West lischer Kunstverein "The Black Wave" New Yugoslav Cinema 1963-72 22.02.-22.03.2020 - English
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West◊lischer Kunstverein “The Black Wave” New Yugoslav Cinema 1963–72 22.02.–22.03.2020 / English
IMPRINT Matijevic; the various As a result of Josip Broz Tito’s split from Josef Stalin and the
archives, cinematheques and Soviet Union in 1948, Yugoslavian culture underwent a radical
PUBLICATION distributors: Archive of transformation: the rigid demands and prescribed aesthetics of
Jugoslovenska Kinoteka, Socialist Realism were challenged by a young, often subversive
Westfälischer Kunstverein, Arsenal - Institut für Film und avant-garde. Nowhere was this more evident than in the remark-
2020 Videokunst e.V., Avala Film, able films of the so-called “Black Wave” movement of the six-
Text: Kristina Scepanski Centar Film, Delta video, ties and seventies. As a hinge linking the West and the Eastern
Translation: Tim Connell Filmarchiv Internationale bloc, Yugoslavia had to walk a tightrope that not only chal-
Copy-editing: Jenni Henke Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, lenged it in how it positioned itself politically and ideologi-
Design: Dan Solbach goEast - Festival of Central cally, but also with regard to the guiding principles of its
Installation views: Thorsten and Eastern European Film, cultural production. It is precisely this balancing act between
Arendt Slovenska kinoteka, Ustanova the rejection, on the one hand, of the archetypal hero of So-
Zagreb film; the company Licht cialist Realism, who gives way to the cynical anti-hero in the
+ Werbetechnik Hermann Brück “Black Wave” movement, and the most conspicuous US cultural
EXHIBITION for the production and instal- export of the late 1960s, the sexual revolution on the other,
lation of the wall texts, and that makes these films a unique testimony to their era.
“The Black Wave” the LWL-Museum’s craftsmen: Never resolutely anti-communist, many of the films radiate
New Yugoslav Cinema Thomas Erdmann, Thomas Püth an impressive sense of vibrancy and energy, which is both di-
1963–72 and Johann Crne. rected against a system that undermines individuality and pos-
22 February–22 March 2020 its a longing for the kind of revolution that might have been.
Westfälischer Kunstverein It’s hardly surprising then that many films of the “Black Wave”
Westfälischer Kunstverein is movement were banned in Yugoslavia for many years and some of
Curator: Kristina Scepanski funded by the directors even had to leave the country. As a result, many
Film research and selection: of the Black Wave films contain a kind of an oppositional anti-
Winfried Bettmer, Kristina optimism toward state-invoked notions of progress, coupled with
Scepanski an unmasking of patriotism and socialist mythologizing. The
Coordination: Jenni Henke social problems of the time are often the starting point for
Administration: Tono Dreßen and supported by Želimir Žilnik’s and Dušan Makavejev’s films. Their respective
Gallery assistant: Bernhard formal languages range thus from the documentary via non-linear
Sicking narration deploying ambiguities and surrealistic motifs, all
Installation: Anne Krönker, the way to sarcastic irony bordering on the cynical.
Bernhard Sicking
Screens: Thomas Erdmann © 2020, Westfälischer SHORTS
Technician/Lighting: Johann Kunstverein The three short films by Želimir Žilnik (#01) are documentaries
Crne about people on the fringes of society, specifically the home-
Rothenburg 30, less and children living on the street in Yugoslavia, but also
A cooperation with Filmclub 48143 Münster, Germany Gastarbeiter or guest workers in Germany. It is significant
Münster T: +49 251 46157 that Žilnik himself makes an appearance as an opposite number,
F: +49 251 45479 letting these individuals have their say in a concrete address.
info@westfaelischer- For the short Black Film (1971), Žilnik invited a group of
kunstverein.de (officially non-existent) homeless people from the streets of
The team at Westfälischer www.westfälischer- Novi Sad into his (and his somewhat surprised wife’s) two-room
Kunstverein would like to kunstverein.de apartment to give them somewhere to stay for a few nights.
thank: Žilnik conducts short interviews in the street with passersby,
The colleagues of Filmclub and but also with police officers, in order to find a permanent
Filmwerkstatt Münster, solution for the homeless.
