Balkan Cinema

The cinema of the Balkans has been my focal point for some thirty years now. I have published pieces on its specific films, directors, traditions and discourses. Balkan cinema and the representations of the Bosnian war of the mid-1990s is the subject of my monograph CINEMA OF FLAMES: BALKAN FILM, CULTURE AND THE MEDIA (British Film Institute, 2001). Besides in hard copy, the book is now available online from ScreenStudies (https://www.screenstudies.com/), as well as in Turkish translation, from Agora Publshers in Istanbul. This was followed by my monograph EMIR KUSTURICA (BFI, 2002), a study of a single director that allowed me to learn analysing ideology and artistry in correlation. The edited collection CINEMA OF THE BALKANS (Wallflower Press, 2006), which includes Dusan Makavejev’s preface and essays on twenty-four films of historical and aesthetic importance, selected from around the Balkan realm, seems to have come out of print with the demise of the publisher — I still have copies of the book, so please be in touch if you are interested in it.

What has been most important to me in this work is to argue in favour of a supranational/regional approach to the culture and cinema of this diverse multi-ethnic and multi-lingual region. In spite the entangled histories and the complex linguistic and ethnic tapestry, there are representational tropes that warrant ‘watching across borders,’ and this is what I have argued throughout.

I am making available some selected texts here, in view that more will be posted as permission is obtained from the respective publishers.

Many of my writings on Balkan Cinema have appeared in different languages — I have posted some of them in the Translations section.

The material is copyrighted. Please make sure to reference appropriately if using it.

BALKANS REVISITED REVIEW ESSAY (1996)

BALKAN WEDDING (1998)

WAR IN BOSNIA: MOVING IMAGES (1999)

CINEMA OF THE DISPERSED YUGOSLAVS (2000)

ARKAN: A VILLAIN GLAMORIZED BY THE MEDIA (2000)

BALKAN CINEMA IN THE 1990s: AN OVERVIEW (2001)

MAKAVEJEV AND CENSORSHIP (2001)

WHOSE IS THIS HISTORY (2007)

JAGGED NARRATIVES AND DISCERNING REMEMBRANCE IN BALKAN CINEMA (2008)

OTOBUS REVIEW (2010)

THE BOSNIAN WAR IN POST-WAR FILM (2012)

20 YEARS BALKAN SURVEY AT THE THESSALONIKI IFF (2013)

‘WATCHING ACROSS BORDERS” INTERVIEW (2016)

SLOGANS REVIEW (2016)

FOOD FOR LOVE REVIEW (2017)

THE CONSTITUTION REVIEW (2018)

HONEYLAND REVIEW (2020)

PREFACE TO BALKAN CINEMA (2020)