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Chapter 1
War in the Balkans — Moving Images
This book surveys the wide range and variety of films that were made in
response to the 1990s crisis in the Balkans, and in particular the Bosnian war.
Ittries to compensate for the insufficient attention paid to the ambiguous roles
ediated moving images of conflict in the Balkans play.
‘Why film?
First, because the visual has a crucial role in discourse formation at any level
and because the informative power of transmitted images is at least as influen-
tial asthe exchange that takes place in spoken and written language. Unlike the
written word, however, the role of mediated images is so subtle that it often
remains unaccounted for. Looking at cinematic texts helps bring to light the
underlying dynamics of cross-cultural image-making as it unravels within the
1, be
in today’s world of electronic media, images reach out wider than writings, a
fact which is still rarely recognised or explored in a persistent manner. Now.
wider context of communicated concepts and interpretations. Se
adays it is the moving image rather than the printed word that carries more
persuasive weight.
By analysing film and visual representation,
nain confined to expla
nations that do not offer solutions. I cannot explain how to put an end to the
violence or sette the competing claims. I do not know how to shelter hungry
and desolate refuge
how to provide therapy for raped and traumatised
women, of how to give children with amputated lim
need when growing up. All| can do is critically examine the politics of rep-
resentation and its impact on the developments in the troubled Balkans.
the selF-esteem they will
This is, however, more significant than it may at first seem,
I analyse the transformations in Balkan narrative di
bal exposure the region
through the medium of film, My study is not just an account of the
film-making effort that came into being as a response to the Balkan criss,
Rather, it is an attempt to show how film registered the dynamic interplay of
course and visual rep.
resentation that take place in the context of the gl
ceptions and self-perceptions, and to show why the continuity and the
on of cinematic mediation is of crucial importance. 6 CINEMA OF FLA
ES
In my study I persistently point out that cross-cultural causality is @ crucial
area on which to focus, because it has more to do with the construction of mar-
ginality via selectively mediated images than nationalist discourse does (this
last one I see asa derivative ofthe Balkans asa socio-cultural periphery’ motif),
Key Concepts
Specific features of my approach throughout the text involve the way [look at
the concept of ‘Balkans and atthe issues of transition and con
Balkans
In my approach I retain ‘the Balkans’ as a common denominator when refer
ring to this diverse and complex region, which allows me to name and critique
important transnational issues that often remain neglected when the explo-
ation is limite
and taking th
to individual countries. Abandoning the one-county approach
ssues on a cross-cultural level, even within the boundaries of a
arch. What
we see even more clearly when we transpose it onto the region
region, isa necessary precondition of this res.
ce when looking
at one country
at large.
“Any serious consideration of the Balkan peninsula, writes Misha Glenn
runs up against the unanswerab
juestion of borders’ (Glenny, 1999, p. xxi)
led to use
ture of the geographical, historical, and political: When brought together, these
He points out that every definition of the Balkans is comp. ‘a mix
clements often do not coincide with concrete countries and leave the concep
tual contours of the region fuzzy and flexible.
My concept of the Balkans is not identical with the former Yugoslavia, but
tes to a wider region in South-East Europe bordering on Asia Minor, the
islands of the east Mediterranean and the Black Sea shores of the Caucasus ~
the lands travelled by such a quintessential Balkan author as Romanian Panait
Istrati!
[In my usage, the Balkans is not a geographical concept but one that denotes
a cultural enti
widely defined by shared Byzantine, Ottoman and Austro.
Hungarian legacies and by the specific marginal
part ofthe European cor
ositioning of the region in
inent, Nominally, the Balkans
1egt0, Bosnia and Herzegov
Te Bulgarts; Macedonia, Serbia and Monts
and Albania. Countries such as Groatia, Slovenia, Greece, Romania,
Moldova and Turkey are also ‘Balkan’ in a number of elements of their history,
heritage and self-conceptualisation, even though some of them may be, for a
variety of reasons, positioned differently in the modern W.
More i
stern imaginary.
portantly, however, my concept of ‘the Balkans’ is especially com
cemed with this unique positioning, defined by some as marginality, but by
‘others as a crossroads or a bridge across cultures. (In the same way, my concept WAR IN THE BALKANS ~ MOVING IMAG!
of Europe relates not only to West European countries but also to the Western
hierarchies of v
ues and lifestyles. Only ocasionally is Europe referred to in
this book in is geographical sense, mostly to point out the trivial fact that the
Balkans happen tobe located thee,
Greece a Balfan Turkey, I was told, did not belong, as it stood with the
InlmicMiddle Eastern work. Greece could not fit into the Balkan mould
either, because in many contents it'stand’ for civilisation, and moreo
EU and NATO member. I have had no comments on why Romania, Slovenia
or Croatia may not be suitable for inclusion, but I have no doubt that other
critics could pick on these as wel.
While I agree that there are contexts in which these countries do not appear
‘Balkan, there isa range of contexts in which they do, and in the conere
cussion of the frst part of this book I will show in what precise contexts they
fall under the ‘Balkan’ concept, Where do the Balkans end, as Ziéek (1994) has
shown, is a question which cannot be answered in a precise definition, as this
would require measuring the imaginary?
I have several reasons for insisting on an inclusive unde
tanding of the
Balkans. First, all countries here share a common socio-cultural legacy and
modern-day
fends, Although the concept of the ‘Ottor
n Tegacy’ is far 100
often abused by journalists to explain every manifestation of Iitcal cul
ture, the very fact that the Balkans were part of the Ottoman empire should not
be ignored, as it is in the roots of shared trends such as the orientalis isolation
of the region, the hostility to Islam and the numerous territorial claims which
‘most often can be traced back to political decisions taken in response to the dis-
solution of the Ottoman monolith, The le
acies of communism, shared by
many of the countries in
region, should also be considered when one
explores their present-day economic volatility, the state-sanctioned national-
ism and the lack of stable political structures.
