Perceptions of authority and freedom in late Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav film

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe article examines the notions of authority and freedom in the cinematic spaces of the former Yugoslavia and its successor states from the early 1980s to the late 1990s. The relevant time span saw not only the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the dissolution of the socialist system, but also the rise and fall of political leaders of various orientations. It was often in relation to this sphere of authority that freedom was negotiated in the artistic public space, resulting in projects whose principal function was to question the very authority they depicted. At the same time these films exposed the fragile societal architecture that signalled the need for a different type of political discourse in the 1980s. The 1990s brought forth films that further examined the putative pillars of the now collapsed state, employing humour as one of the principal strategies to reveal the repetitiveness and paradoxes of the historical/political developments. The films analysed include Rajko Grlić's Samo jednom se ljubi/You Love Only Once (1981); Emir Kusturica's Otac na službenom putu/When Father Was Away on Business (1985); Goran Marković's Tito i ja/Tito and Me (1992) and Vinko Brešan's Maršal/Marshal (1999).