engleski

Crypts and Phantoms in Croatian War Film

The purpose of this paper is to analyse and show what the war film, as an ideological discourse, offers in terms of historical narratives and interpretations. What kind of national identifications and ways of dealing with the war traumas from the past does it offers as a cinematic medium? More precisely the question is: what kind of thematisations of self-other relationships, ideological fantasies or virtual frames and symptoms do these ideological devices offer to the audience through such an artistic medium? Films are understood here as cultural self-reflections or – as Fred Jameson (2002) would say – collective cognitive mappings, as well as symbolic acts and imaginary resolutions of some Real contradiction or antagonism. Croatian war movies in the 90s were mostly funded by the state and were dominantly prone to the production or reproduction of stereotypical images and self- other relationships. Nationalist self- characterizationsand Othering built on negative, demonic and bestial characterizations and threat representations are particularly prominent. As opposed to the above mentioned films, author's focus is on the three movies of the so-called "Young Croatian Film" generation – See You (1995), Celestial Body (2000) and Witnesses (2003).

crypts ; phantoms ; psychoanalysis ; deconstruction ; war film

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