Furthermore, as the Balkans’ have been labell
sd and treated by the West as
smantic space characterised by common traits, the critical
an indivisible
examination of this labelling and treatment should not be carried out piece
‘meal, but as a whole, Take all the media speculation of contagious Balkan
of the Balkans as a ‘powder keg, or even of the Balkans as balkanised
~ in most of these not much difference is recognised between the Balkan
viole
countries
the war in former Yugoslavia has, no doubt, had serious repercussions on
all the other Balkan countries. Many of the phenomena we witness in the
forme:
ia ~ such as the malicious nationalist propaganda, the large-
considered as an
scale emigration or the profaned public space ~ can bi
extrapolation of trends present in other Balkan countries. Ths is why, while my discussion often focuses solely on Yugoslav examples, it can often be expanded
to apply to the Balkan sphere at large
‘One more reason why we should look at th
the imag
on a visual level. The similarity in landscape, architecture and dress styles
justifies their blurring into one shared inventory of imag
together is that according td
fered to Westerners by the media, the Balkan countries all look alike
ss — the Kosovo
mistaken for a Bosnian Muslim, Bulgarian Pomak or
Albanian villager is easily
a Romanian Vlach, and as far as demeanour and appearance is concerned, there
is not much difference between politicians like Albanian Sali Berisha and
Bosnian Serb Radovan Karadzic. The Balkan iconic repertoire of Western
‘media remained unchanged with the eruption of the new crisis in Kosovo, as
the same visual tropes were repeated all over again. The media face of the
Balkans is one of destroyed churches and mosques, refugee women in camps,
tray sheep on the dusty streets of villages and alien UN forces.
While it would be relatively easy for me to persuade a Western audience that
[have good reasons to insist on an inclusive Balkan concept, such an endeay
‘our is likely to face fierce resistance within the Balkan context itself. IFone looks
from the West, the Balkans are often perceived as culturally coherent and
homogenous Tooks from within, he
wever, they are more often per-
Geived as diverse and heterogeneous. Balkan countries generally
do not relate very favourably to each other and prefer to think of themselves as
unique rather than similar to their Balkan neighbours. In spite of the shared
heritage, they prefer to stress the difference rather than the closeness. Take the
variety of alphabets — Greek, Cyrillic, Latin (and even this most common one
is modified with a variety of phonetical diacritics for each of the languages in
the region). Or the readily articulated differences in languag history
and foreign orientation. The failure to acknowledge shared traits and the lack
of interaction
ts in unproductive isolation from each other. It is a speci
feature of the Balkan situation that each one of the ¢
P
than to any of its Balkan neighbours. Greeks look traditionally to the UK,
intries in the region
sto look at some West European country for cultural identification rather
Romanians to France, Bulgarians to Germany and the Slovenes to Austria and
Iraly:
‘and this resistance to
The Balkans do not conceptualise themselves toget
togetherness has become an essential part of the concept of balkanisation,
which connotes them as consistent only in their persistence to stay divided, The
unwillingness to recognise that cultural closenes
5 to the neighbours is logical
and may even be beneficial is a profound characteristic of the national philo:
ophy of most Balkan countries, lying much dee}
sr than the economic
ition that are occasionally observed on
cooperation or formal political inte
the surface RIN THE BALKANS ~ MOVING IMAGES °
Having said al this, I must underline th
here are examples of a movement
toward mutual recognition and assertion of a shared Balkan
cinema in the 1990s there have been a
cultural space. In
ries of co-productions involving vari
The film festival at The
a, Balkan film prog
ous Balkan countries
sloniki specialises in
showcasing Balkan cine rammes are a regular feature at the
other film festivals in the region, Balkan Media magazine regularly reviews and
compares the cinematic output of all Balkan countries and the Greek Helsinki
Monto:
works systematically on studies of hate speech and media in the
region.
Repositioning .
In the 1990s, the cold-war line dividing Europe into two was abolished. The
changing international balance meant that all countries in the region had to
reposition themselves within the wider context of the new Europe.
Did the new times mean a deletion of the mental division of Europe along.
the lines of'the West and the Rest
ideas of mutual understanding and harmony in a pan-Eu
however? Was there public consensus on the
-opean shared home?
The international roles of all countries in the East were dynamically changing,
Unlike Cent
Eastern Europe, which seemed to gravitate toward Europe
‘proper, the shift in the Balkans seemed to move in thi
Yug
opposite direction. The
av breakup enhanced the isolation of the region. The Balkans gravitated
froma dreary unj
edictable outpost ofthe old Soviet Empire toward a g
orientalis fringe of the new Europe. Within a short time, they became more
‘other’ than they used to be.
In discussing
this repositioning, opinion-makers readily applied a cultural
approach. The journalistic and diplomatic discourse on the Balkans more and
more often referred to the juxtaposition of Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian
legacies, and was largely built up on concepts such as the ‘cash of civilisations
‘thno-linguistic tapestry’ and ‘dormant ethnic tensions. The continuing recon-
plualisation of the Balkan space set
Balkans as “Third World’,
Europe. I believe
fe context for a perception of the
ind defined the terms of their quest fo
cultural aspects of this process to be of utmost import
ance and will be analysing them in my text.
‘admission to
Textual Versus Contextual Analysis
In my approach I am more preoccupied with contextual rather than textual
analysis. Where world cinema is concerned, textual analysis only makes sense
if grounded in good contextual study, which takes into account a whole range
of socio-political and cultural specifics, one that gives as much weight to t
background and implicit politics ofa film as it does to its aesthetics and cine.
