Synopsis of the movie: June 1991, last day of peace in
The Balkans history is a crack regarding anything considered as typically European. Dina Iordanova[3] claims that cinema in case is presumption of artistic sensibility. It emanates from history and sociopolitical space that are offered for participation and contribution. Regarding the Balkans, the half western turn and the traditional concept that they consist the
Red color influences the film text as an allegory too. It gives the prospect for an alarm situation; in relation to literature it reminds of John Steinbeck and the ‘‘Grapes of Wrath’’ (1939) where there is also a red transaction: the red ground, sun, fresh-poured blood, ant and hen. Similarly in Koljevic we see: red track, crayon, cut watermelon, clothes of Suzana. All these are clues insinuating the conscientious identity and the handling of a crime. Penetrating void times and empty spaces, the text culmination is achieved. Perception is based on synthesis: instead of form, there is anti-form and the process described as happening has taken the place of artistic object. Ihab Hassan[5] in 1985 declared that from metaphor we move to metonymy, from choice to combination and from metaphysics to irony.
Koljevic handles of irony indeed. His statement that this deeply personal film offers an unusual and ironic view of serious issues[6] proves that. The ironic mood of the director is seen also when the priest lives at last and Ratko doesn’t kill Suzana with his truck. All marginal heroes or anti-heroes are keen on survival. Another interesting topic is that of the lost object. From scratch the movie fulfils its aim. The fight of macho criminals, the parallel dealings of kiss and knife attack, and the next statement of a travesty passer-by ‘‘these guys are finished’’ as a system of images in relation to each other, signify the paradox, the end of man and the emerging of a simulacrum, pendulant between man who doesn’t exist any more and woman whom wishes to look like. Then, the topic of the phallic phantasm comes to the fore; in a deeper level, it’s the desire for creativity, the subconscious, which is missing and rules reality.
Another similarity is seen between the names Ratko and truck; linguistic also. The role of Mercedes Benz is something more than functional. It could be the third hero, paralleling it to the Harley Davidson motorcycle B. M. Koltes chooses as the third actor of his play ‘‘Tabataba’’. The engine –truck- is the capital, a presumption of action and sexuality. Moreover, the symbol of Mercedes Benz, which Suzana paragons to the symbol of peace follows all the cases on the edge and signifies a sort of extension for Ratko. As an image, this 4 wheel trophy leads action to grotesque. When armed men force Ratko to pull down his pair of trousers, directly they shout: ‘‘welcome whoever you are at Koka’s territory, for all of us here this man is Tito’’! (43rd minute of the film; 43:39).
Grotesque is the core of Balkan identity. It is a collage of different elements, a patchwork in order that Balkan identity should rediscover itself. This movie defines best the Balkan identity as the altered images, action, short but smart dialogues depict what Balkans are today: sources of inspiration; politicized environment that can endure in space and time so as to awaken us. The dynamics of being Balkan is linked to crossing cultures, visual images, as well as to social memory. In that, it is necessary for us to deal with cultural diversity in an attempt to stop thinking ethnically but politically as society citizens. It is true we cannot eat flags for breakfast, we can just
[1] Mary Ann Doane (2002): The emergence of Cinematic time. Modernity, contingency, the archive, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England, Harvard University Press, p. 116-117.
[3] Dina Iordanova (2006): The cinema of the Balkans, Great Britain Wallflower Press, p. 1.
[5] Peter Brooker (1992) Modernism/Postmodernism,
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