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SARAJEVO 2020 CineLink Industry Days

Le CineLink de Sarajevo défend l’idée de sortir de ses retranchements

par 

- "Le politiquement correct, la liberté d’expression artistique et l’auto-censure" étaient dans tous les esprits pendant une discussion qui est allée de Theodor W. Adorno à Nick Cave

Le CineLink de Sarajevo défend l’idée de sortir de ses retranchements
Un moment de la discussion

Cet article est disponible en anglais.

During a panel entitled "Political Correctness, Freedom of Artistic Expression and Self-Censorship", that felt more relevant than ever in times of growing political unrest and “cancel culture”, directors from former Yugoslavia Dana Budisavljević, Srdan Golubović, Damjan Kozole and visual artist Šejla Kamerić discussed what political correctness and self-censorship means to them nowadays – regularly referring to their own, often uneasy experiences, as encouraged by head of Sarajevo's CineLink Industry Days Amra Bakšić Čamo, moderating the online event. “I think this subject is important, so it’s good to talk about it,” said Golubović, whose film Father [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Srdan Golubović
fiche film
]
plays at the festival. “I am always trying to be close to real life — my last two films were inspired by newspaper articles.” The directors also discussed the Yugoslav Black Wave, which Father belongs to, and directors who talk about everyday life, but also love to provoke their audience. “I think that political correctness is very important in our society, especially in the Balkans. But I feel that it’s different with art. Art is more than life: it has to provoke. It can’t be just a servant to society.”

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The Diary of Diana B [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Dana Budisavljević
fiche film
]
’s helmer Dana Budisavljević, also fresh off controversies surrounding her film, further elaborated on the concept. “When Srdan was saying that artists need to provoke, and of course it’s true, I am more into art that has to heal. Our countries are very wounded and we still haven’t invented a better world. But I want to open some space for people to be able to talk and with this last film, it really happened,” she said, mentioning the standing ovation after the world premiere in Pula. “I have never experienced such a moment as a filmmaker. Now we have the extreme right, people saying that the Ustaše regime was good, shouting Croatian version of ‘Sieg Heil’. But a large group of people is not stupid, they want peace and to live in a normal country. We just forget about them because this public discourse is so loud.”

“My approach to cinema is close to Srden’s — it needs to provoke. It’s my intention to talk about subjects which are not usually pleasant to society, that’s why I am also looking for stories in the newspapers,” added Kozole, while also recounting the origins of his 2016 film Nightlife [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Damjan Kozole
fiche film
]
, inspired by the scandalous demise of a well-known doctor torn apart by dogs. “They found him completely naked, with dildos lying next to him. You can imagine the scandal. There were so many speculations, but I decided to make a film about something completely different – about the fear of the media. The question was if this doctor was having sex with dogs, which is so bizarre, and I really didn’t want to know the answer.” And yet it still proved to be an issue. “Slovenia used to be considered the most ‘normal’ part of former Yugoslavia, or maybe the least crazy. But we had huge problems in our country. In a way, I was surprised that cinema still can be so powerful. We don’t live in a time when we can pretend that everything is ok, so it’s our duty to fight.”

Even if it means leaving one’s comfortable bubble. “To talk about political correctness, we need to look outside of it,” pointed out visual artist Šejla Kamerić, also mentioning her rather ominously named 2019 project The Party Is Over. “Knowing all the panelists, I know that we share the same views and most likely our audience does too. But do we go deeper into our bubble or go out and speak about what matters?” she said, wondering how to be politically correct while living in a challenging, politically incorrect time. “I would like to quote Adorno: Wrong life cannot be lived rightly. That’s the moment that we are now sharing. As artists, we are not obliged to tell the truth, but we are obliged not to preach lies or undermine science.” “It’s like when someone thinks that the Earth is flat,” chimed in Budisavljević, who faced organised online attacks after The Diary entered school programmes. “No film and nothing I can do can convince them otherwise, but I am going to search for people who know that it’s round, and maybe disagree on some smaller details. Then we can have a discussion. We need to look for this silent minority.”

With Amra Bakšić Čamo quoting Nick Cave’s recent statement (“Political correctness has grown to become the unhappiest religion in the world. Its once honorable attempt to reimagine our society in a more equitable way now embodies all the worst aspects that religion has to offer (and none of the beauty) – moral certainty and self-righteousness shorn even of the capacity for redemption”), the participants – and the audience – also wondered: can political correctness be restrictive? According to Golubović, absolutely. “Political correctness is restrictive and we have to fight against it, but first we have to fight against violent societies and everything that’s going on. The main question is really: How to break the bubble? And how to find a new audience, start a dialogue with people who think differently? I think it’s not possible at the moment. When we had the premiere of [his previous film] Circles [+lire aussi :
critique
bande-annonce
interview : Srdan Golubovic
fiche film
]
, many were attacking it without watching it. So we have to provoke more and be braver, especially when we talk about our societies.” And, as summed up by Budisavljević, “we should also elect better politicians.”

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(Traduit de l'anglais)

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