Seventy years after the Second World War and thirty years after the break-up of socialist Yugoslavia cinema is haunted by post-war(s) memory, identity, and trauma. Starting with Emir Kusturica's film Underground (1995), which creates a direct if carnivalesque relationship between these wars, the lecture offers a short overview on post-Yugoslav cinematography dealing with war-related distress and resilience in the aftermath of war. The analytical part approaches cinematic trauma and therapy through the lens of psychoanalytic film theory, the Ljubljana Lacanian School, and Balkanism.
Figure: Screenshot from the underground scenario in Emir Kusturica’s prize-winning film Underground (1995)
Publikations (selection):
Tatjana Petzer: Kako loš son / Like a Bad Dream. The Politics of Trauma in Balkan cinema. In: Zrinka Blažević, Ivana Brković, Davor Dukić (eds.): History as a Foreign Country: Historical Imagery in South-Eastern Europe, Zagreb 2015, pp. 441-451.
Tatjana Petzer: Screening post-Yugoslav trauma and therapy. In: Andreas Hamburger (ed.): Screening the Scars. The Cinematic (In)visibility of Social Trauma, Oxfordshire 2025, pp. 51–62
Film recommendations (selection)
Underground (BHS: Podzemlje, also: Bila jednom jedna zemlja), directed by Emir Justurica, 1995.
Like a Bad Dream (Mak.: Kako loš son), directed by Antonio Mitrikeski, 2003.
Grbavica: the Land of My Dreams (Bosn.: Grbavica), directed by Jasmila Žbanić, 2006.
Halima’s Path (Bosn.: Halimin put), directed by Arsen Anton Ostojić, 2012.
Men Don’t Cry (Bosn.: Muškarci ne plaču), directed by Alen Drljević, 2017.