Traversing the Balkans

A historical road movie. Made during a road trip from Vienna to Belgrade. Silent movie treasures, newly recomposed at every station and given a live soundtrack by the experimental music duo “Rdeča Raketa”. An Austrian premiere. The program shown is composed of a series of short films that make it possible to fictively traverse the Balkans in the first decades of the twentieth century. The films revolve around the central historical event of this era – the First World War – but without giving it too prominent a position. The non-fictional films – partly fragments – are compiled from amateur films, war newsreels, tourist advertising films, propaganda films and others. Their extraordinary aesthetic sophistication is always sur- prising. “Traversing the Balkans” is an artistic-academic project created in cooperation by “Rdeča Raketa”, the Film Archive Austria, and Southeast European cultural institutions. In the course of a city tour from Vienna all the way to Turkey, silent films dealing with Southeastern Europe or made there are gathered and presented together with contemporary music. The first part of the tour took place in June 2013. Performances took place in Maribor, Kranj, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Vukovar and Belgrade. A different film and music program was put together at each location, which was developed in cooperation between the Film Archive Austria, “Rdeča Raketa” and the local partner organizations. Another important component are texts by authors from Southeastern Europe, which are interwoven with film and music. These are primarily texts from the period when the films were made. Film shots from the Balkans are mostly from production companies from Western Europe. These – partly eurocentric – images are commented on with texts by authors from Southeastern Europe, thus enabling a pluralist view of the events depicted. Now a “Best of” of the first part of this project premieres in Austria at Crossing Europe.