Stara škola kapitalizma

Seit den 1960er Jahren arbeitet Žilnik an der Verschmelzung von dokumentarischen und fiktionalen Elementen in seinen Filmen. STARA ŠKOLA KAPITALIZMA beginnt mit Bildern von Demonstrationen in Belgrad gegen die Privatisierung von vormals kollektivem Eigentum und folgt dann einem der Teilnehmer ins bewegte Geschehen einer Arbeitslosen-Revolte in der serbischen Provinz. Die Texte und Handlungsdetails improvisieren die nonprofessionellen Akteure vor der Kamera selbst, während am Horizont unter anderem der damalige US-Vizepräsident Joe Biden auf Staatsbesuch in Belgrad erscheint. Ein marktwirtschaftlicher Messias, an den diese Arbeiter nicht mehr glauben können. (Robert Weixlbaumer)

In Anwesenheit von Želimir Žilnik und Sarita Matijevic (Produzentin). 

“Vice President Biden and I have agreed that we now have an opportunity to establish a completely new level of communication between our two countries,” said Serbian president Boris Tadic in 2009, which was around the same time at which Želimir Žilnik once again refused to listen to political ideas without looking at their consequences. His camera captures the complexities of economic systems but also participates in attacking them. Starting from worker-shareholder protests in Zrenjanin and Belgrade, Žilnik has characters play themselves while he films their dialogues and actions with three cameras simultaneously. The results are heated, direct-cinema debates between the different parties, a sometimes hilarious community theatre feeling (such as when the workers attack the employer with football helmets) underlaid by an urgent interest in what is happening in the here and now. When the camera mingles with protesters in the streets and listens to their ideas, we can feel that Žilnik believes in cinema’s capacity to give a voice to the people. Cinema thus becomes a place of real democracy for once. (Patrick Holzapfel)

In the presence of Želimir Žilnik and Sarita Matijevic (producer). 

Želimir Žilnik: NEWSREEL ON VILLAGE YOUTH, IN WINTER (1967, K), THE UN- EMPLOYED (1968, K), JUNE TURMOIL (1969, K), BLACK FILM (1971, K), THE WOMEN ARE COMING (1972), VERA AND ERŽIKA (1981), THE FIRST TRIMESTER OF PAVLE HROMIŠ (1983), STANIMIR DESCENDING (1984), THE SECOND GENERATION (1984), GOOD MORNING BELGRADE (1985), MARBLE ASS (1995), KENEDI GOES BACK HOME (2003), EUROPE NEXT DOOR (2005), OUR MAN IN GABON (2014), LOGBOOK SERBISTAN (2015), THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD (2018), AMONG THE PEOPLE: LIFE & ACTING (2018)