Yugoslav and Post-Yugoslav Cinema
- LAST REVIEWED: 26 January 2018
- LAST MODIFIED: 27 March 2019
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791286-0188
- LAST REVIEWED: 26 January 2018
- LAST MODIFIED: 27 March 2019
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791286-0188
Introduction
This bibliographical collection offers a selection of works that reflect both the major historical developments in Yugoslav and Post-Yugoslav Cinema, as well as some of the central themes that have dominated the robust body of scholarly work on this particular cinematic tradition. Yugoslav cinema was in its nascent form in the early parts of the 20th century (in what was then the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and received its most ambitious development during the socialist period after the end of World War II. Throughout the length of Yugoslavia’s existence, its film industry saw the development of several endemic cinematic styles and trends: from the World War II epics to Yugoslav New Film and its radical strain, the Black Wave, to a rich tradition of socially engaged documentary filmmaking, to Animated Film, to radical avant-garde and neo avant-garde cinema—as discussed in Levi 2012 and Daković 2003 (cited under Yugoslav Experimental and Avant-Garde Cinema)—to late socialism’s cinema, whose emphasis was on the personal as covertly political. Some of the Yugoslav era’s most notable and internationally recognized filmmakers include Dušan Makavejev, Živojin Pavlović, Puriša Đorđević, Aleksandar Petrović, Želimir Žilnik, Krsto Papić, and Emir Kusturica. The post-Yugoslav period saw the dispersal of the formerly transethnic film industry into smaller ethno-national cinemas whose gaze largely turned to the exploration of ethno-nationalism and war, as well as to the question of memory and identity in the aftermath of the devastating wars that precipitated the emergence of new nation-states in the wake of Yugoslavia’s demise. Some of the most notable post-Yugoslav filmmakers include Danis Tanović, Aida Begić, and Jasmila Žbanić (Bosnia-Herzegovina); Dalibor Matanić, Branko Schmidt, and Anton Arsen Ostojić (Croatia); Milcho Manchevski and Teona Strugar Mitevska (Macedonia); Srđan Dragojević (Serbia); Maja Weiss (Slovenia); and Isa Qosja and Arben Kastrati (Kosovo). While this article treats films made during the Yugoslav period as strictly Yugoslav rather than as belonging to separate ethno-national spaces that have emerged since the end of Yugoslavia, the latter sections examine some of the controversies over the ownership of Yugoslav cinema in light of the country’s breakup, as well as a recent scholarly emphasis on ethnocentric interpretations of post-Yugoslav filmmaking, often at the expense of a more trans-ethno-national view. For biographical sources that came out during Yugoslavia’s existence and that are written in the local language, this article uses the then-standard term Serbo-Croatian. For post-Yugoslav bibliographical sources in the same language, the bibliography uses the currently preferred term BCS (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian).
General Overviews
The cinema of Yugoslavia emerged in unison with the country itself, early in the 20th century (at the time of the then Kingdom of Yugoslavia, 1918–1945) and received its most ambitious development as an industry after World War II, during the socialist period (which lasted until Yugoslavia’s demise in 1991). Several book-length studies exist about Yugoslav cinema, including the influential Goulding 2002. Levi 2007 offers a detailed and insightful analysis of various ideological interpellations of Yugoslav and Post-Yugoslav Cinema, while Iordanova 2001 situates regional cinema within the context of a historical analysis of media and its use in a larger sense. Volk 1986 (in Serbo-Croatian) represents the most exhaustive account of Yugoslav film’s early history, as Volk includes the pre–World War II period in his anthology, and uncovers the vibrant world of the country’s film culture long before its most visible expansion during socialism.
Goulding, Daniel J. Liberated Cinema: The Yugoslav Experience, 1945–2001. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002.
First published in 1985, this is a revised and expanded edition that includes the post-Yugoslav period. A detailed history of Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav narrative cinema (up to 2001), the monograph offers an insightful account of the development of Yugoslavia’s film industry in the aftermath of World War II, as well as its fragmentation with the emergence of Yugoslav successor states in the 1990s. The book considers how post-Yugoslav national cinemas relate to their shared socialist legacies and offers a sociocultural analysis of some of the most significant Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav films.
Iordanova, Dina. Cinema of Flames: Balkan Film, Culture and the Media. London: British Film Institute, 2001.
An insightful analysis of Balkan film, media, and culture in the context of Yugoslavia’s end. One of the book’s main themes is the externally perceived image—as well as the self-image—of the Balkans as a violent territory.
Levi, Pavle. Disintegration in Frames: Aesthetics and Ideology in the Yugoslav and Post-Yugoslav Cinema. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007.
A historically grounded analysis of the ideological impact of Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav cinema, rooted in the contexts of the emergence of the films. One of the central concerns of Levi’s influential monograph is the question of how the ideology of multicultural “brotherhood and unity” that haunted Yugoslav cinema was violently replaced by rampant ethno-nationalisms in the post-Yugoslav period.
