"The Balkan Line" as a Conservative Remix of Red Western
Michał Bobrowski
mch.bobrowski@gmail.comMaria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8623-1632
Abstract
The article presents a contextual analysis of the Russian-Serbian film The Balkan Line (dir. Andrey Volgin, 2019). The film is set in Kosovo in 1999 and depicts the events known as the “incident at Pristina Airport.” The Balkan Line is deeply rooted in the tradition of Soviet and Yugoslav propaganda cinema, particularly the so-called red western. This term refers to a broad category of films produced in socialist countries, which engage in an intertextual dialogue with the most American of film genres. The Balkan Line is examined as an example of contemporary propaganda cinema that employs well-established narrative conventions and rhetorical devices, adapting them to the demands of the current ideological climate.
Keywords:
propaganda cinema, red western, eastern, Kosovo mythReferences
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Authors
Michał Bobrowskimch.bobrowski@gmail.com
Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8623-1632
Assistant Professor at the Institute of Cultural Studies, Faculty of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin (UMCS) since 2018. He holds a PhD in Film Studies (Jagiellonian University in Kraków, 2010). In 2012, he authored the book Akira Kurosawa. Artysta pogranicza [Akira Kurosawa: Artist of the Borderland]; in 2016 and 2019, he co-edited two monographs: Obsession, Perversion, Rebellion: Twisted Dreams of Central European Animation and Propaganda, Ideology, Animation: Twisted Dreams of History. Co-author (with Radosław Bomba) of the book Poza ekranem kinowym. Postmedialne konteksty animacji [Beyond the Cinema Screen: Postmedia Contexts of Animation] (2021). Co-founder and programme director of the StopTrik International Film Festival (Slovenia/Poland, since 2010), an event dedicated to the art of stop motion animation. He collaborates with various European film festivals and cultural institutions as a curator and cultural activist. He has authored a number of peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, as well as popular articles, mainly on Japanese and American cinema and art-house animated films.
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