Балканско арткино
Balkan Arthouse Film

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with arthouse cinema in the Balkans. The interpretation focuses on the common, historically formed characteristics of this film genre. In the introduction, its unique niche in film industry is pointed out as a field of ceaseless experiments with the cinematographic language, as an area of free self-expression of directors and as a type of cinema, subject solely to the principles of aesthetics. A brief historical timeline is given of the advent and development of arthouse film in the Balkans, to bring to the fore the international contribution of Greek director Theo Angelopoulos to shaping its specific aesthetics. Central to the text is an in-depth analysis of a remarkable example of contemporary arthouse film, “Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” (2011) by Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Stylistic cores are identified distinguishing the work from the Turkish mass films, popular in Bulgaria mostly as TV series. Ceylan’s movie, which rejects completely the melodramatic stereotypes, is distinct in circular narrative and plot focused on details rather than events. Director/writer brilliantly uses the essential narrative invention of arthouse film, the socalled slack period (temps mort), long periods during which nothing of any substance takes place on the screen, a method for the image of time to thrust the image of motion. Ceylan has interpreted this specific dramaturgy in an adequate visual manner, very much like that of Theo Angelopoulos: very long panoramic shots and stable intra-shot atmosphere. In conclusion, the connection between the traditional choice of the most renowned Balkan directors to work in the field of arthouse film and the increasing international recognition of regional cinema is accentuated.

• Details
• Contents