matic language. This is why I often choos
ge body of works and 10 CINEMA OF FLAME:
see how they coexist in the dynamic context of film production, distribution,
‘exhibition and reception, rather than concentrate on analysing one particul
text. I feel I can offer more insights into a given film by continuall
alising rather than by textually analysing,
For such an analysis to be meaningful, I widely employ the concept of Balkan
cinema. As there has been little regional unity or even cultural interaction
between the Balkan countr st decades, such a concept may seem
somewhat artificial. My kno the cinematic traditions of the countries
in the region, however, reveals a number of consistent aesthetic, stylistic and
thematic features that allow me to be confident when speaking of Balkan cin
sma as an entity. Film hi ind rich tradition in countries such as Greece
and Yugoslavia, and the cinemas of Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Albania have
Ided sensitive and beautiful works, many of which will be discussed in this
text. do not doubt that in the years t will sce th tof Balkan
recognised in film scholarship, and studies on Balkan film will appear
to fill in the curren
The Films
‘The cinem the deconstruction of the Berlin Wall became synony
sed in documentaries and
features. It was not the demolition of the Berlin Wall, however, bu the crisis in
the Balkans that became the subject of most extensive cinematic interest, The
Bosnian war was explored in nearly forty features and over two hundred doc-
entaries made worldwide, thus becoming the event that occupied the minds
the largest number of film-makers since 1989,
zificant here that I first and foremost highlight the films that
onsider most important. While the US-UK co-production Welcome to Sara
ly received the best distribution and became the most
seen film on the topic of the Bosnian war, it ranks far below other films
in artistic merit. In my view, the most significant films made in response t
Yugoslavia’s breakup are: Pred dozhdot/ Before the Rain (1994), To vlemma to
Odiysseal Ul 1995), Underground (195
Village, Preity Plame (1996) and Bure baruta/Powder Keg!Cabaret
1998), Looking back over the cinema of the Balkans, I feel I shoul
everal works which, were they better known, would greatly assist
the understanding of today’s aesthetic quests of Balkan film-makers and the
way history and politics are treated in the cinema of the region: Theo
dan Zafran
978), Emir Kusturica’s Otac na
zbenom putul Wh Business (1985) and the early work
of Dusan Makavejev, Ze! and Zi lovie WAR
HE BALKANS ~ MOVING IMAGES u
After several years of working on this project, I
how many films ~ features and documentaries - were made as a reaction to the
ring the 1990s,
ven after completing an annotated filmography listing over two hundred
breakup of Yugoslavia and the overall crisis in the Balkans
titles, I have reasons to believe that at least another hundred remain unac
unted for. Every week I come across reports about new films being shown at
festivals or that are cu
ly in production,
Sometime in 1998 I decided that it was now futile to try to keep up. Lam still
doing my best to see as m:
of the new films as possible, but none of those
that I have seen since the end of 1997 has challenged or changed the essence of
the claims that I make in this book. Therefore, in 1999, I could draw the line
and go public with what I had to say on the issues that had conc
ing this period,
ned me dur-
The body of film productions about the Balkan conflict is, in its nature, a
truly international project. From the point of view of its international percep-
civil war in Spain, Hundreds
aged in public support for the cause of ending the war in ex
Yugoslavia. The most visible ex
tion, the Bosnian war was often compared tot
of intellectuals
sion of solidarity came from the
international community of film-makers. Gatherin
different countries around the world ~ the UK, Ui
in the Balkans from many
A, Canada, France, Belgium,
¥, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic,
the Netherlands, Switzerland, Aust
ia, Nor
e, Australia, New Zealand and Russia
Gres
ry engaged in a truly transna-
Unlike Spain, in Bosnia th
tional cinematic pro
cameras had firmly taken
over from arms, giving a clear indication that, with time, media had acquired
an equal combat power.
References to the Balkan war are scattered throughout a number of films
from the 1990s: from Blue (1993) by the late British director Der
while chronicling his own deat
refugees, to Hay
Jarman who,
from AIDS, talked about the plight of Bosnian
ckete's Bolshe Vita (1996), which featured docu:
ary footage from the Bosnian war in
Principio do Mundotfourney to the Beginning of the World (1997) by Portuguese
veteran Manuel de Oliveira, which featured Marcello Mastroianni, in his last
ole, talking about Sarajevo, to Elia Suleiman's Chronicle of a Disappearance
1996), where radio commentary on the Bosnian war provides the background
0 the daily concer
s ofthe Palestinian protagonists
The global trend that turns all feature film-making into a mul
national
enterprise is clearly visible in the case ofthe features (atleast thirty) that looked
at aspects of the Yugoslav breakup. Territorio comanche/Comanche Territory
(199;
Spain,
(1995) was written and directed by Serbs, and told the story of exiles from
for example, told a story about Sarajevo but was a co-production of
any, France and Argentina
a AmerikalSomeone Else’ America 2 CINEMA OF FLAMES
Montenegro and Spain who lived in New York but who also travelled to the
Texan-Mexican border at Rio Grande, The film was produced by France, the
UK, Germany and Greece, though none of these countries was referred to in
the film in any way. Before the Rain was financed by France, the UK and
Macedonia. Welcome to Sarajevo was an UK-USA co-production
Some of the films, indeed, wi f
e produced with financing from only one
country, but nevertheless featured a diverse crew and cast. The New Zealand
production, Broks
ish (1996), the story of an interethnic couple
‘oppressed by a violent Croatian father, brought Maoris, Croatians and Chinese
together on the set. The Italian Il carnieret¢
rag (1997) us
2 Bulgarian
actress in the leading role and told the story of two Italian hunters caught in
the middle of the Sarajevan siege. The Greek film Ul
ican Harvey Keitel, Swede Erland Josephson and Romanian Maia Morgenstern
Major European directors turned their attention to the Balkans: some to
ses? Gaze featured Amer
enjoy acclaim, like Goran Paskaljevié with his Powder Keg, some to stir contro-
tcism, like
versy, like Emir Kusturica with his Underground, some to face
Jean-Luc Godard with his Forever Mozart (1996),
Stil, most features came from the countries of the former Yugoslavia —
Bosnia and Herzegovina (Savrseni krug/Perfect Circle, 1997), Serbia (Preny
Village, Pretty Flame), Croatia (Kako je poeeo rat na mom otoku/How the War
Little Island, 1996) and Macedonia (Before t
The films were telling different stories. The most ambitious ones
Starred on My 1 Rain).
ling the complex history of the Balkans, like Underground or Ulysses’ Gaze
Some chose to focus on the fate of displaced children in Sa
Circle), 0
Premeditated Murder, 1995; Dupe od mramora
hers on the stagnation in Belgrade (Ubisivo s pred
Ass, 1995), on commit-
ted journalists (We
me to Sarajevo; Comanche Territory), on the difficult
choices in taking sides (Before the Rain; Pretty Vil
the Heart, 1998; Savior, 1998), or on the experienc
lage, Pretty Flame; Shot through
of displacement (Broken
English; Made Weggefthrten: Funf Geschichten aus dem Krieg/Tired Compan:
ions, 1997}
The mushrooming of new countries after the breakup of Yugoslavia was fet
as far as the entertainment field: as early as 1994 critics in trade journals could
not help noticing the proliferation of East European entries for the Oscar com-
petition. Whereas befo
Yugoslavia would submit only a single entry, now
lavia’s entry for 1994, for
prigal Vukovar: Poste Restante,
here were five countries in competition. Rump Yugo
example, was Boro Dratkovit’s Vukovar — je
« co-production between the USA, Cyprus, Italy and Yugoslavia, and for 1995,
Emir Kusturica’s Underground, a co-production between France, Germany and
Hungary, with the participation of Radio-TV Serbia, The international involve IN THE BALKANS - MOVING IMAGES
ment clearly indicated that one-country financing for film was no longer @
possiblity for smaller countries in the 1990s.