especially Winfried Bettmer, The documentary Little Pioneers (1972) takes issue with
Mara Homann and Regina Wegmann; Yugoslavia’s official claim to care for all its citizens – es-
Želimir Žilnik and Sarita pecially children, all of whom who are considered to be “good
little pioneers”. However, in Žilnik’s take on reality, the 20,000 troops, 60 tanks and 20 aeroplanes at Godina’s disposal.
situation for many children, especially Roma children, is alto- But apart from the soldiers, none of this military hardware
gether different. appears in the film – instead, we see droves of yearning young
After problems with censorship in Yugoslavia, Žilnik spent women. Godina sums up the message of his film as follows: “Make
the mid-1970s in West Germany, where he made seven documentary love not war” and states that the army “literally hacked the
films and a feature film as an independent producer. These film to pieces with an axe, but [I] was able to rescue a copy”.
films were among the first to deal with the situation of Five more short films (from the International Short Film
Gastarbeiter in Germany and are still shown today at retrospec- Festival Oberhausen film archive) by four different directors
tives and symposia. Inventory, Metzstr. 11 (1975) from this will be shown at a third viewing station (#03). Vlatko Gilić
series is featured here. In the film, all the residents of the (b. 1935) from Montenegro is among them; he received an award
house introduce themselves in their respective mother tongues for his life’s work in 1996 and is represented here with the
in the stairwell – stating their names, their desires and their impressive documentaries One Day More (Dan više) and Judas
hopes. (Juda). Both films stand out on account of their archaic, sur-
The Slovenian director Karpo Godina (b. 1943) was Želimir realistic imagery – a throng of people of all ages in a communal
Žilnik’s cameraman on Early Works (Golden Bear, Berlinale mud bath or an inhospitable stone desert riddled with snakes.
1969). After he was banned from directing in 1972, he made his Gilić abruptly ended his career in 1980 due to official disap-
feature film debut in 1980 with The Raft of Medusa (Splav Me- proval on the part of the communist authorities and has since
duze). refused to give interviews about his films.
The exhibition will screen three of his award-winning short Aleksandar Marks’ Ecce Homo and Dragutin Vunak’s Cow on the
films (#02) honoured at international film festivals (including Border (Krava na granici) are both animations, the latter fol-
Oberhausen, Zagreb and Belgrade) for their radical, critical lowing a cow that inadvertently strays across the state border
approach, all three quickly falling prey to the censor back in while chewing its cud. As a result, the cow inevitably sets a
Yugoslavia. Godina experimented with the static camera in an train of events in motion, activating a whole defence appara-
attempt to create a distance to the filmed events, but also to tus, and almost triggers a war before ultimately being repatri-
make a strain of subversive irony palpable. ated.
Devoid of spoken words and with only music to accompany it, Vefik Hadžismajlović is a filmmaker from Sarajevo; he
The Gratinated Brains of Pupilija Ferkeverk (Gratinirani mozak observes his protagonists at eye level, an approach redolent of
Pupilije Ferkeverk) (1970) uses one camera setting to present a fundamental, marked solidarity and empathy. In At the Dinner
members of the avant-garde artists’ group, Pupilija Ferkeverk, (Na objedu), he depicts the milieu of the rural population
sometimes scantily, sometimes less scantily-clad, more or less without sentimentalising it, depicting the relationships of the
idly standing or swaying in the water against a backdrop of people to their relatives who have left home to join the commu-
changing weather. In Godina’s own words, the film was banned nities of Gastarbeiter elsewhere (mostly West Germany).
“because it charts the decline in moral values and culminates
in the slogan ‘Take LSD’”. According to Godina, the text mod- FEATURE FILMS
ules inserted into the film logged “important stations in In a separate room (#04), four different feature films by Dušan
life”, such as “death, love, dictatorship and, at the end, Makavejev, Želimir Žilnik and Živojin Pavlović will be shown in
dropping LSD”. weekly rotation, at 1 pm and 5 pm. The ticket is valid for the
The Litany of Happy People (1971) is an ironic commentary duration of the whole exhibition and thus allows multiple vis-
on the peaceful coexistence of different ethnic groups in the its to see all films.
autonomous province of Vojvodina, which experienced an eventful
history in the political development of Yugoslavia and, later,
Serbia. Religious leaders of different ethnic groups explain
the specific characteristics of “their people” and thereby
expose this identity as a construct. The film was banned be-
cause it was deemed to be “cast doubt upon the scope for a
multi-national Yugoslavia”.
