Post-Yugoslav Film and the Construction of New National Cinemas
Post-Yugoslav cinema is commonly seen as a field abundant in nationalist traits, while the work of post-Yugoslav scholars is criticized for advocating the notion of continuity of nations. However, by analyzing the most representative films from Yugoslav and Post-Yugoslav eras, it can be argued that many traits dominant in post-Yugoslav cinema (not exclusively those connected to the prevalence of nationalism) began long before the actual dissolution of Yugoslavia. However abrupt these historical occurrences might have been, Yugoslavia and its cinema still did not sever all ties with the past: the newly forming national cultural traditions and discourses still shared some traits with traditions and discourses from the Yugoslav period of history. This text attempts to explain the elements of these continuous traits, including those which can be observed in films made both before and after the dissolution of Yugoslavia, but also in the films created on the border of the two eras. Since post-Yugoslav countries and cinemas diverge in many ways, this article concentrates mostly on Croatian examples, hoping they will also illuminate other post-Yugoslav situations, while not completely disregarding examples from other leading centers of (post-)Yugoslav cinema.
2. What is typical for cinema in Croatia after the break-up of Yugoslavia?
3. What is the role of religion in formation of national identity in Croatia?
4. Are there similar tendencies in other post-Yugoslav contexts?
Nikica Gilić
Nikica Gilić works as associate professor and Chair of Film Studies at Department of Comparative Literature, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. He also teaches at the Academy of Dramatic Arts. He participated in a number of international symposiums (in Split, Zagreb, Zadar, Szeged, Berlin, Timisoara, Graz, Vienna, Paris, Chicago, Washington and Belgrade), with topics in film studies and comparative literature. He gave invited lectures at universites in Berlin, Regensburg, Konstanz, Brno and Graz. He is the editor-in-chief of Hrvatski filmski ljetopis (Croatian Cinema Chronicles), a member of board of Internet journal Apparatus and a member of the Animafest Council in Zagreb. In 2015 he became Associated Research Fellow on Graduate School for East and South-East European Studies (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Universität Regensburg).