the Balkan crisis attracted the attention of internationally renowned docu
‘mentarians, such as French yeterans Chris Marker, Marcel Ophuls and German
Helga Reidemeister, along with many more, bringing the number of docu-
mentaries to well over 200, Documentat
s were made not only by professional
film-makers but also by well-known public intellectuals whose usual domain is
the written word, ike Frenchman Bernard-Henri Lévy
nadian Michael
Ignatieff. A number of displaced Yugoslav directors returned from exile to make
their films, while others had to go
0 exile to continue their work
Documentaries scrutinised and critically investigate
the UNPROFOR and the UN involvement, the per
's? the workings of media! and the refugee camps." There was a range
of documentaries on issues as far apart as the Serbian point of view,! cultural
criticism of Neue Slovenische Kunst (NSK)," life in Bosnia after the war'* and,
‘most recently, Kosovo-themed documentaries." The best-known documentary
probably remains the international TV co-production Yugoslavia: Death of a
ion (1995), which used a large variety of documentary sources and featured
awide variety of topics
— Western mercenaries
interviews with most of the main political figures involved in the conflict.'©
vithin Yugoslavia came up with a sp
ic gente of short
i, Which can be placed somewhere between documentary and fiction for
their use of re-enactment and autobiographical elements. The hilarious Studio
B92 Zelimir Zilnik’s Tito po drugi put medju srbimalTito amo
Second Time (1993), which featured a Tito impersonator taking a
downtown Belgrade, revealed a great deal about the state of mind of ordinary
Serbs and provided more social insig igative
journalism, Films like Ghetto (1995), another production of the dissident
Studio B de
and witnessing the profanation of public life, or Rupa w dusu/Hole in the Soul
(1994) by cosmopolitan exile Dusan Makavejey, testifying to the isolation
of Yugoslavia, are the deeply personal and painful works of concerned
intellectuals.
the Serbs for a
I around
ts than any other piece of in
, depicting a rock musician cruising around his native Belg
Sarajevo was the subject for several dozen films. Parallel with its destruction
the city was perpetually revived in the films that chronic:
its proud survival
There were films telling about the inhumanity of everyday life in Sarajevo,
about the children of Sarajevo, about the women, about the villains, about the
artists, abou
the horrors of war and the insanity of it all. There were also fea
tures set in Sara
vo, and seen by larger audiences. OF these, only the stories of
Perfect Circle, about the bonding of a lonely writer and two orphaned boys, and
of Heroje/ Heroes (1998), concerning a tense evening spent awaiting th
of a missing friend, were told from the point of view of locals; all the rest “4 CINEMA OF FLAM
followed the formula of the transplanted Western narrator. ‘There were films
that told the story from a very personal point of view, like the documentary
nade by the Australian who, while filming the movie, fell in love with his
Bosnian sound engineer. The
films that proved that the humour of Sar
jevans, though black, is still intact, like Mizaldo (1994), which was made as an
extended infomercial about the city. And there were the testimonies shot by
Sarajevans themselves — the works of the Sarajevo Group of Authors (SeGA\,
who chronicled day by day the agony and the strength of their city
Besides
aries, there were various productions that
remain unknown and difficult to track down. Th
makers who, insp
‘were indie movies by film:
rely by humanitarian urges, travelled to Yugoslavia and
filmed whatever they came across, butt
product of their work. Besides the television documentaries produced and aired
by BBC | and BBC2, CNN, PBS, Channel 4 and others, there
known television programmes. While most of the British documentaries were
made for te
did not know how to distribute the
vision and thus received better exposure,
American documentaries
were made independently and received little
stivals or at of
exposure, mostly seen at
ional screenings. There was also the
genre of the so-called home-videos, shot on the spot in former Yugoslavia an
then distributed via clandestine channels to the relevant diasporas across
the world, In addition to film, the
has been intensive activity-in the field of
multimedia, and new technologies were widely used for projects such as the
French-supported Sarajevo on-line journalism site, the on-line exhibits of the
Sarajevo pop group Trio or the web-site of the Zagreb-based feminist grou
Nona women."
Reputed international film festivals, with their attentive and committed
audiences, proved to be the ideal venue fo
featuring the creative work of refugg
the films about Bosnia. And, indeed,
Programmers across the world did a lot to bring the films about the conflict in
former Yugoslavia to their festivals. The first major vei
© to schedule a special
scties related to Bosnia was Berli
In February 1993, it held a programme
called ‘No More War’ Ironically, this scheduling was a bit rushed ~ only a few
films had appeared by that time, and the end of the war was nowhere near in
sight. T
programme included a few documentaries by German and French
film-makers. As no feature had yet been made, a film by Bosnian-born Emir
Kusturica was screened
na Drea (1993), which dealt with America and
barely touched on the Bosnian crisis.*
After 1993, films related to the war in former Yugoslavia started
regularly at all major feature and docum
ating
tary festivals. In 1994 Milcho
Manchevski’s Before the Rain won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival
rhe 1995 Cannes season brou
awards to Kusturica’s Undergro
nd and Theo
Angelopoulos’ Ulysses’ Gaze. Miche
Winterbottom’s Welcome to Sarajevo was WAR IN THE BALKANS ~ MOVING IMAGES 15
cone of the contestants at Cannes in 1997, Srdjan Dragojevie’s Pretty Village
Pretty Fla
e enjoyed acclaim at festivals all over the world, and an award at Sao
Paulo, Kenovi
Perfect Circle won the main award at the 1997 Tokyo Film
Festival. Films from and about the Balkans played at special panoramas at the
International Documentary Filmfest in Amsterdam in 1993, at the Inter-
national Feminist Filmfest in Créteil in 1997 and at the Toronto International
Film
at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival and in Montreal, Vancouver, San
estival in 1997. Pilms about Bosnia are regularly featured at Sundance,
Francisco, Chicago, Mannheim, Karlovy Vary and London,
Two festivals that regularly showcase the production of films from and about
the region should be mentioned in particular: the Thessaloniki Film Festival
and the Alpe-Adria cinema meetings in Trieste. Local festivals that take place
in the countries of former Yugoslavia are also important as itis here that most
of the domestic productions are shown — Pula, Belgrade, Subotica and Bitola,
In 1995, a special series called ‘Sarajevo Film Days’ was organised in Zagreb.
