permanent cinema in the city on May 11, 1911.

Gottlieb arrived in Banja Luka around 1903 and stayed until about 1928.

He closed his silver shop and moved to Zagreb with his family.

Hardly anyone from the city that I have spoken to, knows about Banja Luka's cinematic history.

UPDATE - MARCH 2020

Just after publishing this post, I was contacted through Face book by Svebor Delic, who sent the following:

There’s a translation from Serbian into English (I used Google Translate for this).

"Tokom istraživanja istorije filma u Banjaluci i Bosanskoj Krajini, naišao sam na veoma interesantne podatke, između ostalog, i o prikazivanju erotskih filmova.

Negdje 1910. godine, jedan prikazivač filmova iz Osijeka, Tomo Rajt je između ostalog puštao i erotiku. Tako postoji podatak da je jedan erotski film u Banjaluci prikazivan dan i noć bez prestanka! Tolika je bila navala publike, ali su sa druge strane zbog velikog interesa publike za takve filmove, uvedene i određene zakonske mjere, okrenute isključivo prema djeci koja su filmove mogli gledati samo u ranijim terminima prikazivanja.

Iz dokumenata je vidjivo da su i ranije, već 1905. postojale tzv. "crne predstave" sa erotskim filmovima, koje su praktikovali pojedini prikazivači, između ostalog i Karlo Lifka koji je juna te godine prikazivao u Banjaluci. Naravno takve predstave su bile rezervisane samo za imućniju gospodu".

Goran Dujaković, jedan od najvećih poznavalaca "sedme umjetnosti" u Banjaluci i profesor režije i istorije filma na banjalučkoj Akademiji umjetnosti.

"While researching the history of film in Banja Luka and the Bosnian Krajina, I came across very interesting information, among other things, about the presentation of erotic films.

Somewhere in 1910, one Osijek filmmaker, Tomo Wright, released eroticism, among other things. is an erotic movie in Banja Luka shown day and night without interruption!

It was so crowded with the audience, but on the other hand, due to the great interest of the audience for such films, certain legal measures were introduced, aimed exclusively at children who could only watch films in the past.

It is evident from the documents that earlier, as early as 1905, there were so-called "black shows" with erotic films, practiced by some presenters, including Karlo Lifka, who screened in Banja Luka in June that year, were reserved only for the more affluent gentlemen.

"Goran Dujakovic, one of the greatest connoisseurs of the" seventh art "in Banja Luka and professor of and film history at the Academy of Arts in Banja Luka.

Leave a comment