When we speak of the history of Croatian film, the subject of Expressionism is rarely mentioned. In fact, many believe that nothing that is visually exciting and inspiring about the global world of film expressionism made any impact on Croatian production. As it had merely been at an early stage in the 1910s and 1920s, this was not possible. Escape into mysticism, interest in the subconscious, poverty and destitution: these are only some of the most typical expressionist elements in film. Some say Croatian cinematography has never possessed the mise-en-scène associated with them. But perhaps it has.

While contemplating the pioneers of film in Croatia and elsewhere, it is impossible not to mention the versatile Franjo Ledić (Derventa, 1892–Zagreb, 1981). Early in the second decade of the twentieth century he ventured to Berlin, where he joined a throng of young German filmmakers in 1912. We find out from his records that Ledić first worked as an extra, and then as a make-up artist, props manager, set designer, and assistant cameraman. He named Oskar Messter as his employer, the pioneer of German film who is credited with the invention of the Maltese Cross. While working in Messter's studios, Ledić started to collaborate with Ernst Lubitsch and his muse Pola Negri. Ledić stated that a bond between the three of them had been inevitable, primarily because of their common Slavic origin. Ledić continued his work for the Messter-Woche newsreel. After the outbreak of World War I, the German film industry ground to a halt, but at the end of the war Franjo Ledić—at the invitation of Ernst Lubitsch—joined the Projektions-AG “Union” (known also as PAGU) company as an assistant. He remembered working on the highly

successful Lubitsch films featuring Negri, such as Carmen (1918) and Madame Dubarry (1919), as well as on Negri's film Mania, Die Geschichte einer Zigarettenarbeiterin (1918), directed by Eugen Illes.

At roughly the same time, Ledić began working as a short film director. In 1918, he made U borbi sa suncem (“Fighting the Sun”), in four acts, Klub samoubojica (‘suicide Club”), and Propast svijeta (“The End of the World”), in two acts.