Sarajevans themselves were quite active in scheduling film events and there
were several organised during the siege by courageous groups and individuals.
The Sarajevo International Film Fest
val was first held in the autumn o!
and has since become a regular event. Iti at this venus
about Bosnia."
Depending on the background of the film-maker, the specific approach or
hat Sarajevans them-
selves get to
the target audiences of the distributor, various films received visibility through
various channels. Miss Sarajevo (1995), for example, made by a U2 fan, Bill
ind MTV fa
populist show of Arkan and Ceca’s Wedding (1995). Call-
Carter, became well known to Billboard
in Serbia watched
ing the Ghosts (19%
difficult path taken by two rape survivors from the Bosnian camps who decide
to talk publicly about their experiences, Polish Demony wojny/Demons of War
whereas turbo-folk fans
became best known to feminist audiences, as ittells of the
(1998), a sequel in the popular series Pigs starring Boguslaw Linda, attracted
fans of the action-adventure genre, Other films reached out to religious audi-
ences: the Croat story of the Vir
Mary’s appearance, Gospa (1993), was
exhibited by a California-based
tholic film distribution network. The gay
community expressed interest in Marble Ass, featuring a transvestite prostitute
from Belgrade who fights violence in his own special way. Anthropologists
s films made by other anthropologists, featuring commu
nal rituals atthe intersection of tradition and modernity.” As a result of this
showed their stu
segmented audience, some films
chieved popularity within a limite
ception
framework while remaining virtually unknown beyond it. Only a few enjoyed
a wider exposure, Many of the acclaimed films about the Balkans were classi
fied as low entertainment value by distributors. Seen only at festivals, th
F theatrical distribution. The situation is only partially 6 CINEMA OF FLAMES
corrected by some distributors of arthouse type feature films, such as the Amer-
ican New Yorker (they currently carry Forever Moz derground and
te Restante) or October Films (they distribute Someone Else's
vith a few exceptions, films made by film:
makers associated with Serbia (Srdjan Dragojevit, Boro Dra8kovié, Pr
Antonijevi¢, Goran Paskaljevic) enjoyed theatrical and video exposu
made by Croats (Vinko BreSan) or Bosnians (Ademir
only seen at festivals. The bottom line is, however, that films
made about the Balkan conflict by Westerners enjoyed much better inter- ~
national exposure than most films made by Balkan film-makers. A good
‘example is provided by the contrasting fates ofthe widely publicised P
of Fire (1996) by American Michael Benson and the largely unknown 1
A Film from Slovenia (1988) by Yugoslav Goran Gaj, both of which dealt with
the phenomenon of the Neue Slovenische Kunst and the rock group Laibach
Another example is Frenchman Bernard-Henri Lévy’s Bosna! (1994), which
makes extensive use of footage shot under fire by the members of SaGA, and
which was distributed in various formats, and the films produced by SaGA that
have screened only at a handful of festival
Whereas the feature films atleast have the chance for exposure in the system
of non-theatrical distribution or within the festival circuit, the outlook for do
umentaries is deplorable. Only a few have found distributors, and even those
re quite often poorly advertised or ae listed at prices that even institutions can
rarely afford. Blectronic Arts Intermix, for example, which carries the remark
able Chris Marker’s Le 20 heures dans les camps! he Camps (1993
only advertises to pr he Cinema Guild routinely charges $300 for
deo: Truth un an excellent documentary tackling the work:
ings of independent media across the former Yugoslavia, has ended up on their
list, severely limiting its distribution chances. There is a huge unrealised poten
tial in documentary distribution. The documentary body of work about Bosni
remains, and will remain, largely unseen and tun(der)exposed.
There have been some archival efforts, like those of the International
Monitor Institute in Los Angeles and the Documentation Centre
Movernents in Amsterdam. The Audiovisual Department at the Central Euro:
pean University, Budapest, has a collection of videotapes related to the conflict
in former Yugoslavia. The branches of the Soros Foundation in Bosnia, Croatia
f former Yugoslavia and Eestern Europe have
involved with a number of projects to promote the work of local film-makers
about the conflict. The rs.at the video department of the US Holocaust
Museum in Washington, DC, organised the exhibit ‘Faces of Sorrow” in 1994,
and are collecting vide ted to the conflict in former Yugoslavia. But WAR IN THE BALKANS ~ MOVING IMAGES 7
even if they mana comprehensive collection of tapes, these will
o comp
be available only to researchers
The Scholarship
While I believe thatthe films about the Balkan crisis were atleast as instru
‘mental inthe formation of the public discourse as the written texts, my writing
ely informed by scholarship and popular writing
that informed my writing in the
I give a detailed account on the various work:
Bibliography.)
My material were the films about the troubled Balkans, but my topic was the
dynamics of marginality and s
cever, that the books whi
perception, It was interesting to realise, how:
‘most influenced me were not necessarily ones that
dealt directly with South
st Europe,
Critical studies
‘The two studies that had most influence on my initial understanding of Balkan
sre born and raised in the Balkans,
in the West - Maria Todorov
by women, who, like myself
but had then continued their academic eare
(1994, 1997) and Milica Bakié-Hayden (1995)
ut and bring into the discussion of the Balkan
dy to abandon the
one-country approach, to reach
ientalist and the post-colonial theories that were first created for
realm the 0
he discursive needs of other marginalised but non-Slavic and non-European
cultures, and to show Balkan marginalisation as a result of the workings of a
culturist discursive construction. My work follows in their foot
Milica
written by herself and Robs
Bakié-Hayden's 1995 article was a direct continuation ofan earlier one,
M. Hayden and published in Slavic Review in 1992.
Tt was the first text to point to the dangers of the orientaist treatment of the
ly stages of the Yugoslav dissolution.
