Na Wschodzie, czyli nigdzie. Spojrzenie na kino Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej w perspektywie postkolonialnej
In the East, that is, Nowhere. A Look at Central and Eastern European Cinema from the Postcolonial Perspective

Summary/Abstract: This article explores the theme of applying postcolonial theory to the culture of Central and Eastern Europe, basically – to the contemporary cinema. Eastern European postcolonial consciousness at the end of the 20th century is marked by overcoming cultural provinciality and marginality and, as such, is infected with imaginary revenge and the emotion of resentment to a significant degree. Eastern European cinema is a field where postcolonial imagination is articulated and where various forms of cultural identification are tested. The interpretations offered here focus on selected works of Hungarian auteurs: Zoltan Huszarik and Béla Tarr, as well as of several directors of the new Romanian cinema and filmmakers from Balkans: Theo Angelopoulos, Emir Kusturica and Danis Tanovi". Their stories are strongly connected with the Eastern European experience of being dominated by the Soviet empire and marginalized by the Western countries. They reflect such distinctive elements of cultural mentality as the experience of melancholy, foreclosure and alienation. Their cinema portrays space which is marked by historical traumas of communism and which is suspended between Eastern and Western Europe as well as between a difficult past and an unsteady future. Each of these countries has to confront different problems and the films, on the one hand, emphasize these cultural differences, while on the other hand, they build a somewhat consistent picture of a typical mentality and experiences. These analyses lead to the conclusion that cinema not only illustrates some sociocultural condition, but it can also be a form of working through some historical and political experiences in a proper film language.

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