Films

1
Films
2
Film Today Tito and Me

• Director Goran Markovic
• Released in 1993

3
Film so far

• Communal apartment stressful
• Adulation of Tito (1954)
• Ideological correctness
• Political prisoner (art historian) now working at
  docks
• Schooling praise Tito
• Result enormously heroic figure to children
• Parents cautious

4
Zorans Education

• Home life
• School life
• First girlfriend Jasna
• Idealism, hero worship..

5
The Pilgrimage

• Cult of personality
• Religious dimension
• Comrade Raja
• Secret Service

6
Adventures

• Lost boy
• Visit to the castle
• Trouble with authorities

7
Film Before the Rain

• "Before the Rain refers to the feeling of heavy
  expectation, when the skies are pregnant with the
  possibility of an outburst, when the people are
  silent, waiting for a tragedy of cleansing,"
  writer/director Milcho Manchevski
• 1994 directed by Milcho Manchevski
• Rade erbedia
• Macedonia-Great Britain

8
Milcho Manchevski
9
Awards

• Released in 1995
• Independent Spirit Award,
• Best Foreign Film, 1996
• Oscar nominee, 1995 Golden Lion for the Best
  Movie, Venice, 1995
• 30 awards overall

10
Film Before the Rain

• Novice Kiril discovers visitor
• Murder suspect-fugitive-Albanian
• Relatives of victimsearch
• Violence
• Suspense
• Questions

11
Puzzles (so far)

• Cut to a funeral procession
• Who is it?
• Who is the British woman?
• Why is she there?
• Who is the boy taking pictures?
• Of what?
• Time does not end the circle is not round. What
  does it mean?

12
Eastern Orthodoxy

• Orthodox churches
• Icons, iconostasis
• Monastic life
• Macedonian setting
• Excellent music as background

13
Language and culture differences

• Macedonian Orthodox
• Macedonian Muslim/Albanian
• Different languages
• Peaceful coexistence?
• Identity language, religious label (not
  doctrine), heritage

14
Human message (so far)

• Violence close to the surface
• Children, ninja games, bullets in the fire
• Macedonian men seeking revenge random violence
  (against cat)
• Rain coming
• Garden provides sustenance (tomatoes given to
  girl)
• Monks offer protection

15
Religious-social issues

• Eye for an eye
• Turn the other cheek
• Five centuries of Turkish rule
• Revenge

16
Film

• Narrative devices
• Unconventional chronology

17
Rain-2

• Kiril and Zamira are discovered
• Kiril is kicked out of the monastery
• Kiril and Zemfira leave together
• Zemfiras grandfather and brothers/cousins find
  them
• Zemfira tries to leave with Kiril and is killed
  by her brother

18
Rain 3

• Second section (Faces first was Words)
• Anne showers, weeping
• Anne finds out shes pregnant
• Anne meets her mother
• Alexander joins them
• Alex and Anne in the taxi

19
Rain 4

• Be ready for narrative surprises, shifts in
  chronology
• Violence continues why?
• Violence in the restaurant
• Chronology issues
• Alexs return third section Pictures

20
Alex Returns to Macedonia

• Skopje (capital)
• Old and new
• UN presence
• Native village
• Old and new

21
Rain 5

• Relatives
• Visit to Zekir
• Hana relationship
• Previous visits
• Relationship with people in the village
• Hanas daughter Zamira?
• Alex and the Doctor-Vet
• Death of Alexs cousin
• Thirst for revenge

22
Issues

• Language barriers
• Cultural barriers
• Weapons

23
Disintegration

• Multilingualism (after 1981)
• Divisive myth Turkish rule
• Hospitality (Zekirs grandson)

24
Five Centurie of Turkish Slavery?

• Mid-15th 1912
• Servitude, struggle, liberation
• Explains backwardness, marginalization
• All problems the Turks
• Even the Turks blame their problems on the
  Empire

25
Reality

• 20th century history contradicts all this
• WWII Western Macedonia part of fascist Greater
  Albania
• Macedonian partisans-communists fought Albanian
  National Front
• In early and mid-90s Turkey provided economic
  support to Macedonia
• Greek blockade in South
• UN Embargo on trade with Serbia (North)
• No tensions between Turks and Macedonians in
  Eastern Macedonia (few Albanians)

26
Film as Fable (with a warning)

• Cycle/circle of violence
• Mistrust, hopelessness
• Us vs Them
• Retreat to archaic value systems
• Tribal-patriarchal
• Revenge/blood killings
• Women property and
• Not roundpossibility for escape from violence

27
Irony something is more important than blood
28
Escape? Reason for hope?

• Kiril in the West
• Anne will have baby
• Wedding scene could be Albanian or Macedonian

29
Bridge on the Drina

• Ivo Andrics Bridge on the Drina
• P. 72 is logical end of first section building
  the bridge

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History of the bridge

• 16th century
• Years to build follow the seasons
• Slave labor (early years)

31
Cultures, hierarchies, identities

• References to conversions
• Tension between Christians and Muslims
• History and myth
• Power struggles
• Violence

32
Geography and terminology

• Drina River
• Viegrad
• Kapia (kapija) and sofa

33
Bridge as Character

• Organic grows, changes with town
• Vital link
• Witness to historical change
• Participant in that change

34
Features

• Numerous characters
• Every time period, 15th-early 20th
• Historical novel

35
History of the bridge

• 16th century
• Years to build follow the seasons
• Slave labor (early years)

36
Cultures, hierarchies, identities

• References to conversions
• Tension between Christians and Muslims
• History and myth
• Power struggles
• Violence

37
Geography and terminology

• Drina River
• Viegrad
• Kapia (kapija) and sofa

38
Bridge as Character

• Organic grows, changes with town
• Vital link
• Witness to historical change
• Participant in that change

39
Features

• Numerous characters
• Every time period, 15th-early 20th
• Historical novel

40
Characters

• Grand Vezir Mehmed Pasha
• Kraljevic Marko
• Radisav of Unite
• Abidaga
• Tosun Effendi
• Maestro Antonio
• Vila(s)
• Man from Plevlje
• Merdjan

41
Continued..

• Reaction to impalement
• Death of Radisav
• Bribing Merdjan
• Madness of Man from Plevlje
• Removal of Abidaga
• Replacement by Arif Beg
• Building of Han
• Completion of bridge
• Assassination of Mehmed Pasha

42
Influence of Historical Events

• Decline of the Han
• Great floods
• Effects of Serbian revolts against Turks
• Guardhouse and its victims

43
Bridge as Character

• Organic grows, changes with town
• Vital link
• Witness to historical change
• Participant in that change

44
Bridge
45
Bridge
46
Bridge 1900
47
Bridge
48
Geography and terminology

• Drina River
• Viegrad
• Kapia (kapija) and sofa

49
Bridge as Character

• Organic grows, changes with town
• Vital link
• Witness to historical change
• Participant in that change

50
Features

• Numerous characters
• Every time period, 15th-early 20th
• Historical novel