‘Balkans’ that came into being during
It isa seminal piece in Balkan studies, and needs to be acknowledged as such,
hen, there was Larry Wolff's (1994) exploration of the Enlightenment’s
construction of the notions of Russia and Eastern Europe. Wolff was probably
the only author who dealt with Russia but whose conclusions I was able to
transplant to the territor
cultural studies work th
was studying. In spite of my familiarity with the
t focused on the former Soviet Union and
Europe, very little of the findings in that field were relevant to my work, as they
nost studies that deal with Russi
remain locked in the self-centred universe
the studies that examine what is now called Central Eastern Europe were
equally self-absorbed. Most of the influential scholarly work on Eastern Europe
‘was preoccupied with the formation of the concept of Central Europe, a notion
the very development of which was
the Balkan space (Garton Ash, 1989; Rupnik, 1990; Graubard, 1992). The 8 CINEMA OF FLAMES
important works of Central Eastern Eur
pe'sc
+ to the lands of the South-East (Michnik, 1
to the West and ne
1987; Harasety, 1987
1987, 1990, 1992; Konrid, 1995).
At first I was surprised to realise that the theories that had materialised out
of the ideological needs of Third World cultures, and that therefore barely
seemed relevant to the Balkans as part of the Eastern bloc, turned out to be the
‘most insightful and informative, Besides Benedict Anderson's (1983) concep-
tualisation of the nation as an imagined community, Edward Said’s (1978) and
Homi Bhabha's (1990, 1994) views were crucial, as was the entire post
85; Vaculik
Rinzler, 19905 Baranczak, 1990; Havel, 1
Brinton an
discourse, raising issues such as the nation’s need for metaphors and the fune-
tioning of the subaltern and the hybrid. Stuart Halls discussion on ‘the West
and the Rest, though not directly related to this discursive lineage, was another
strong shaping influence on my work (Hall and Gieben, 1992). In the context
of my research, Arjun Appadurai’s (1996) work was one of extreme importance
maybe because he was the only cultural theorist whose work me
froma
preoccupation with a particular region (post-colonial India), through a study
of global iss
to a discussion, in Modernity at Large, of the Balkan conflict
and its cross-cultural perception as a manifestation of universal trends
econ
Appadurai’s text contains many insights, More than anything, ho
firmed my belief that one can olate from the regional to the
gitimately extra
global, and that to work in regional issues docs not mean shutting oneself out,
of the workd’s dynamics, however safe such a s
contented immersion in the
local microcosm that one is familiar with may seem
Other studies that looked at things globally were also important, such as Ben:
jamin Barber's (1995) tireless highlighting of the dynamic dichotomy between
the cosmopolitan and the regionalist and Samuel Huntington's (1993, 1996)
theories of the clash of civilisations,
ich, though retrograde and hateful, must
be taken into account precisely because of their potential harmfulness. Paul
Gilroy's (1993) discussion of the dynamics of culture and politics in the context
of the African diaspora greatly influenced my views when I came to look at the
migrations that resulted from the Balkan crisis. The numerous Holo
‘erences that the Balkan crisis trig
‘ed brought back to mind Hannah Arendt
and Bruno Bettelheim' texts, but also inspired me to look at a diverse range of
more recent interpretations of the Holocaust legacy (Bauman, 1989; Felman
and Laub, 19925 Todorov, 1996)
Balkan cultural studies
Most attractive to me, unsurprisingly, were the books conceptually discussing
Balkan culture, in particular the works by Todorova and Baki¢-Hayden I have
ready mentioned. The literary explorations by V
Idsworthy (1998), WAR INT
BALKANS ~ MOVING IMAGES 19
Andrew Wachtel (1998), Branimir Anzulovie (1999) and David Norris (1999),
all important studies containing a wealth of material and interesting obser
vations and insights, were published too late in the course of my own work to
call them major influences, but they nonetheless developed views that I have
taken into account throughout my study. Furth
here were the works of
anthropologists, abounding with important observations on national charac-
ter and complexes. I most valued the works of Michael Herzfeld (1987) on the
self-perception of modern Greece, of Ivan Colovié (19942) on the idiosyn-
crasies of Serbian popular discourse and of Marko Zivkovié on the stories that
fs. In spite of the fact that Slavoj Zitek’s (1994, 1995
comments on Balkan issues are scattered amid an avalanche of critical com:
Serbs tell about thems
mentary on a range of Wes
n cultural concerns, he has spelled out some most
important preconceptions about - and within ~ the Balkans that ate missed by
er critics,
Film Studies
The disintegration of what used to be called the Eastern bloc into the new
‘geopolitical spheres of Central Eastern Burope and the Balkans rendered fur~
ther research on East European cinema as an entity meaningless, and ‘the
inema of Eastern Europe’, explored by authors such as Mira and Antonin
Liehm (1977), David Paul (1983), Daniel Goulding (1989) and Thomas Slater
(1992), is
st! Although a forthcoming
herine Pe
former Eastern bloc countries, itis
‘oming a concept of the
scholarly collaborative effort, edited by Daniel Goulding and C:
tuges, discusses the cinemas of #
feeling that this will be the last
ed volume to approach the cinema of ‘East
em Europe’ as an entity
The next logical step isto regroup the ciner
‘geopolitical realities. As more and more thematic and stylistic affinities will be
as of the region to reflect newer
rediscovered, supporting the chan eis bound te
of conceptual focus, the
more and more talk of ‘Balkan cinema, a concept which will include the ci
temas of the former Yugoslav lands, Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and
Turkey. With a few exceptions in Germany (Grbié et al, 1995) and Italy
ermani, 2000), no comprehensive studies exist on the cinema of the Balkans
as a whole, and scholarship
Balkan cinema is mostly represented by
aphs focusing on single countries or directors, The amount of English
language writing on Balkan cinema is really scarce. There are only two
A adies that claim to deal with Balkan cinema as an entity, both of,
whic
are by Michael J. tol (1974, 1982). However, they do not systematically
concentrate on the subject matter, widely use cold war rhetoric and speculate
‘on issues of ‘Zhdanovist’ cinema without giving an idea of what the cinema of
the Balkans is lke CINEMA OF FLAMES
The cinemas of the various countries of the region have been studied separ-
ately. Berlin-based film critic Ron Holloway has carried out extensive
filmographic and critical work, which has seen little exposure due to the fact it
is mostly published by organisations that do not have a distribution arm. The
‘most comprehensive study on Yugoslav cinema to date is by Daniel Goulding
(1985), while Bulgarian film is discussed by Ronald Holloway (1986) and Greek
cinema is covered by Mel Schuster (1979) and a reference work by Dimitris
Koliodimos (1999). Andrew Horton’s persistent and enthusiastic involveme!