Volk, Petar. Istorija jugoslovenskog filma. Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Institut za Film, 1986.
This pioneering work offers a vast anthology of Yugoslav cinema and film culture ranging from the early 20th century to the 1970s, covering narrative cinema as well as avant-garde and documentary filmmaking. In Serbo-Croatian, includes a summary in English.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Accounting, Motion Picture
- Acting
- Action Cinema
- Adaptation
- Advertising and Promotion
- African American Cinema
- African American Stars
- African Cinema
- AIDS in Film and Television
- Akerman, Chantal
- Allen, Woody
- Almodóvar, Pedro
- Alphaville
- Altman, Robert
- American Cinema, 1895-1915
- American Cinema, 1939-1975
- American Cinema, 1976 to Present
- American Independent Cinema
- American Independent Cinema, Producers
- American Public Broadcasting
- Anderson, Wes
- Animals in Film and Media
- Animation and the Animated Film
- Anime
- Arbuckle, Roscoe
- Architecture and Cinema
- Argentine Cinema
- Aronofsky, Darren
- Art Cinema
- Arzner, Dorothy
- Asian American Cinema
- Asian Television
- Astaire, Fred and Rogers, Ginger
- Australian Cinema
- Auteurism
- Authorship, Television
- Avant-Garde and Experimental Film
- Bachchan, Amitabh
- Battle of Algiers, The
- Battleship Potemkin, The
- Bazin, André
- Bergman, Ingmar
- Bernstein, Elmer
- Bertolucci, Bernardo
- Bigelow, Kathryn
- Biopics
- Birth of a Nation, The
- Blade Runner
- Blockbusters
- Brakhage, Stan
- Brando, Marlon
- Brazilian Cinema
- Breaking Bad
- Bresson, Robert
- British Cinema
- Broadcasting, Australian
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Burnett, Charles
- Buñuel, Luis
- Cameron, James
- Campion, Jane
- Canadian Cinema
- Capra, Frank
- Carpenter, John
- Casablanca
- Cassavetes, John
- Cavell, Stanley
- Censorship
- Chan, Jackie
- Chaplin, Charles
- Children in Film
- Chinese Cinema
- Cinecittà Studios
- Cinema and Media Industries, Creative Labor in
- Cinema and the Visual Arts
- Cinematography and Cinematographers
- Cinephilia
- Citizen Kane
- City in Film, The
- Cocteau, Jean
- Coen Brothers, The
- Colonial Educational Film
- Color
- Comedy, Film
- Comedy, Television
- Comics, Film, and Media
- Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI)
- Copland, Aaron
- Coppola, Francis Ford
- Copyright and Piracy
- Corman, Roger
- Costume and Fashion
- Cronenberg, David
- Cuban Cinema
- Cult Cinema
- 3D Cinema
- Dance and Film
- de Oliveira, Manoel
- Dean, James
- Deleuze, Gilles
- Denis, Claire
- Deren, Maya
- Design, Art, Set, and Production
- Detective Films
- Dietrich, Marlene
- Digital Media and Convergence Culture
- Directors
- Disability
- Disney, Walt
- Doctor Who
- Documentary Film
- Downton Abbey
- Dreyer, Carl Theodor
- Eastern European Television
- Eastwood, Clint
- Ecocinema
- Eisenstein, Sergei
- Elfman, Danny
- Epic Film
- Essay Film
- Ethnographic Film
- European Television
- Exhibition and Distribution
- Exploitation Film
- Fairbanks, Douglas
- Fan Studies
- Fantasy
- Fellini, Federico
- Festivals
- Film Aesthetics
- Film and Literature
- Film Guilds and Unions
- Film, Historical
- Film Noir
- Film Preservation and Restoration
- Film Theory and Criticism, Science Fiction
- Film Theory Before 1945
- Film Theory, Psychoanalytic
- Finance Film, The
- Ford, John
- French Cinema
- Game of Thrones
- Gance, Abel
- Gangster Films
- Garbo, Greta
- Garland, Judy
- German Cinema
- Gilliam, Terry
- Global Television Industry
- Godard, Jean-Luc
- Godfather Trilogy, The
- Godzilla
- Greek Cinema
- Griffith, D.W.
- Hammett, Dashiell
- Haneke, Michael
- Hawks, Howard
- Haynes, Todd
- Hepburn, Katharine
- Herrmann, Bernard
- Herzog, Werner
- Hindi Cinema, Popular
- Hitchcock, Alfred
- Hollywood Studios
- Holocaust Cinema
- Homeland
- Hong Kong Cinema
- Horror-Comedy
- Hsiao-Hsien, Hou
- Hungarian Cinema
- Icelandic Cinema
- Immigration and Cinema
- Indigenous Media
- Industrial, Educational, and Instructional Television and ...
