ФАСЦИНАЦИЈА ОБИЧАЈИМА ИЛИ АУТО-ОРИЈЕНТАЛИЗАМ ЖИВКА НИКОЛИЋА
FASCINATION BY CUSTOMS OR AUTO-ORIENTALISM OF ŽIVKO NIKOLIĆ

Summary/Abstract: Zivko Nikolic dedicated each of his film compositions to the Montenegrin custom. Montenegro, as part of the Balkan, is a mine of stereotypes, but the directoradherence to tradition is not a consequence of discourse, because he has not fallen into the trap of crnogorcizam (orientalism on local level). On the contrary, Nikolic observed that tradition artistically in order to reconstruct and destruct stereotypes. Hence, Nikolic‘s fascination with tradition is not auto-orientalism in the classical meaning of the word. His insistence on archetypes is not obeying to discourse, but a way of rebellion. The director accommodated his story in geographical scope of Montenegro, but at the same time opposed to symbolic geography imposed on it. It was a sarcastic attitude towards a system of stereotypes – he was using aesthetic of tradition in the fray against traditionalism. Right there we can find possible errors of director in relation to the mythic. The audience understood this as an imitation of stereotypes, not a persiflage of them. The most famous Montenegrin director made his peculiar poetics and aesthetics from the mentality of his country. Nevertheless, this mentality didn‘t „orientalised him“, but gave him the orientation in the film space.

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