Trauma and Memory in Post-Yugoslav Cinema

ABSTRACT The article discusses cinematic representations of memory and trauma in post-Yugoslav documentary and feature films that depict political and social reality in the post-socialist period. Through different modes of representation, from retrospective and testimonial to self-reflexive, post-Yugoslav films address important issues related to recent violent past. Since 1990s coming to terms with the past has been a central topic in public discourses and the complex and powerful role of memory in the formation of national identities has become a common topic in almost all artistic and cultural practices. Memory has become increasingly important in the construction of both individual and collective identity. As such, it has also become a site of struggle and identification. Contemporary post-Yugoslav filmmakers courageously tackle various issues related to collective memory, offering their point of view concerning events and personalities from Yugoslav history and the impact they have had on contemporary society. Younger generation filmmakers do not seek to perpetuate the nationalist discourse on war that marked the film production in the first post-socialist decade. The approach to recent history in their movies is more self-critical; the filmmakers reject self-victimization and self-exoticization and focus more on war-related guilt and embarrassment for the crimes committed by all belligerent sides