FILMSKI BEOGRAD TREĆEG MILENIJUMA: U TRAGANJU ZA (IZGUBLJENIM) IDENTITETOM
Filming Belgrade in The Third Millenium : Searching For Зe (Lost) Identity

Summary/Abstract: In this paper I negotiate terms of urbanity and urban in contemporary film narratives, mostly made by directors-newcomers. I will explore those terms as well as the term urbicide which became a neuralgic phenomenon of the Balkan wars of the 90s, scrutinized both in the writings of Bogdan Bogdanović and Martin Coward, the latter defining urbanity „as an existential condition of plurality or heterogeneity”. Analyzing film representations of Belgrade identity, I used theoretical platforms of historians and philosophers such as Andreas Huyssen, Svetlana Boym, Paul Virilio and Fredric Jameson. I posit Belgrade not only as a setting for a melodrama or social drama in transitional period marked by October 5th, 2000 (Here and There by Darko Lungulov) but also as a palimpsest, a memory depot and a place of the feeling of nostalgia (Belgrade Phantom by Jovan Todorović and Montevideo by Dragan Bjelogrlić) . On the other hand, Belgrade becomes a chronotype of urbicide (War Live by Darko Bajić, The Land of Truth, Love and Freedom by Milutin Petrović, Skinning by Stevan Filipović, The Box by Andrijana STojković). Finally, Belgrade is discerned as a point of possible de-balkanization, where the burden of its turbulent history transmutates both into the rediscovered charm and exotics (Practical Guide to Belgrade with Singing and Crying by Bojan Vuletić) and into the fight for the human rights such as controversial Gay Pride (Parade by Srđan Dragojević).

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