The Eclipse

I had a feeling that this was a kind of "documentary" that is mostly watched and praised by people who have produced it and their colleagues from "artsy" film festival network. Still, as someone who is genuinely interested in ex-Yugoslavian problems, I wanted to give it a chance.

Unfortunately, my feeling was right. It's just another exploitation of Yugoslavian past in a form of experimental, personal (of course), and visual essay that is barely comprehensible.

John Grierson did define documentary as "the creative treatment of actuality', but this mishmash of thoughts and images can truly appeal to a very few viewers.

"The Eclipse" raises the unpleasantly timely question to it's viewers: What can the single individual actually do in times of crisis? Is it maybe best to sit still, and not rock the boat? As spectators, we are provoked to reflect on what we ourselves would or could have done to prevent something terrible, if we were placed in similar circumstances. The atrocities of post-Yugoslavian wars, now seen as "historical facts", were once the realities of the lives of millions of people. Is history something that happens to you, or because of you? By forcing her family to do a collective act of remembrance they would rather avoid, filmmaker Natasa Urban lays bare the foundations of these conflicts, and explores the futility or necessity of personal choice. The film appears to be slowly paced, but builds mercilessly towards several emotionally wrenching climaxes, showing how the fear and irrationality of nationalistic ideologies strip people of basic human dignity and joy. The use of music contributes masterfully to this feeling of unease, underlying many of the beautifully shot images that make up most of the film.

Moving through a landscape becomes the metaphor for moving through Serbian history, or for the avoidance of staying and looking at what is in front of you. For what indeed do these landscapes really conceal today?