11 - On the Borderlines of South-Eastern Europe : Migration in the Films of Aida Begić and Želimir Žilnik
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 April 2022
Summary
Abstract
This paper analyses recent works by Aida Begić and Želimir Žilnik— Never Leave Me (2017) and The Most Beautiful Country in the World (2018), respectively. These works narrate the evolving lives of migrants on the borderlines of the Balkan Anatolian region. Migrants’ aspiration to reach their “dream land” is interpreted as a journey towards unfolding “the virtual realities of consciousness” of both actors and directors. The reflections of both Begić and Žilnik on the issue of migration, filmed in an accented style, highlight their own post-Yugoslav perspectives, which allows us to analyse the two films in context of “return to homeland”—a concept present both in Naficy's theories of an accented cinema and in Boym's notion of “reflective nostalgia.”
Keywords: migrants’ representation, post-Yugoslav cinema, return to homeland, reflective nostalgia
Introduction
The migration processes evolving since 2014 have reflected the ancient European fear of invaders from the East who come to change the face of Europe, confirming that “globalization encouraged stronger local attachments” (Boym, 2001, p. 12). Neglecting the real origin of the migration crisis and also neglecting the individual destinies of those affected by war and poverty, right-wing rhetoric (Kurecic & Kuhar, 2019) reawakened the concept of “fortresses of little Europe,” leaving people from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, Pakistan, and more to live in a limbo of endless attempts at crossing the borders (Josipovič, 2017, p.21). As Damir Josipovič writes:
The European controversy once again won by defending the Schengen from the outside (from Macedonia towards Greece) alluding to the great schism along the former East-West (Iron Curtain) divide… a huge majority of refugees ended up in Germany who socially overdid this experiment outplayed with the help of Turkey and the Balkan suzerains. The countries from Greece to Slovenia found themselves in a position of gatekeepers tailored to suit the wishes of the mighty. Even Austria found itself in an uninformed position not exactly knowing what to expect and how to intermingle. (2017, p. 22)
For many of those forced migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, Turkey is the first transit country, with many of those forcibly displaced from Syria, whose number rose from one million in 2014 to around 3.5 million today.
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- Information
- Refugees and Migrants in Contemporary Film, Art and Media , pp. 237 - 258Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2022