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers
- Iranian Cinema
- Irish Cinema
- Israeli Cinema
- It Happened One Night
- Italian Americans in Cinema and Media
- Italian Cinema
- Japanese Cinema
- Jazz Singer, The
- Jews in American Cinema and Media
- Keaton, Buster
- King Kong
- Kitano, Takeshi
- Korean Cinema
- Kracauer, Siegfried
- Kubrick, Stanley
- Lang, Fritz
- Latin American Cinema
- Latina/o Americans in Film and Television
- Lee, Ang
- Lee, Chang-dong
- Lee, Spike
- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Cin...
- Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The
- Los Angeles and Cinema
- Lubitsch, Ernst
- Lumet, Sidney
- Lupino, Ida
- Lynch, David
- Mad Men
- Marker, Chris
- Martel, Lucrecia
- Marxism
- Masculinity in Film
- Media, Community
- Media Ecology
- Melodrama
- Memory and the Flashback in Cinema
- Metz, Christian
- Mexican Film
- Micheaux, Oscar
- Ming-liang, Tsai
- Minnelli, Vincente
- Miyazaki, Hayao
- Méliès, Georges
- Modernism and Film
- Monroe, Marilyn
- Mészáros, Márta
- Music and Cinema, Classical Hollywood
- Music and Cinema, Global Practices
- Music, Television
- Music Video
- Musicals
- Musicals on Television
- Narrative
- Native Americans
- New Media Art
- New Media Policy
- New Media Theory
- New York City and Cinema
- New Zealand Cinema
- Opera and Film
- Ophuls, Max
- Orphan Films
- Oshima, Nagisa
- Ozu, Yasujiro
- Panh, Rithy
- Pasolini, Pier Paolo
- Passion of Joan of Arc, The
- Peckinpah, Sam
- Pedagogy
- Philosophy and Film
- Photography and Cinema
- Pickford, Mary
- Planet of the Apes
- Poems, Novels, and Plays About Film
- Poitier, Sidney
- Polanski, Roman
- Polish Cinema
- Politics, Hollywood and
- Pop, Blues, and Jazz in Film
- Pornography
- Postcolonial Theory in Film
- Potter, Sally
- Prime Time Drama
- Psycho
- Queer Television
- Queer Theory
- Race and Cinema
- Radio and Sound Studies
- Ray, Nicholas
- Ray, Satyajit
- Reality Television
- Reenactment in Cinema and Media
- Regulation, Television
- Religion and Film
- Remakes, Sequels and Prequels
- Renoir, Jean
- Repo Man
- Resnais, Alain
- Romanian Cinema
- Romantic Comedy, American
- Rossellini, Roberto
- Russian Cinema
- Saturday Night Live
- Scandinavian Cinema
- Scorsese, Martin
- Scott, Ridley
- Searchers, The
- Seinfeld
- Sennett, Mack
- Sesame Street
- Shakespeare on Film
- Silent Film
- Simpsons, The
- Singin’ in the Rain
- Sirk, Douglas
- Soap Operas
- Social Class
- Social Media
- Social Problem Films
- Soderbergh, Steven
- Sound Design, Film
- Sound, Film
- Spanish Cinema
- Spanish-Language Television
- Spielberg, Steven
- Sports and Media
- Sports in Film
- Stand-Up Comedians
- Star Trek
- Star Wars
- Stardom
- Stop-Motion Animation
- Streaming Television
- Sturges, Preston
- Surrealism and Film
- Taiwanese Cinema
- Talk Shows
- Tarantino, Quentin
- Tarkovsky, Andrei
- Television Audiences
- Television Celebrity
- Television, History of
- Television Industry, American
- Theater and Film
- Theory, Cognitive Film
- Theory, Critical Media
- Theory, Feminist Film
- Theory, Film
- Theory, Trauma
- Touch of Evil
- Transnational and Diasporic Cinema
- Trinh, T. Minh-ha
- Truffaut, François
- Turkish Cinema
- Twilight Zone, The
- Twin Peaks
- Varda, Agnès
- Vertigo
- Vertov, Dziga
- Video and Computer Games
- Video Installation
- Violence and Cinema
- Virtual Reality
- Visconti, Luchino
- Von Sternberg, Josef
- Von Stroheim, Erich
- von Trier, Lars
- War Film
- Warhol, The Films of Andy
- Waters, John
- Wayne, John
- Weerasethakul, Apichatpong
- Weir, Peter
- Welles, Orson
- Whedon, Joss
- Whiteness
- Wilder, Billy
- Williams, John
- Wire, The
- Wiseman, Frederick
- Wizard of Oz, The
- Women and Film
- Women and the Silent Screen
- Wong, Anna May
- Wong, Kar-wai
- Woo, John
- Wood, Natalie
- Yimou, Zhang
- YouTube
- Yugoslav and Post-Yugoslav Cinema
- Zinnemann, Fred
- Zombies in Cinema and Media