Anna Estera Mrozewicz
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474418102
- eISBN:
- 9781474444675
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474418102.003.0002
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The first chapter is concerned with the cinematic narratives of Eastern noir, which adopt a border discourse and imagine Russia (and thereby often Eastern Europe) as a crime scene. In these crime ...
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The first chapter is concerned with the cinematic narratives of Eastern noir, which adopt a border discourse and imagine Russia (and thereby often Eastern Europe) as a crime scene. In these crime narratives, Russia is essentialised as a crime scene, where the traces of crime comprise evidence of an omnipresent evil emanating from the centre of power. The chapter argues moreover that whereas Russia serves as the ‘great Other’, in whose gaze the small nations from the Nordic region are controlled and overseen, Eastern Europeans function merely as unfamiliar, rather than threatening, ‘others’. By juxtaposing diversity of genres, including popular Nordic action films (Orion’s Belt and Born American), two documentaries and a television series (Occupied), the chapter shows that the hegemonic Eastern noir narrative, although persistent in mainstream cinema, functions across various modes of cinematic expression. The analyses corroborate the fact that border discourse affords the viewers a sense of safety in the increasingly globalised reality.Less
The first chapter is concerned with the cinematic narratives of Eastern noir, which adopt a border discourse and imagine Russia (and thereby often Eastern Europe) as a crime scene. In these crime narratives, Russia is essentialised as a crime scene, where the traces of crime comprise evidence of an omnipresent evil emanating from the centre of power. The chapter argues moreover that whereas Russia serves as the ‘great Other’, in whose gaze the small nations from the Nordic region are controlled and overseen, Eastern Europeans function merely as unfamiliar, rather than threatening, ‘others’. By juxtaposing diversity of genres, including popular Nordic action films (Orion’s Belt and Born American), two documentaries and a television series (Occupied), the chapter shows that the hegemonic Eastern noir narrative, although persistent in mainstream cinema, functions across various modes of cinematic expression. The analyses corroborate the fact that border discourse affords the viewers a sense of safety in the increasingly globalised reality.
Mette Hjort and Duncan Petrie
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748625369
- eISBN:
- 9780748671151
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748625369.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Iceland is a very small nation-state with a population of just over 300,000 inhabitants. This chapter addresses the various strategies its filmmakers have reverted to in fashioning a film industry in ...
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Iceland is a very small nation-state with a population of just over 300,000 inhabitants. This chapter addresses the various strategies its filmmakers have reverted to in fashioning a film industry in such a constrained environment. In particular, it emphasizes what is described as “the transnational turn” during the 1990s when Icelandic film producers began to rely heavily on international funding with the Nordic Film and Television Fund and Eurimages playing especially important roles. The effects of this turn on the films of such directors as Friðrik þór Friðriksson and Baltasar Kormákur are studied, while attention is also drawn to the still lingering tradition of local filmmaking.Less
Iceland is a very small nation-state with a population of just over 300,000 inhabitants. This chapter addresses the various strategies its filmmakers have reverted to in fashioning a film industry in such a constrained environment. In particular, it emphasizes what is described as “the transnational turn” during the 1990s when Icelandic film producers began to rely heavily on international funding with the Nordic Film and Television Fund and Eurimages playing especially important roles. The effects of this turn on the films of such directors as Friðrik þór Friðriksson and Baltasar Kormákur are studied, while attention is also drawn to the still lingering tradition of local filmmaking.
Anna Estera Mrozewicz
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474418102
- eISBN:
- 9781474444675
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474418102.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This book addresses representations of Russia and neighbouring Eastern Europe in post-1989 Nordic cinemas, investigating their hitherto-overlooked transnational dimension. Departing from the dark ...
More
This book addresses representations of Russia and neighbouring Eastern Europe in post-1989 Nordic cinemas, investigating their hitherto-overlooked transnational dimension. Departing from the dark stereotypes that characterise the hegemonic narrative defined as ‘Eastern noir’, the author presents Norden’s eastern neighbours as depicted with a rich, though previously neglected in scholarship, cinematic diversity. The book does not deny the existence of Eastern noir or its accuracy. Instead, in a number of in-depth case studies of both popular and niche feature films, documentaries and television dramas, it interrogates and attempts to add nuance to the Nordic audiovisual imagination of Russia and Eastern Europe. Tracing approaches of and beyond the Eastern noir paradigm across cinematic genres, and in relation to changing historical contexts, the author considers how increasingly transnational affinities have led to a reimagining of Norden’s eastern neighbours in contemporary Nordic films. Making the notions of border/boundary and neighbourliness central to the argument, the author explores how the shared geopolitical border is (re)imagined in Nordic films and how these (re)imaginations reflect back on the Nordic subjects.Less
This book addresses representations of Russia and neighbouring Eastern Europe in post-1989 Nordic cinemas, investigating their hitherto-overlooked transnational dimension. Departing from the dark stereotypes that characterise the hegemonic narrative defined as ‘Eastern noir’, the author presents Norden’s eastern neighbours as depicted with a rich, though previously neglected in scholarship, cinematic diversity. The book does not deny the existence of Eastern noir or its accuracy. Instead, in a number of in-depth case studies of both popular and niche feature films, documentaries and television dramas, it interrogates and attempts to add nuance to the Nordic audiovisual imagination of Russia and Eastern Europe. Tracing approaches of and beyond the Eastern noir paradigm across cinematic genres, and in relation to changing historical contexts, the author considers how increasingly transnational affinities have led to a reimagining of Norden’s eastern neighbours in contemporary Nordic films. Making the notions of border/boundary and neighbourliness central to the argument, the author explores how the shared geopolitical border is (re)imagined in Nordic films and how these (re)imaginations reflect back on the Nordic subjects.
