Cinema and Religion in Yugoslavia 1945-1989 (CINEYU)

FWF PI Project by Milja Radovic

FWF PI Project by Milja Radovic

Since the end of the Second World War and the establishment of the new socialist state of Yugoslavia religion fell into the margins of society and consequently the cultural scene and was replaced by more historical narratives. These historical narratives focused on the Second World War, especially in the early post-war period became the focal point of the filmmakers. History served for understanding the present and the future: understanding the past including the war to boost the sense of solidarity and the prosperous future of the new state formed on different principles and ethos.

Religion became a ‘monument of culture’ and symbol of the past, generally avoided in cinema in the first decades, only to re-emerge in the decades to follow in peculiar ways: as a critique of society and as the means of cinematic expression. Was religion really absent from cinema and if not, what was its role in cinema and how did it connect to historical times? In the state of the art no study exists on the subject while existing scholarship is predominantly focused on the 1990s and post-Yugoslav cinema.

Cinema and Religion in Yugoslavia 1945-1989 (CINEYU) is the first scientific study that investigates cinematic representations of religion in Yugoslavia between 1945 and 1989, filling the glaring gap in the scientific research. The aim of this project is to analyse the complex interplay between religion and cinema under state socialism. Examining the unexpected and innovative ways in which religion was depicted in Yugoslav films, CINEYU provides a novel methodology and theoretical framework in the scholarly examination of the intersection between religion and film. The hypothesis of the Project is that the role of religion in society can be assessed through film and specifically through the analysis of film language. CINEYU approaches film as a primary rather than secondary source and introduces historical-archival analysis consolidating frame as the method of critical analysis to offer a novel methodology in reading faith through film, placing film language at the heart of scientific inquiry.  The Project enhances the historical inquiry into the role of religion in the Balkan Peninsula and serves as a model for future investigations on the subject across different countries in Eastern Europe.

As the first systematic study on cinema and religion in Socialist Yugoslavia the Project led by PI Dr Milja Radovic revitalizes the works of seminal film theorists and advances our understandings of cinematic heritage and cultural history of the Yugoslav space.