Curiously enough, About the Art of Love or a Film with
14441 Frames (1972) was commissioned by the Yugoslavian mili-
tary, which placed almost unlimited resources in the form of
Foyer
Foyer
Installation view (left to right): Želimir Žilnik, Inventory, Metzstr. 11, 1975. Karpo Godina, The Litany of Happy People (Zdravi ljudi za razonodu), 1971. Aleksandar Marks, Ecce Homo, 1972.
Station #01 Station #02 Želimir Žilnik, Little Karpo Godina, The Litany of Pioneers (Pioniri maleni), Happy People (Zdravi ljudi za 1972. razonodu), 1971.
Installation view (left to right): Karpo Godina, The Litany of Happy People (Zdravi ljudi za razonodu), 1971. Vlatko Gilić, One Day More (Dan više), 1971.
Station #02 Karpo Godina, The Gratinated Brains of Pupilija Ferkeverk Station #03 (Gratinirani mozak Pupilije Aleksandar Marks, Ecce Homo, Ferkeverk), 1970. 1972.
Installation view (left to right): Dragutin Vunak, Cow at the Border (Krava na granici), 1963. Želimir Žilnik Black Film (Crni Film), 1971. Karpo Godina, About the Art of Love or a Film 14441 Frames (O ljubavnim veštinama ili film sa 14441 kvadratom), 1972.
Schedule Feature Films Schedule Feature Films
DUŠAN MAKAVEJEV
Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator
(Ljubavni slučaj ili tragedija službenice P.T.T.), 1967, 68 min.
Serbo-kroatisch, mit engl. UT
• 22. Februar–1. März 2020
Jeweils um 13 Uhr und 17 Uhr
Dušan Makavejev (1932-2019) gilt als einer der Hauptvertreter der
jugoslawischen „Black Wave“, den die Los Angeles Times 2009 als
„Master of the kinky political comedy“ bezeichnete. Sein zweiter
Spielfim Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard
Operator (nach Man is Not a Bird, 1965) machte ihn auch bei einem
internationalen Publikum bekannt. Charakteristisch für Makavejev
ist seine sture nicht-lineare Erzählweise, seine überraschenden und
humorvollen Schnitte, die ein ungewöhnliches Nebeneinander kreieren,
und die Verquickung von Fakt, Fiktion, angeeignetem Filmmaterial und
pseudo-wissenschaftlichen Exkursen. Love Affair erzählt eine
Alltagsgeschichte: Izabela, die moderne und selbständige Ungarin
trifft Achmed, den muslimischen Türken und strammen Parteisoldaten,
der als Hygieneinspektor Ratten vernichtet. Nach der anfänglichen
Romanze kommt es zu Schwierigkeiten, Betrug und schließlich einem
tragischen Unfalltod. Jenseits dieses Plots ist Love Affair jedoch
viel mehr: Makavejev entlarvt die Maskeraden und Formeln des
jugoslawischen Sozialismus und stellt diesen eine wahrhaftige Idee
von Menschlichkeit und Individualität gegenüber.
Unser Kino muss zugleich didaktisch und destruktiv sein […]
nur durch Destruktion können wir die Menschen erziehen, durch
Destruktion aller Illusionen, aller demagogischen Slogans […],
d.h. wir müssen die Slogans nicht so sehr zerstören, als ihren
menschlichen Gehalt aufdecken.
(Dušan Makavejev in: Filmkritik, Nr. 2/68, München, Februar
1968, S. 93.)
Regisseur: Dušan Makavejev
Drehbuch: Dušan Makavejev, Branko Vučićević
Produktion: Avala Film, Belgrad
Dušan Makavejev, Love Affair,
or the Case of the Missing
Switchboard Operator (Ljubavni
slučaj ili tragedija
službenice P.T.T.), 1967.ŽELIMIR ŽILNIK
Early Works (Rani Radovi), 1969, 78 min.
