Yugoslavia, How Ideology Moved Our Collective Body

Using over 50 years of impressive archive images from socialist Yugoslavia, the film questions the representation of ideology in official mass rallies as well as in counter-demonstrations. The speeches of President Josip Broz Tito, images of the socialist youth gatherings, the supporters’ anthems... We skim through the key chapters of the history of the country, a progressive model for the Eastern bloc, tinged with notions of fraternity and unity, the fundamental values of the Yugoslavian people. Next come images bearing witness to the fall of a nation and an ideology, those of the death of Tito and the historic sequence of the train transporting his remains across the country before an emotional crowd. Then we stop on Milošević’s speech in Kosovo, an event that marked the end of an era and the dissolution of the country, the outbreak of war, the rise of nationalism and capitalism, but that would also lead to demonstrations in Belgrade in reaction to the power. The diverse choreographies of the people translate the socio-political climate and span history with intensity.

Jasmin Basic