with the cinemas of the Balkan countries, and particularly his long-standing
interest in Greece, resulted in a number of articles, chapters and screenwriting
projects. His most important contribution is the monograph on Greek dire.
tor Theo Angelopoulos (19973), a remarkable study not only of Angelopoulos
work but also of the spirit of Balkan film-making, Horton also edited a collec~
tion of articles on Angelopoulos (1997b) and has written widely on Yugoslav
cinema and on humour in Balkan film,
Overall, very little has been published on Balkan cinema, one of the most
interesting film cultures in Europe. But while other lesser-known cinemas are
-oming out of obscurity to take the spotlight, the treasures of Balkan cinema
Temain unknown even to cineastes. The masterpieces of Zivojin Pavlovic,
Zclimir Zilnik, Branko Gapo, Karpo Godina, Pantelis Vulgaris, Nikos Kun
duros, Ali Ozgentirk, Zeki Okten, Dimither Anagnosti, Kujtim Cash, Livia
Ciulei, Mircea Veroiu, Rangel Vulchanov, George Dyulgerov, Binka Zhelyazkova
and many others remain virtually unknown beyond the borders of their respec-
tive countries, and even the work of internationally celebrated veterans such as
Theo Angelopoulos, Michalis Cacoyannis, Yilmaz Giiney, Duan. Makaveje
and Lordan Zafranovié is considered exotic and rarely seen,
Balkan cinema is still to develop as an area of study — not because of a short:
age of cinematic traditions, but because there isa shortage of scholarship that
recognises the affinities within the region. [hope that this book will help to pre
cipitate a move away from the prevalent one-country approach,
so became increasingly interested in the issues of film and history, par
ticularly as explored in the work of theorist Robert Rosenstone, whose Visions
ofthe Past (1995) made me think of the choices that film-makers face when rep
resenting historical material
Studies looking at general issues of cross-cultural representation were, once
again, of great importance in my work. Ella Shohat and Robert Stamn’s Unthink
g Eurocentrism (1994) was a major influence, mostly because it outlined the
controversial effects of the Eurocentric construct, and systematically challenged
it on the ground of Hollywood film-making. An earlier discussion of recen
trends in European cinema organised by the British Film Institute, and includ.
-ontributions by len Ang, Stuart Hall and Fredrick Jameson, was also very WAR IN THE BALKANS ~ MOVING IMAGES 2
useful (Petrie, 1992). Further, a series of books that explored issues of inter
national cinema and cross-cultural Western representation turned out to
, 1987; Downing,
directly relevant to my research in Balkan cinema (Arme
19895 Nai abriel, 1993; Sch in and Studlar, 1997;
Naficy, 1999). My work was also greatly informed by studies of diasporic media
consumption (Naficy, 1993; Gillespie, 1995; Cunningham and Jacka, 1996;
Clifford, 1997; Ong, 1999), by accou
countries, such as Israel and Spain (Shohat, 1989; Kinder, 1993), and to some
zer, 1996; Bernst
of the national cinemas of southern
extent by studies that dealt with Holocaust film (Insdorf, 1983; Avisat, 1988),
war and film (Virilio, 1984) and film and history (Rosenstone, 1995b). My
judgment was often influenced by a preference for certain film critics: Jonathan
Rosenbaum (Chicago Reader), Emanuel Levy (Variety), Derek Malcolm (The
Guardian) and Kenneth Taran (LA Times}
Structure
The chapters in the first part of the book, “Europe: Location or Destination?
explore different aspects of the continuing repositioning of the Balkans within
post-cold war Europe. I main
that the representation and conceptualisation
of ethnic conflict should be considered and understood in this wider context,
In Chapter 2 I outline some basic discrepancies in the conceptualisation
Balkans and Europe and explore a series of the
Balkan’s quest for admission to the European semantic space. Chapter 3
diated misperceptions i
explores traditional narrative structures that enable the positioning of the
Balkans as a cultural space beyond the boundaries of what is considered
legitimately European. Here I show how the dominant travelogue narrative of
the large number of ‘Balkan’ plots is internalised in Balkan cinema, thus reiter
ating existing
Balkans by per
ereotypes and furthering the conceptual exclusion of the
ating a trend of self-exoticism. In Chapter 4 focus on some
problematic aspects of the teleological construction of the Balkans in histori
cal narratives of a putative character
ted to exploring a variety of personal and cre
ive commit
‘mentsas they evolved at the time of the Yugoslav breakup. My focus in Chapte
5 ison the treatment of Balkan history in film. | focus my attention on some
of the non-conventional cinematic approaches to historical material, by direc
tors stich as Duan Makavejev, Lordan Zafranovie, Zelimir Zilnik and Theo
Angelopoulos. It is my intention to show how feature films that do not claim
historical accuracy but choose to appeal to a shared historical imagination ulti
mately have influenced public perceptions of history more than its ‘official’
Chapter 6 is a case study of the controversy surrounding Emir Kast
Underground, which ide
ifies a whole series of underlying moral problems 22 CINEMA OF FLAME:
that result from the mediated misperc
pions discussed in the preceding
chapters. This investigation is then continued in the following chapter, which
is preoccupied with the inher
sides in the conflict. Here, talk of the 0
by the need to take
t contradictions imposed
deal of those who had to live through
involuntary ethnic parting, and of the peculiar twists that came about in the
course of people's resistance to the forced taking of sides. I show how the logic
of forced choices of ethnic belonging led to a situation where neutral-
dered impossible
could only be preserved by making a choice against ‘one’s
‘own’ My discussion of two Yugoslav films which
-osmopolitan or conservationist-nostalgic attitudes were re
and where inte
tempted to point at indoc
wvar and Pretty Village, Prety Flame, explores why an
as deemed
trination of all sides, Vi
‘all sides are gui mnacceptabl
the role of those Western intellectuals who publicly commit
Here | also examine
ed to taking sides,
particularly in the Bosnian conflict. I consider in this light Marcel Ophuls’ epic
documentary Veilées d’armes: histoire du journalisme en temps de guerre! The
Troubles We Have Seen: A History of Journalism in Wartime (1994)
In Chapter 8 my focusis on the violent nature of the conflict. draw on Arjun
tiation played.
