“Once upon a time there was a country…” – post-Yugoslav war cinema and its music

In this thesis I focus on the music of post-Yugoslav war films produced between 1994 and 2000. By addressing topics such as nationalism and propaganda, Balkan stereotypes, war trauma, and Yugonostalgia, I expose the unaddressed war trauma, that in various ways afflicts people across the region and is deeply expressed in the music of war films. Yugonostalgia expressed through these soundtracks is seen as a emotional and nostalgic response that reveales this trauma. Other aspects of the films that I analyse here, such as propaganda, nationalism and Balkan stereotypes point to the social, political, and historical dynamics that leave this war trauma unnadressed and unresolved. The analysis of music reveals that these war films portray a variety of aspects of this conflict, including different aspects of trauma that are expressed through the music. The dissolution of Yugoslavia which began in the early 1990s induced some radical political changes that were followed by a civil war between former Yugoslav republics. At the end of this conflict, a once coherent federal state was divided into several independent countries. The war efforts and this newly established independence were presented in cinema which offered convenient ways to tell the stories of recent historical events through its narrative features. The films analysed in this thesis were produced in former Yugoslav republics, notably Serbia, Croatia, and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (today North Macedonia), in the years 1994-2000, i.e., during the civil war in Bosnia and Croatia and NATO bombing of Serbia. The soundtracks include originally composed scores as well as compiled scores that include both popular and clasical music, with a heavy influx of Yugoslav popular music. This thesis addresses the as-yet unexplored subject of music in the post-Yugoslav war cinema of this turbulent period. I base my music analysis on film music scholarship supported by film studies, history, sociology, and trauma studies. I investigate how a variety of war-connected themes presented in the films are reflected in the soundtrack. In the four chapters of this thesis, I focus on four themes that are related and connected by the contexts in which the films were produced – propaganda and provocation, national identity, trauma, and Yugonostalgia. The chapters are arranged in such a way as to layer the information and observations about the films, political context, and music production at the time, in order to reach the issue of unaddressed trauma and its musical representation in the films