Post-Yugoslav Cinema and the Shadows of War : A Study of Non-Representation in Film

Abstract

Bosnia-Herzegovina is still considered a post-war country. The concept of "post-war" implies that the country and its people are tied more strongly to the past than they are oriented towards the future. Paradoxically, as long as the future is kept at bay and the post-war condition kept alive, Bosnia maintains a certain significance on the global scene. However, living in the temporal vacuum of the post-war condition cannot be a long-term perspective. A range of post-Yugoslav films provides spectators with images that offer innovative approaches to the collective past, while simultaneously reframing contemporary experience. What the author proposes to call non-representational images appears to offer a more dynamic relationship to the past and the present, while reflecting complex processes of the formation of identity, memory, guilt, and responsibility. But if these dynamics are inherent in non-representational images, is there a way in which they can contribute to overcoming the post-war condition?