Serbo-kroatisch, mit engl. UT
• 3.–8. März 2020
Jeweils um 13 Uhr und 17 Uhr
(Ausnahme: Dienstag, 3. März um 16:30 Uhr)
• Dienstag, 3. März um 18 Uhr:
Vortrag von Regisseur Želimir Žilnik
1969 gewann ein kleiner unabhängiger jugoslawischer Film ohne
Budget den Goldenen Bären auf der Berlinale. Es war Želimir Žilniks
erster Spielfilm Early Works (Rani Radovi), der zu einem Meilen-
stein der jugoslawischen „Black Wave“-Bewegung werden sollte.
Zusätzlich zu Žilnik stellte er der Welt einen Kameramann vor, der
eine Ära des transgressiven europäischen Kinos definieren wird:
Karpo Godina, dessen Kurzfilme im Ausstellungsraum zu sehen sind.
Žilniks Early Works ist der einzige jugoslawische Film, der sich
den Studentenunruhen von 1968 nach der Besetzung der Tschechoslowakei
widmet. Kurz nach seinem Start wurde der Film in Jugoslawien
verboten. Benannt nach den Frühen Werken von Karl Marx, denen er
auch einige Dialoge entlehnt, erzählt er die Geschichte von drei
jungen RevolutionärInnen die aufs Land und in die Fabriken ziehen,
um die Menschen zu einem Kampf für die eigene Emanzipation zu
ermutigen. Frustriert von Widerstand und Ablehnung bleibt ihnen
schließlich nur die Selbstzerstörung.
Regisseur: Želimir Žilnik
Drehbuch: Želimir Žilnik, Branko Vučićević
Weitere Dialoge: Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels
Kamera und Schnitt: Karpo Godina
Produktion: Avala Film, Belgrad, Neoplanta Film, Novi Sad
www.zilnikzelimir.net
Želimir Žilnik during his talk
at Westfälischer KunstvereinDUŠAN MAKAVEJEV
WR: Mysteries of the Organism (WR – Misterije organizma), 1971,
86 min.
Englisch und Serbo-kroatisch, mit engl. UT
ŽIVOJIN PAVLOVIĆ
When I am dead and pale (Kad budem mrtav i beo), 1967, 79 min. • 17.–22. März 2020
Serbo-kroatisch, mit engl. UT Jeweils um 13 Uhr und 17 Uhr
• 10.–15. März 2020 Neben Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator
Jeweils um 13 Uhr und 17 Uhr (1967) zeigen wir auch den wohl bekanntesten Spielfilm Makavejevs:
WR: Mysteries of the Organism aus dem Jahre 1971, den der Regisseur
Živojin Pavlović (1933–1998) studierte zunächst Malerei, begann teils in den USA und Jugoslawien filmte. Auch hier bleibt Makavejev
als Amateurfilmer und brachte schließlich 1962 seinen ersten pro- seiner exzessiven Montagetechnik treu und entwirft eine absurde
fessionellen Film heraus. Insgesamt drehte Pavlović 15 Spielfilme, Burleske, die sich lose auf Wilhelm Reich, den Orgasmus-besessenen
viele davon preisgekrönt und relevant im Kontext der „Black Wave“- Psychoanalysten und Schüler Sigmund Freuds, bezieht.
