Yugoslav Black Wave in 10 films
In the 1960s and 1970s a group of Yugoslav directors made films that were funny, angry and often banned, about a country that said it was a workers' paradise. Watch these in order to see the wave grow from quiet doubt to open provocation.
- 1Man Is Not a Bird 1965Dušan Makavejev · IMDb 7.1Makavejev's first feature is a love story between an engineer and a hairdresser, cut together with a hypnotist and a copper mine. The mix of jokes, documentary and politics is already there.
Next: Three
From Makavejev's playful first feature we move to Petrović's quiet, formal war film, the calmer side of the same new cinema. - 2Three 1965Aleksandar Petrović · IMDb 7.7Three stories about a partisan soldier facing death in the Second World War. Petrović's quiet, formal film was nominated for an Academy Award and opened the way for the others.
Next: Rondo
Staying with form, Berković turns from war to a stylish modernist love triangle. - 3Rondo 1966Zvonimir Berković · IMDb 7.9A husband, a wife and a lover in a stylish modernist love triangle. Berković shows that the new Yugoslav film was not only about politics but also about form.
Next: Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator
Makavejev returns with a much freer, funnier film that cuts a love story with lectures and documentary pieces. - 4Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator 1967Dušan Makavejev · IMDb 7.3A love story told with pieces of a crime lecture and a sex-education talk. Makavejev's film is playful, shocking and very free in form.
Next: I Even Met Happy Gypsies
Now the camera leaves the city for the Roma villages of Vojvodina, in the film that brought the wave to Cannes and the Oscars. - 5I Even Met Happy Gypsies 1967Aleksandar Petrović · IMDb 7.6Roma feather traders in Vojvodina, played by non-professionals, in a story of love, jealousy and death. It won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes and an Oscar nomination.
Next: When I Am Dead and Gone
After the poetic, internationally praised film, Pavlović shows the grey, jobless side of Yugoslavia that the authorities did not want to see. - 6When I Am Dead and Gone 1967Živojin Pavlović · IMDb 7.9A young man drifts through a gray Yugoslavia without work or hope. Many critics see Pavlović's film as the most typical film of the Black Wave.
Next: Innocence Unprotected
From a bleak present, Makavejev goes back to 1942 and reworks an old melodrama into an essay on memory. - 7Innocence Unprotected 1968Dušan Makavejev · IMDb 7.1Makavejev takes a 1942 melodrama made under Nazi occupation, adds interviews with its makers and war footage, and turns it into a funny, moving essay about memory.
Next: Early Works
The mood turns openly political: Žilnik's rough film mocks young communists and the revolution itself. - 8Early Works 1969Želimir Žilnik · IMDb 6.8Four young communists try to bring the revolution to the people, and fail. Žilnik's rough, ironic film upset the authorities at home and won the Golden Bear at Berlin.
Next: W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism
The wave reaches its boldest point, as Makavejev mixes Reich, sex and politics in the film that was banned at home. - 9W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism 1971Dušan MakavejevMakavejev links the ideas of the psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich, American sexual radicals and a Yugoslav love story. It was banned at home and became a cult film abroad.
Next: Sweet Movie
Finally, exiled from Yugoslavia, Makavejev goes as far as he can in a scandalous film made in the West. - 10Sweet Movie 1974Dušan Makavejev · IMDb 5.8Made in the West, Makavejev's most scandalous film joins a beauty queen, a ship of sailors and a lot of sugar. Not for everyone, but it shows how far the wave went.
Where next: the Balkan Cinema guide continues the story with the wars of the 1990s.
Learn more about Yugoslav Black Wave →
