Borrowing the title of Professor
Dina Iordanova’s book,
Balkans: Cinema of Flames, this year
Istanbul Film Festival dedicates a special section to the cinema of the Balkans, a part of Europe which still claims to be unique, diverse and a victim of endless injustices.
The Reaper by Zvonimir Juric
South-Eastern Europe doesn’t differ from the rest of the continent, despite the efforts to convince Europe for the opposite. If in the Balkans, the similarities are more than obvious, that must be explained through geopolitical interpretations and not through artistic ones, with the latter often proved to be catastrophic. In two words, differences in the Balkans are well rooted and go back centuries; similarities on the other hand are somehow planted, part of an empire which flourished and fell by lending habits and creating stereotypes.
Even so, Balkan filmmakers have their say in this never-ending search for a definition: Albanian director
Kujtim Cashku says that the Balkans is the land of stories and storytellers, while
Nuri Bilge Ceylan describes the Balkan man as a certain type of character, a certain type of spirit, an essence. Black humour, a rather unstable and turbulent political past (and present), ethnic strives, lack of money…
These Are The Rules by Ognjen Svilicic
The 34th Istanbul Film Festival brings together the best and most recent cinematic examples from this “special” region. Seven films in total from Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, and FYROM will be screened within the scope of this section.
By the way, if the films included in the section (their titles) were to be interpreted by Bill Burroughs΄ cut-up technique, they would create a very accurate and surreal poem-portrait of the region.