ify it as an under
Appadurai’s insightful discussion of the crucial role that mass mi
in shaping the crisis in Balkan identities, and ide
tor for the specific ideology of preventive aggressiveness
Part 3 is devoted to a range of representations of various group
directly involved in the conflict, some affected by it. In Chapter 9 I look at @
range of representations of villains, portrayed in much more individualised
detail than the victims. I then turn my attention to the blurred image of the
victim, which dwells in anonymous obscurity. Chapter 10 discusses a series of
gender-related issues of representation. I begin by discussing the mass rapes of
the Bosnian war and the main issues which came to determine the public dis
course on these: victims and perpetrators, rape warfare and the subtle balances
roquired when interpreting the rapes at the intersection of feminism and
nationalism. I then move on to explore a range of cinematic representations of
rape, and investigate how the social and cultural context is taken to influence
and
the specifics of such representation within the wider discourse on gendé
nationalism. I talk in most detail about Mandy Jacobson’s Calling the
documentary which, taking the case of two Bosnian women, raises issues of
Chapter 11 my
nal, depicts and concep.
I look mostly at the Balkan cinematic
universal concern on violence, surv
in which the Ba
tualises marginal communities. H
al and witnessing.
ison the way kan cinema, itself m:
representations of the Roma (Gypsies), which I interpret within the framework
of ‘projective identification’
Part 4,"Spaces; looks at two examples: inthe first a remote Balkan place, Sar
jevo, becomes cosmopolitan as a result of its tragic fate. My focus is on WAR IN THE BALKANS - MOVING IMAG!
23
Sarajevo's cultural resistance, on the role of the intellectual and on the reinca
nation of the city in film and other forms of
I critically
explore the concept of ‘cosmopolitan’ Sarajevo, as well a the palps
tensions
between outsiders’ perception of Sarajevo and the way the city’s inhabitants
believed it was to be represented. The politically correct blockbuster We
to Sarajevo comes under my scrutiny in this context. My second expl
ion of
space is focused on the cinematic treatment of the migration of Balkan people
during the past decade
e gradual reconezptualisation of displacement and
struction of a new, expanding universe created by the migrating mind,
I show how the trademark atmosphere of lost homelands and shattered iden-
tities is gradually replaced by new visions that permit the migrai
control 0
nts to gain
er their otherwise disrupted lives and to see themselves as subjects of
new and fulfilling experience:
his book aims to be of interest to audiences bey
nd
ritical exploration
nd is addressed to all those conce!
tural dynam
community of my reade
cirel ned with the
s that characterises our times. ‘The imagined
ncludes the growing number of students of tran
national cinema, for whom my discussion of the international effort of
film-makers to preserve and reconstruct a troubled culture will be of interest
It includes the growing number of students of South-East European culture
who feel that traditional avenues for research are nearly exhausted and for
whom my approach to the Balkans may open up new spl
es for exploration,
Italso includes all those people in the international media who are led by a gen-
uaine concern for the troubled Balkans but are restricted by the ‘parachute’ and
sound-bite’ manner that their métier imposes. The book is, therefore, for those
e felt at one time or another tl
in understanding of the complex and
delicate configuration of images and messages circulated globally is a necess.
ary p
of conflict resolution. Once my text reaches these readers, it will have
the chance to create an impact by changing unproductive approaches and
entrenched patterns of thought.
Notes
1. Panait Istrati (1884-1935) is « Romanian-born author of Greek descent who
wrote in French and whose winding life path is described in autobiographical
Childhood of Adrian
He was encour
works such as Kyra Kyralina (1926) and Codine
Zografi (1929, no English translatio
Romain Rolland.
2, In defending my decision to describe these countries as ‘Balkan’ I do not
ged to write by
want to repeat discussions which have been carried out
y other authors and
would only divert me from the main line of my investigation. But for those
who are interested to learn more on the Balkanist discourse, | recommend CINEMA OF FLAMES
hat they refer to Michael Herefeld’s (1987) authoritative work on the self
perception of modern Greece, as well as the commentaries of Slavoj Zitek
1994, 1995) on the Balkan “imaginary. Maria Todorova's 1997 book
Balkan
concept, with fuzzy geographical borders and blurted cultural referencing,
Imagining the Balkans is, til, he best introduction to the way
has been constructed in the past and still functions today.
‘have been criticised for speaking of mutual resentment between the Balk
nations and thus repeating a harmful cliché. I, however, believe that such
resentment is a fact of life, While I recognise that journalists have stressed the
resentment far too often and have turned the concept of intra-Balkan
hostilities into a stereotype, I myself have seen variations of this resentment
acted out far to often to overlook them. Even in
-ademia, in spite of the
Prevailing tone of mutual respect, one can still observe academics arguing
that their respective national culture is unique and utterly incompatible with
thecu
of the neighbouring Balkan countries. A recent positive trend is
the interest of some young.
scholars in exploring the mutual image-making
Balkan space, which has the important political
ving preconceptions
In 1994, the Bulgarian weekly Kidtura published the results ofa survey
and stereotyping within the
effect of exposing the un
conducted with a number of Bulgarian intl
tals on the question of identity.
In their replies, only about 15 per cent identified culturally with the Russian
tradition, while all the rest indicated they were mostly influenced by some West.
Europ:
how I would answer if surveyed, and immedi
in tradition, the German one gaining about 30 per cent. asked myself
Jy knew I would be another one
‘who would speak about German cultural influence. No wonder, Thad writen
my doctoral dissertation on the philosopher Schleiermacher, and had translated
wo books from German into Bulgarian. Only now, however, di I realise that
my choice .n cultural history was conditioned by a complex set of
