A Well-Adapted Genre: Melodrama in the Balkans
A Well-Adapted Genre: Melodrama in the Balkans

Summary/Abstract: Melodrama represents both a genre and an incipient stage of cinema, mirroring its humble origins of folk entertainment. Although melodramas were localized also in towns it was consubstantial to ruralism, in Greece in the form of fustanella. Until WW2 in the Balkans were several specialized directors such as Jean Mihail, Ion Şahighian, Boris Grejov, Muhsin Ertugrul, Dimitris Gaziadis and Ahilleas Madras. Melodrama was able to adapt in Greece and Turkey after WW2 and came to a head in the 1950s and 1960s. In communist countries melodrama could hardly survive due to the pressure of Socialist Realism.

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