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  • Resisting the Ideology of Violence in 1990s Serbian Film
  • Milja Radovic (bio)

Introduction

This article is based on my research into Serbian film during the 1990s. My ongoing analysis of Serbian cinema from this period concentrates on how films depicted Serbian society, and whether these portrayals were politically subversive. In this essay, I focus on the representations found in two Serbian films: Pretty Village, Pretty Flame (Lepa Sela, Lepo Gore, directed by Srdjan Dragojevic, 1996) and The Wounds (Rane, Srdjan Dragojevic, 1998). Understanding how the political ideologies of the 1990s, which were promoted by Slobodan Milosevic and his followers, were depicted provides a valuable insight into some of the controversies dividing the Balkans during this period. I am going to investigate whether these films interrogated, in a subtle way, the ideology of violence that was so prevalent in Serbia during the 1990s. How successful these cinematic interrogations were is also open to debate.

My discussion is divided into four sections. In the first section, I provide a brief synopsis of the films and a description of some of the different responses provoked by these movies. In the second section, I briefly discuss how the films portrayed national ideology, as well as their impacts on and consequences for Serbian society. Section 3 is devoted to exploring the cinematic representation of media propaganda as the main tool of the Milosevic regime in supporting its nationalistic and ultimately violent ideology. In section 4, I analyse how religious images are used and how they function in the films as symbols of war and crime.

The Milosevic era, the term usually used to describe the whole period of the 1990s, was marked by civil war, crime, and disintegration of the whole Serbian society, from economics to culture. The Milosevic regime, however, tried to create an image of Serbia as a pluralistic society with free media. In reality, the work of independent media was suppressed in [End Page 168] various ways. At the same time, cinematography entered a difficult period as it was 'in a large part marginalized due to the country's deep economic crisis, and cultural strategies of the regime'.1 Many Serbian films produced during the 1990s depicted the socio-political problems and drastic changes in society that took place with Milosevic's rise to power.2 The majority of films dealt with the disintegration of Yugoslavia, but also depicted the change of ideological discourse and emergence of nationalistic ideology, the growth of crime and violence on a daily basis, corruption as newly introduced political praxis, and the stratification of society.

Although the film Pretty Village, Pretty Flame was given awards at different film festivals, the debates around it were heated.3 A common criticism was that the films were actually 'taking the Serbian side' in the representation of the conflict. In the case of the two films that I discuss in this article the problem is complicated by the fact that films were dealing with the civil war and the Milosevic regime at the actual time of the regime. Many viewers from outside Serbia desired a more explicit rejection and condemnation of Milosevic's politics. For some critics, these films failed to provide this. But is this really the case? Were they really taking a pro-Milosevic, pro-Serbian perspective or is there more to be found in these films? With no intention of offering a simplified account, which has often circulated around these films, I am considering whether through their memorable depictions they were actually challenging the ideology of war and violence. Whether these films were purely promoting violence or whether they were expressing a cry for peace, and whether film can use violence to condemn violence, are background questions that underlie this study.

Interpreting the Films

Pretty Village, Pretty Flame is a story about seven protagonists, Serbian soldiers accompanied by an American journalist, trapped in a tunnel surrounded by Muslim soldiers in the midst of a battle in Bosnia. At the heart of the film is the story of friendship between a Muslim and a Serb, who are now fighting on opposite sides. The claustrophobic atmosphere of the tunnel, represented as a 'death-trap', becomes a sort of stage on...

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