Fragments of a Forgotten Spectacle: Tito, the Serbs, and Appropriated Time

Abstract

Želimir Žilnik’s Tito Among the Serbs for the Second Time was filmed and released in Serbia’s capital Belgrade, in 1994. The country was under severe international sanctions due to wars in the neighbouring republics, all of which until recently were parts of the Socialist Yugoslavia, once created and led by Josip Broz Tito. By taking an actor to wear Tito’s uniform through Belgrade, Žilnik documented the bemused comments of random passers-by, thus creating a ‘filmed happening’. In this essay it is argued that on a number of formal and narrative levels this is very much a typical Žilnik’s documentary, and as such it is contextualised within his work made both prior and after this film, with an emphasis on his most acclaimed feature Early Works (1969). However, by introducing the theory of the Spectacle by Guy Debord, as part of the Situationist International, it is also argued that this film marks a clear rupture within Žilnik’s oeuvre, after which he takes a new direction in his critical approach. This film thus further clarifies his political positions retrospectively, concluding that it could be read as an example of Situationist action too, re-appropriating time for its disenfranchised and marginalised subjects.