Domovine

„Domovine“ bedeutet: Ort, an dem wir uns zu Hause fühlen. Eine junge Frau fährt durch eine blaue Schneelandschaft. Kriegsspuren, Archivbilder, Widerstandslieder verschmelzen mit den Erinnerungen an die Großmutter, die als kommunistische Partisanin im griechischen Bürgerkrieg aus ihrem Dorf nach Jugoslawien floh. Ihre Enkelin wandelt zwischen verlassenen Häusern, Frühlingswiesen und Sommerfeldern, getrieben von ihrer Sehnsucht nach Wurzeln. Am Ende wird sie in einem Monolog eins mit der Vorfahrin und deren Kampf gegen die Kriege der Männer und die Knechtung der Frauen. DOMOVINE fasst die Trauer um den Verlust von Heimat in eine persönliche Reise. (Maria Marchetta)

Mit A TONGUE CALLED MOTHER.

Geography, history, and identity intersect gracefully in the first solo directorial feature project by Maksimović, editor of numerous key independent Serbian films from the past decade. Co-written with Olga Dimitrijević, this docu-fiction hybrid follows Lenka (Jelena Angelovski, also the film’s producer) to a ski resort in northern Greece. The homeland of her grandmother, this area remains largely agricultural in spite of its winter-sports allure for tourists. The film observes two contrasting seasons – Dušan Grubins cinematography evokes the scorching heat of summer and the brisk, stark chill of the cold months – but is as much about people as it is a study of landscape. Lenkas encounters with a wide range of the region’s inhabitants yield a kind of oral tapestry, as individual stories – embellished with folkloric songs and dances – coalesce into a collective history. DOMOVINE’s various complex themes are climactically encapsulated in an extended soliloquy as Lenka muses on past atrocities and present problems in a place where the impact of long-entrenched patriarchy has been exacerbated by economic and environmental upheavals. “Trees and forests know that resources have to be nourished and shared justly,” she sighs. (Neil Young)

With A TONGUE CALLED MOTHER.

Jelena Maksimović: MILLING THE LIGHTS (2012), HEAVENS (2014), TAURUNUM BOY (2018)