Page 135 - Darko Štrajn, From Walter Benjamin to the End of Cinema: Identities, Illusion and Signification. Ljubljana: Educational Research Institute, 2017. Digital Library, Dissertationes, 29.
P. 135
robar-dor in‘s mir ror: r ams and mammoths in the context of yugoslav history
There is also a biographical aspect, which is inscribed in an attitude
emanating from the film. Robar-Dorin became an assistant instructor at the
Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film, and Television at the University of Lju-
bljana after he completed his studies in the United States in the mid-1970s.
However, his academic career quickly ended because he got into trouble
over his “pedagogical” ideas. His first movies were made for national televi-
sion, but work on a feature film was inaccessible to him for some time. An-
other topic for a new study could be also the hypothesis that Robar-Dorin’s
subversion of the aforementioned construction of Slovenian national iden-
tity continued in some new formal and aesthetic directions, which became
clearly visible much later in new Slovenian film; for example, in Jan Cvitk-
ović‘s acclaimed films Kruh in mleko (Bread and Milk, 2001) and Odgroba-
dogroba (Gravehopping, 2005). To substantiate these claims, I first describe
the film Rams and Mammoths along with some necessary explanations,
and then move to an analysis of the film’s main aspects.
The film bears the unambiguous subtitle A Fable of Nationalism. Ro-
bar-Dorin produced the film; he also wrote what was a rather makeshift
script and directed the film. The film is quite structured and is edited in a
manner that vaguely reminds one of Dušan Makavejev’s montages in his fa-
mous 1960s movies.2 Three stories, presented in a disjointed narration, are
interlaced with documentary and other visual material. The stories, docu-
mentary images, and spoken comments are connected only by the topics of
identity and ethnic conflict, not by linking up characters or events. The first
narrative line is about a Bosnian youngster at a Slovenian vocational school
for coal miners that enjoy reading Ivo Andrić‘s3 essays. The Bosnian boy’s
“story” is inconclusive and it is mainly used to show clumsy educational ef-
forts to build Yugoslav patriotism. This is shown in a scene in a school class
in which the teacher asks his “non-Slovenian” pupils to read some canon-
ized Slovenian poetry, creating a humorous effect for the Slovenian audi-
ence due to the readers’ accents. The teacher then tries to explain the uni-
versal meaning of poetry, and here the irony becomes accessible to foreign
viewers. There are also scenes of “cultural” events at the school – celebra-
tions of Republic Day. However, this narrative also contains some touching
2 For an interesting presentation and analysis of Makavejev and his cinema of montage
see, for instance, Levi (2007: 18–35).
3 Ivo Andrić was the Bosnian Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1961. He also wrote
a number of interesting essays, containing many reflections on the Balkans and its
ethnic diversity.
133
There is also a biographical aspect, which is inscribed in an attitude
emanating from the film. Robar-Dorin became an assistant instructor at the
Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film, and Television at the University of Lju-
bljana after he completed his studies in the United States in the mid-1970s.
However, his academic career quickly ended because he got into trouble
over his “pedagogical” ideas. His first movies were made for national televi-
sion, but work on a feature film was inaccessible to him for some time. An-
other topic for a new study could be also the hypothesis that Robar-Dorin’s
subversion of the aforementioned construction of Slovenian national iden-
tity continued in some new formal and aesthetic directions, which became
clearly visible much later in new Slovenian film; for example, in Jan Cvitk-
ović‘s acclaimed films Kruh in mleko (Bread and Milk, 2001) and Odgroba-
dogroba (Gravehopping, 2005). To substantiate these claims, I first describe
the film Rams and Mammoths along with some necessary explanations,
and then move to an analysis of the film’s main aspects.
The film bears the unambiguous subtitle A Fable of Nationalism. Ro-
bar-Dorin produced the film; he also wrote what was a rather makeshift
script and directed the film. The film is quite structured and is edited in a
manner that vaguely reminds one of Dušan Makavejev’s montages in his fa-
mous 1960s movies.2 Three stories, presented in a disjointed narration, are
interlaced with documentary and other visual material. The stories, docu-
mentary images, and spoken comments are connected only by the topics of
identity and ethnic conflict, not by linking up characters or events. The first
narrative line is about a Bosnian youngster at a Slovenian vocational school
for coal miners that enjoy reading Ivo Andrić‘s3 essays. The Bosnian boy’s
“story” is inconclusive and it is mainly used to show clumsy educational ef-
forts to build Yugoslav patriotism. This is shown in a scene in a school class
in which the teacher asks his “non-Slovenian” pupils to read some canon-
ized Slovenian poetry, creating a humorous effect for the Slovenian audi-
ence due to the readers’ accents. The teacher then tries to explain the uni-
versal meaning of poetry, and here the irony becomes accessible to foreign
viewers. There are also scenes of “cultural” events at the school – celebra-
tions of Republic Day. However, this narrative also contains some touching
2 For an interesting presentation and analysis of Makavejev and his cinema of montage
see, for instance, Levi (2007: 18–35).
3 Ivo Andrić was the Bosnian Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1961. He also wrote
a number of interesting essays, containing many reflections on the Balkans and its
ethnic diversity.
133
