RE-WORLDING THE BALKANS Films of voyage to the European Union

Abstract The 1990s Yugoslav wars have been viewed as paradigmatic of the post-communist turmoil whose extreme articulation finds fertile ground in the stereotypically bellicose Balkans. If in these discourses the Balkans are a metonymy for the violence of Eastern European post-communist transitions, then Yugoslavia is itself a metonymy for the Balkans. However, films made in the post-Yugoslav space in the last decade move away from processing the trauma of the 1990s wars, and no longer fit neatly within this ‘Balkanist’ discourse. Instead, they turn outward: to the elusive goal of either joining the European Union or being legitimated as ‘European’, as well as to situating the Balkans in the context of global migrancy of labour increasingly knocking at the doors of ‘Fortress Europe’. Želimir Žilnik’s Fortress Europe (2001) and Damjan Kozole’s Spare Parts (2003) show how the Balkans are increasingly deterritorialised as a self-contained discursive and political space as they become a bridge to Europe for non-European and other Eastern European immigrants, a situation that creates possibilities for solidarity with globally disenfranchised multitudes. In turn, Paskaljević’s Honeymoons (2009) establishes possible nodes of intra-Balkan solidarity as it explores the shared tribulations of various Balkan migrants attempting to enter the EU. The films end up subverting the EU motto ‘united in diversity’ by highlighting intersections between its neocolonial immigration practices and the contingent labour demands of neoliberal capitalism. Keywords: filmBalkansEuropean UnionYugoslaviaimmigrationcapitalismbordersŽilnikKozolePaskaljević Notes 1. Iordanova explains that the new pan-Balkan cinematic consciousness is evident in ‘the Balkan sidebars at the festivals in Thessaloniki, Istanbul, Sarajevo, Sofia, and others, all showcasing the recent production of the region, through the South East European film network, to a variety of projects and publications’ (2006: 11). Also of note is the Trieste Film Festival, as well as established film festivals across former Yugoslavia, such as Pula, Belgrade, and Subotica. 2. While Slovene cinema produces sombre dramas of social marginalisation in the face of neocapitalism and neonationalism, Croatian cinema inclines ‘toward introspective, psychological probing as a way of commenting on more general processes taking place in society’, which is quite different from ‘Serbia and even Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose film schools have thus far been more notable for their carnivalistic approach and exploitation of dark humour’ (Vidan, Citation2011). 3. See special issues on Serbian and Croatian cinema, Kinokultura 8 (2009) and 11 (2011), respectively. 4. Wood often mentions the Balkan trope in her book, but dedicates only one paragraph to ‘Balkan directors’ themselves (2007: 128). Employing a different approach, Luisa Rivi (Citation2007) places into conversation films from both Eastern and Western Europe and interrogates the notion of ‘Europe’ by contextualising it as a fundamentally postcolonial concept. 5. Fortress Europe was shown at many European festivals and received the ‘Victor Award’ for Best Film of the Year in Ljubljana. Spare Parts, which won awards at several Balkan festivals and was nominated for a Golden Bear in Berlin, screened at more than 50 international film venues. Honeymoons was featured at over 30 international festivals, including Toronto and Venice; it won the Grand Prix at Valladolid and the FIPRESCI Award. 6. Achille Mbembe’s essay ‘Necropolitics’ explores contemporary sovereign prerogatives of the ‘right to kill’. Sovereign power is ‘deployed in the interest of maximum destruction of persons and the creation of death-worlds, new and unique forms of social existence in which vast populations are subjected to conditions of life conferring upon them the status of living dead’ (Citation2003: 39–40). 7. Žilnik discusses this paradox in Steinberg (Citation2001). 8. For further critiques of transitioning Slovene society, see Kozole’s Labour Equals Freedom (2005) and Slovenian Girl (2009). Slovenia, the first former Yugoslav republic to enter the EU, is often portrayed as the only economically successful, socially liberal, and truly democratic ‘European’ country to emerge from 1990s ‘Balkan’ upheavals. As Meta Mazaj argues, ‘in a political and journalistic discourse, the process of Slovenia’s transition is an indisputably positive one, a true success story’ (2011b: 9). 9. Milica Bakić-Hayden defines ‘nesting Orientalisms’ as ‘the gradation of “Orients”’, or shifting hierarchies of Easternness and Westernness in the constructions of Balkan identities (Citation1995: 918).

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