05 June 2009

1974



This curious scene is taken from Sweet Movie (1974), a film by Yugoslav director Dušan Makavejev. The film was banned in most countries and remains banned in some.
Makavejev himself explained that the film was the most accepted in “the countries that start with an i”. In Italy above all, where Pier Paolo Pasolini himself made a local version.
Yugoslavia sent Makavejev into exile already in 1971, after he had made WR: Mysteries of the Organism.
“This is not a theatre, comrade Makavejev.”
“Certainly not,” responded Makavejev. “ [I]n movies it is all the same country. The country of movies. It's the country of dreams.”
That face at the head of the boat belongs to Karl Marx. The boat itself is called Survival. The boy riding a bicycle wears a Bandiera Rossa beret. “Potemkin” is written across it.
At this particular moment in time, the boat is in Amsterdam.
Wanderers of land and sea…
Belgrade has survived 30 wars to date (that we know of).
Bosnians stopped counting their wars long ago.
Every ancestor of mine in living memory was displaced by some war or other.
For an idea we leave
Our beloved
Our country is the whole world

No comments:

Post a Comment