Cinema of Flames: Balkan Film, Culture and the Media
Dina IordanovaThese conflicts restored the Balkans as a centrepiece of Western imagery & the media (especially cinema) assumed a leading but ambiguous role in defining it for global consumption through a narrow range of selectively defined images. Simultaneously, a lot of the high-quality cinematic & television work made in the region (much of it discussed in this book) remains relatively unknown.
Cinema of Flames attempts to go deeper than the imagery & address some of the general concerns of the cross-cultural representation & self-representation of the Balkans: narrative strategies within the context of Balkan exclusion from the European cultural sphere, the cosmopolitan image of Sarejevo, diaspora, & the representations of villains, victims, women, & ethnic minorities, all considered in the general context of Balkan cinema. 'encyclopaedic in scope & brilliance, making excellent use of the scholarly literature whilst interweaving analysis of films & other mass media. The book will be a superb addition to the literatures on Bosnia & Yugoslavia. It will also serve as a standard reference on Balkans film.' — Robert Hayden (University of Pittsburgh)