Postcommunist Film - Russia, Eastern Europe and World Culture Moving Images of Postcommunism Routledge Contemporary Russia and Eastern Europe Series

A post-communist condition has arisen from the fall of the Berlin Wall and later the Soviet Empire: this book looks at how this condition has manifested itself globally in the production of post-communist film. It argues post-communism is a shared experience on a geopolitical level, unlimited by national state borders, and examines post-communist cross culturalism and global totalitarianism within film.

The book examines different national cinemas and dissimilar cinematic modes - from Russian blockbuster cinema to Chinese independent cinema; from Serbian city films to revolutionary films of Mozambique - all formulated as within the postcommunist condition. It considers the postcommunist film in terms of transnational and World cinema. It covers a wide range of films from small and independent filmmaking to mainstream, popular cinema, and explains post-communist signifiers as manifested in visual culture both inside and outside former, and current, communist countries.

Part I: Cultural Strategies, Industry and Reception 1. The Russian Postcommunist Blockbuster: Fyodor Bondarchuk’s 9th Company 2. Baltic Cinema; Between National and Transnational Strategies 3. Cultural Aspirations and the Voluntary Americanisation of Serbian Cinema 4. ‘Haven’t you heard of Internationalism?’ Communist Cinema in Mozambique 5. The Remains of Socialist Realism: Cyclo and Beijing Bicycle 6. Spotting the Eagle on Anglophone Turf: Postcommunist Reception and Albanian Cinema Part II: People, Place and Nation 7. Demolish or Love: Representations of Socialist Leftover in Postcommunist Polish Cinema 8. Treading New Paths: Czech and German Postcommunist Road Movies 9. The Crime that Changed Serbia: The Belgrade Ghetto Film 10. Projected Nation and Projected Self: Atom Egoyan’s Calendar 11. Truancy, or Thought from the Provinces: On Jia Zhangke's Platform 12. Representations of Former USSR Identities in Turkish Cinema

Lars Kristensen is a Research Assistant at the School of Journalism, Media and Communication, University of Central Lancashire, UK.