Bewegung. 1967 erhielt er für The Rats Woke Up (Budjenje pacova) Auch hier steht dokumentarisches Material neben Filmzitaten und
den Silbernen Bären in Berlin. Wir zeigen den im selben Jahr dem Plot einer Liebesgeschichte zwischen der Titelheldin und
entstandenen und auf den Festivals in Karlsbad und Pula mehrfach Revolutionärin Milena und dem verklemmt-regimetreuen russischen
ausgezeichneten Spielfilm When I am dead and pale (Kad budem mrtav Eiskunstläufer Wladimir Iljitsch, der passenderweise Lenins Vornamen
i beo). Der Film folgt Jimmy, der angeblich als Junge von einem trägt. Durch die Figur der energischen Milena baut Makavejev in
Granatsplitter getroffen worden ist und – leider völlig talentlos – WR die ungestüme These auf, dass eine freie (kommunistische)
eine Gesangskarriere verfolgt. Gesellschaft und freie Liebe untrennbar zusammengehören. Und so
deklamiert Milena denn auch in einer Szene lauthals:
Kad budem mrtav i beo ist weder Schlager noch Beat, sondern
der ultimative Punkfilm des jugoslawischen Kinos, der schwärzeste Comrades! Between socialism and free love there can be no
der „Schwarzen Welle“. Der Film strotzt vor Musik meist conflict! Socialism must not exclude human sensual pleasure
traditioneller Art, nichts und niemand hält den rastlosen Jimmy from its program! The October Revolution was ruined when it
vom Singen ab. Er will ganz groß rauskommen, es bis in die Stadt rejected free love!
schaffen. Parallel zu Jimmys Abenteuern entsteht ein genaues
Porträt der Vororte von Belgrad in den 60er Jahren: Volksfeste, WR: Mysteries of the Organism erhielt begeisterte Kritiken auf
Militärparaden, Gesangswettbewerbe, Baustellen, Schrotthaufen, den internationalen Festivals in Cannes, Moskau, Venedig und
Schlammfelder. Eine Stadt entfaltet sich vor uns – eine Stadt, Karlsbad, war zugleich 16 Jahre lang verboten in Jugoslawien und
in der jeder einfach verschwinden kann. (Arsenal Berlin) führte schließlich zu Makavejevs Ausweisung aus Jugoslawien 1973.
Regisseur: Živojin Pavlović Regisseur: Dušan Makavejev
Drehbuch: Ljubiša Kozomara, Gordan MihićH Drehbuch: Dušan Makavejev
Kamera: Milorad Jakšić-Fand-o Produktion: Neoplanta Film, Novi Sad
Montage: Olga Skrigin
Produktion: Centar Film, BelgradPUBLIC PROGRAMME LIST OF EXHIBITED FILMS 04: FEATURE FILMS IN WEEKLY
ROTATION
OPENING RECEPTION SHORT FILMS SHOWN IN A LOOP Screenings Tuesday-Sunday
• Friday, 21 February at 1 pm and 5 pm
at 7 pm 01: Želimir Žilnik
Black Film (Crni Film), 22 February–1 March 2020
TALK BY ŽELIMIR ŽILNIK (IN 1971, 14 min. Dušan Makavejev
ENGLISH) Little Pioneers (Pioniri Love Affair, or the Case
• Tuesday, 3 March at 6pm maleni), 1972, 18 min. of the Missing Switchboard
Inventory, Metzstr. 11 Operator (Ljubavni slučaj
(Inventur, Metzstr. 11), ili tragedija službenice
1975, 9 min. P.T.T.), 1967, 68 min.
Serbo-Croatian, with
02: Karpo Godina English subtitles
The Gratinated Brains of
Pupilija Ferkeverk 3–8 March 2020
(Gratinirani mozak Želimir Žilnik
Pupilije Ferkeverk), 1970, Early Works (Rani Radovi),
10 min. 1969, 78 min.
The Litany of Happy People Serbo-Croatian, with
(Zdravi ljudi za English subtitles
razonodu), 1971, 15 min.
About the Art of Love or a 10–15 March 2020
Film 14441 Frames (O Živojin Pavlović
ljubavnim veštinama ili When I am dead and pale
film sa 14441 kvadratom), (Kad budem mrtav i beo),
1972, 11 min. 1967, 79 min.
Serbo-Croatian, with
03: Vlatko Gilić, One Day More English subtitles
(Dan više), 1971, 11 min.
Vlatko Gilić, Judas 17–22 March 2020
(Juda), 1972, 11 min. Dušan Makavejev
Aleksandar Marks, Ecce WR: Mysteries of the
Homo, 1972, 12 min. Organism (WR – Misterije
Dragutin Vunak, Cow on the organizma), 1971, 86 min.
Border (Krava na granici), English and Serbo-
1963, 10 min. Croatian, with English
Vefik Hadžismajlović, At subtitles
the Dinner (Na objedu),
1972, 9 min.02
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