Cinema of Flames

Balkan Film, Culture, and the Media

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by Dina Iordanova

British Film Institute

Due/Published October 2001, 320 pages, paper

ISBN 0851708471

The breakup of Yugoslavia triggered a truly international filmmaking project. Underground, Ulysses' Gaze, Before the Rain, Pretty Village, Pretty Flame and Welcome to Sarajevo were among a host of films created as the conflicts in the region unravelled. These conflicts restored the Balkans as a centrepiece of western imagery, and the media (especially cinema) assumed a leading but ambiguous role in defining the region for global consumption through a narrow range of selectively defined images. Simultaneously, much of the high-quality cinematic and television work made in the area (much of it discussed in this book) remains relatively unknown.

Cinema of Flames attempts to go deeper than the imagery and address some of the general concerns of the cross-cultural representation and self-representation of the Balkans. Narrative strategies within the context of Balkan exclusion from the European cultural sphere, the cosmopolitan image of Sarajevo, diaspora, and the representations of villains, victims, women, and ethnic minorities are all considered in the general context of Balkan cinema.

". . . encyclopedic in scope and brilliance, making excellent use of the scholarly literature while interweaving analysis of films and other mass media. The book will be a superb addition to the literatures on Bosnia and Yugoslavia. It will also serve as a standard reference on Balkan film." --Robert Hayden, University of Pittsburgh

Contents

 Introduction1. War in the Balkans -- Moving Images2. Are the Balkans Admissible? The Discourse on Europe3. Narrating the Balkans4. Narrative and Putative History5. Balkan Film History6. Kusturica's Underground7. Taking Sides8. Violence: 'Violated Trust', Indoctrination and Self Destruction9. Villains and Victims10. Representing Women's Concerns11. Gypsies: Looking at 'Them', Defining Oneself12. Visions of Sarajevo13. Migrating Mind and Expanding Universe14. Aftermath? Fragmentary NotesBibliographyFilmographyIndex