6 - Industrial Ruins, Malaise, and Ambivalent Nostalgia: Reflections on the Post-socialist Condition in Contemporary Balkan Cinemas

Summary

Abstract

Pervading images of de-industrialization processes and post-industrialism in Balkan cinemas over the last decade coincide with the harsh realities of the “post-socialist condition.” I explore how contemporary Balkan cinemas address these issues through an analysis of Sînt o babă comunistă / I Am an Old Communist Hag (2013, Romania, dir. Stere Gulea), Rekvijem za gospođu J. / Requiem for Mrs. J. (2017, Serbia, dir. Bojan Vuletić), and Ti imaš noć / You Have the Night (2018, Montenegro and Serbia, dir. Ivan Salatić). Questioning the precariousness of post-socialism, these films engage in acts of “ambivalent nostalgia” (Boym 2001) through remembrances of solidarity, collective work, and industrial productivity. Representations of dilapidated and vanishing industrial spaces echo “ruinophilia” (Boym 2011), and serve as affective remainders and reminders of socialist-era values.

Keywords: Balkan cinemas; post-socialism; post-industrialism; nostalgia; ruinophilia; socialism

“Ruin” literally means “collapse”—but actually, ruins are more about remainders and reminders.

‒ Svetlana Boym

An old man wanders through streets devoid of people, the echo of his voice resounding against the bleak austerity of apartment blocks and into the emptiness of the dark night. In the Montenegrin film You Have the Night (2018, dir. Ivan Salatić), the post-socialist transition, the effects of the global financial crisis and enduring socio-economic issues, give way to haunting images of industrial ruins and natural landscapes empty of human presence. Meanwhile, the “remainders” and “reminders” of Yugoslavian-era socialist ideals and loss of identity following the dissolution of former Yugoslavia linger in the atmosphere throughout the film.

The social disintegration, familial and economic crisis experienced by post-socialist societies represented in contemporary Balkan and Eastern European cinemas, is often interpreted by film scholars and critics as a consequence of the transition from state to market economy, processes of privatization, economic emigration, poor governance, and corruption. After the collapse of state socialism, the countries of the former socialist bloc experienced dramatic changes of “forced” de-industrialization in an extremely condensed time–space continuum, in addition to the loss of socialist values and identity, as well as socio-economic challenges of the transition period. In several films from the Balkan countries, the once thriving industrial cities of the socialist era such as Bor (Serbia), Veles (North Macedonia), Elbasan (Albania) or Călăraşi (Romania) appear in decline and abandonment.