10 - Third World On the Move: Cinematic Destination Belgrade/Serbia

Summary

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to map manifold notions of migrant cinema and its history, in other words, film narratives about migrations from, across, and to the Balkans. The analysis looks at broader Balkan cinema that features as the context for focusing the changes of the migration pattern from and to Belgrade. The paper takes Practical Guide to Belgrade with Singing and Crying (Praktičan vodič kroz Beograd sa pevanjem i plakanjem, Bojan Vuletić, 2011) as its case study to show the recent reversal of migrant narratives in which the Balkans are the desired destination, in itself an exception to the rule. The analyses are based on the appropriated definition of migrant cinema and complemented with notions of inner exile and accented cinema.

Keywords: migrations, Serbian cinema, exile, Belgrade

Migrations and Exiles in Cinematic Narratives

Migrations, travels, and journeys have always been among the most popular and interesting cinematic topics. Journeys are a driving force propelling most road movies and narratives of people on the move—migrants, travellers, refugees, exiles, fugitives, etc. On their journey, the travellers—whether due to voluntary or forced migration—cross many borders “not only physical and geographical, but also psychological, metaphorical, social, and cultural… [while] journeys may take the form of exploration, pilgrimage, escape, emigration, or return” (Naficy, 2001, p. 222). The diversity of borders and travellers sustains not only literary but, more importantly, metaphorical potentials of the journey (journey as growing up, identity transformation, class mobility). Most often, the two strands are hard to separate. Migrants’ journeys are made in search of daily bread, the myth of a promised land, or a new beginning. Once the destination is reached, instead of the desired, almost idyllic life and land of utopia, the travellers often only find dystopia and desperation, while the experience of the journey itself remains central.

Film narratives about journeys and people “on the move”—as a common thematic denominator—cover a wide range of genres and formats: road movie and migrant, diasporic, or accented cinema, among others. Before undertaking a brief overview of the films about journeys and the Balkans, it is necessary to make a distinction between overlapping notions of migrant, diasporic, exilic, or accented cinema as well as to define the added term of inner exile.