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80671-01 - Seminar: Public Matters: Film as Cultural Practice and Public Memory in Southeastern Europe (3 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2026 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Marija Katalinic (marija.katalinic@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | Public space is often understood as a location in which cultural and political life takes place. Film is not a public space as such, but it both creates from and contributes to a broader cultural landscape. In this sense, publicness or ‘the public’ refers not only to physical spaces, but to the processes through which memories, images, and narratives become publicly visible, debatable, or institutionally recognized or contested. The course is geographically and culturally centered on Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav cinema, while remaining open to examples from the wider region. Considering the specificities of the region, a long history of different influences, political and ideological challenges and transformations, the course will examine how films bring ordinary lives, intimate histories, and contested political events into public view and debate. The course will offer different ways of understanding film in Southeastern Europa. Rather than offering a comprehensive survey of national cinemas or attempting to define a unified “Balkan” film tradition, it approaches the region through a series of concrete cinematic problems: how films make meaning, how ideology enters everyday life, how images become evidence, how difficult histories are remembered and screened, and how films acquire new meanings when they encounter audiences. Given the legacies of conflict across the region, themes of memory, trauma and generational postmemory will be explored through various pertinent film examples. Through juxtaposition of film genres, and archival practice, students will consider who performs the labour of remembering, who possesses narrative authority, and what happens when intimate experience enters public circulation. The course starts with close attention to film form, providing a grounded framework for thinking about spectatorship. Questions of voice, gaze, authorship, consent, and vulnerability will be considered alongside the historical positioning of the cinema production in the region. Questions of subjectivity and framing will then allow us to examine how contemporary films in the region respond to layered and contested histories. The final part of the course turns to festivals as spaces of selection, circulation, and cultural memory. Examining processes of production, distribution and showcasing, will open up broader questions about cultural institutions, audiences and engagement. The course is organized into seven two-week clusters: Introduction to film as a public space Contextualising regional history (Film as ideology) Film and memory (post-conflict cinema, trauma, affect between personal and public) Film and subjectivity (gender, kinship and vulnerability in a shared space) Film and culture (film with other cultural practices) Festivals, audiences and participation |
| Learning objectives | Upon completion, students will be able to analyse the formal and narrative construction of films and situate selected Southeastern European, particularly post-Yugoslav, work within their historical and institutional contexts; understand the politics and ethics of testimony, archive, vulnerability, and representation. The students will be able to explain how gender and kinship structure cultural memory in film. |
| Bibliography | Literature (selection at the time of writing): Elsaesser, Thomas/Hagener, Malte: Filmtheorie zur Einführung, Junius Verlag 2022. (Selected chapters). Šepetavc, Jasmina: 'More than Comrades: queering Slovenian cinema in Yugoslavia', in: (ed.) Studies in Eastern European Cinema 2024, Vol.15, No.1, 70-86. Dunja Jelenković, “Politics, Ideology, and Programming Practices: How the Yugoslav Documentary and Short Film Festival Abandoned the Idea of Yugoslavia,” New Review of Film and Television Studies 14, no. 1 (2016): 76–92. Papadimitrou, Lydia/Grgić, A. (eds.): “Contemporary Balkan Cinema : Transnational Exchanges and Global Circuits“, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press 2020. (Selected chapters). Lauren Berlant: Cruel Optimism, Durham/London: Duke University Press 2011. (Selected chapter). Films (selection at the time of writing): “Family Meals“ (CRO 2012, Directed by: Dana Budisavljević) “The Other Side of Everything“ (SRB 2017, Directed by: Mila Turajlić) “Fantasy“ (SLO 2025, Directed by: Kukla Kesherovic) “Dida” (CH 2021, Directed by: Nikola Ilic, Corina Schwingruber Ilic) “Between Revolutions“ (RA/QA/IR/HR 2023, Directed by: Vlad Petri) “Exile“ (XK/DE/BEL 2020, Directed by: Visar Morina) “Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams“ (BIH 2006, Directed by: Jasmila Žbanić) |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| Block | See individual dates | ||
Dates
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Friday 18.09.2026 | 14.15-17.45 | Nadelberg 8, Seminarraum 13 |
| Friday 02.10.2026 | 14.15-17.45 | Nadelberg 8, Seminarraum 13 |
| Friday 16.10.2026 | 14.15-17.45 | Nadelberg 8, Seminarraum 13 |
| Friday 30.10.2026 | 14.15-17.45 | Nadelberg 8, Seminarraum 13 |
| Friday 13.11.2026 | 14.15-17.45 | Nadelberg 8, Seminarraum 13 |
| Friday 04.12.2026 | 14.15-17.45 | Nadelberg 8, Seminarraum 13 |
| Friday 11.12.2026 | 14.15-17.45 | Nadelberg 8, Seminarraum 13 |
| Modules |
Modul: Literatur im Zusammenspiel der Künste und Medien (Master's degree program: Literary Studies) Modul: Slavische Kulturwissenschaft (Master's degree subject: Slavic Studies) Modul: Spezialisierung «Geschichte und Politische Bildung» (Master's Studies: Subject-Specific Teaching and Learning) Modul: Visuelle Medien in Osteuropa (Bachelor's degree program: Eastern European Studies) Modul: Visuelle Medien in Osteuropa (Bachelor's degree subject: Eastern European Cultures) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | Teaching will combine lectures, screenings, close-analysis workshops, seminar discussion and individual research. Student assessment may consist of a close scene analysis, a comparative film essay, and a festival or public-screening research dossier. |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Slavistik |