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Responses to Balkanism in Emir Kusturica's Život je čudo/Life is a Miracle (2004)

2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 2; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1386/seec.2.1.37_1

2040-3518

Mario Slugan,

Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration

In this article, I examine responses to Balkanism found in Emir Kusturica's critically acclaimed Život je čudo/Life is a Miracle. I identify three rejoinders set at correcting one of the following: the attribution of blame for the Bosnian War, western essentialization of the Balkans, and the image of the Balkans as a primitive and untamed backwater. I argue that all of these responses commence as attempts at positive remodelling of the negative Balkan image, but because they hinge on attracting western attention, collapse either into ethnic chauvinism or proliferation of Balkan stereotypes. I then examine the ethnic favouritism epitomized by the image of the sagacious and neutral Serb. Finally, I focus on the reaction to the image of the Balkans construed by the West as exemplified by, what I call, ‘remodelling’. While re-modelling aims to change how one is perceived, remodelling perpetuates and intensifies that perception. It is the latter that permeates Life is a Miracle as well as most of Kusturica's work.