Framing the War: The Calvary of Serbia: Innovation, Faith, History in the Early Documentary Film

Author(s): Milja Radovic
Abstract: This paper examines the early documentary film of the Yugoslav space, assessing the innovative ways in which the film authors employ film language to communicate faith and history in the context of the Great War. In doing so, this research introduces the readers to the rich heritage of the documentary film of the Yugoslav space providing new approaches for researching history and religion through the documentary film. It is important to remember that the Yugoslav space is significant for pioneering and developing war cinema which has been frequently overlooked in the scholarship. The case study of the documentary film THE CALVARY OF SERBIA (GOLGOTA SRBIJE,
Stanislav Krakov, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, 1932/1940), assembled from different footage and regarded as the best documentary in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia prior to WWII, represents a highlight of the previous developments of film language incorporating different modes and codes of representations. 1 The ways the author(s) saw and framed faith and history within the context of the war resulted with the creation of a unique cinematic space through which the on-screen and off-
screen spaces are (re)negotiated. Therefore, to study film as a historical document means to examine the language of film and in that sense this paper approaches film as a primary resource in historical reading. The overarching goal of this paper is to advance and enrich our scientific inquiry on the early cinema and to introduce novel avenues in analysis of the documentary film.
Organisation(s): Department of Systematic Theology and Ethics
Journal: Journal for Religion, Film and Media
Volume: 10
No. of pages: 20
ISSN: 2414-0201
Publication date: 2024
Peer reviewed: Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012: 604011 Film studies, 603222 Systematic theology, 601005 European history
Portal url: https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/framing-the-war-the-calvary-of-serbia-innovation-faith-history-in-the-early-documentary-film(771feb67-67ab-462f-b040-dadbd3101903).html