Made by Eric Hall, this film is a travelogue visiting various spots along the Dalmatian coast in Yugoslavia. The film opens with a man standing in a field, with the commentary remarking “This man is a communist – yet he is as harmless as the whetstone on which he sharpens his sickle”. Title – Dalmation Harvest Title – Photographed, recorded and edited by J Eric Hall Guide books for Yugoslavia are seen, along with an illustrated map of the Dalmatian coastline, with towns including Split,...

Made by Eric Hall, this film is a travelogue visiting various spots along the Dalmatian coast in Yugoslavia. The film opens with a man standing in a field, with the commentary remarking “This man is a communist – yet he is as harmless as the whetstone on which he sharpens his sickle”. Title – Dalmation Harvest Title – Photographed, recorded and edited by J Eric Hall Guide books for Yugoslavia are seen, along with an illustrated map of the Dalmatian coastline, with towns including Split, Rijeka and, further inland, Zagreb. The view out of a window includes hilly slopes and the shoreline next to bright blue ocean. Atop a nearby hillside, Mrs Hall, the filmmaker’s wife, sits on a wall and looks out to sea. The map is seen again, this time close-up on the city of Trst, or Trieste. Views over an oil refinery are followed by various ships in their moorings, and smaller boats in a marina with the town in the background. A man leads a cart covered with bales of straw and pulled by two oxen. Simple thatched farmhouse buildings are seen. At a lumberyard, a man cuts logs using a rotary saw, while another splits wood with an axe. The commentary notes that wood is a mainstay of the local economy, and that the port of Senj is a busy centre for its export. Coal being too expensive for the villagers, they also rely on the timber for fuel. The yard is full of huge, neat piles of timber, which are loaded onto barges. The town is seen again from the rocky hillside. Men play cards by the shore and row boats. One fisherman sits at the end of a precarious 60ft wooden ladder strung out over the water, the purpose of which is to watch for the phosphorescent glow of shoals of fish. Once spotted, the nets are dropped into the water. Fish are caught, strung together and gutted on the wall by the sea, before being stored under water to protect them from the heat of the sun. The towns of Vršac, Gradsko, Stobi and Kavadarei are seen on the map. Bunches of green grapes hang from a vine. The town of Brčko, now in Bosnia, is seen on the map. Plums, made locally into a fiery plum brandy, hang from a branch. A man pushes a cart with large hemp or wicker-covered drinking vessels full of wines and spirits. A group of young people in the street take a drink, while a man and woman use a funnel to pour the contents into a barrel. People drink from the wicker-covered jugs. Boats fill the harbour at Rijeka and a cruise ship comes slowly into shore. On a busy beach with green hills in the background, people play in the surf and stroll past a seaside café. Finally, a large but dilapidated building is seen, with a large red star on the roof and the inscription ‘Ožegovićianum’. The commentary remarks again on the wonders of the Dalmatian coastline and the importance of tourism for the region. Title – The End