Imaginary Borders, Imaginary Cultures: Identity in the Work of Slovenian Filmmaker Damjan Kozole

• In Event: Interrogating Identity in Eastern European Literature and Film: Myth, Resilience, and the Nation

Abstract

The present territory of Slovenia is a cultural and geographical palimpsest, baring traces of the many states and empires that have occupied it before. Drawing and redrawing borders continually necessitates that the people living inside them constantly renegotiate their identity in response to evolving perceptions of who is "other." In 1991 Slovenia declared independence and later joined the European Union in 2004, resulting in the redrawing of physical borders, as well as imaginary ones between West and East. Slovenian filmmaker Damjan Kozole’s films capture this period of transitionality. This paper analyses a selection of his films made in the early 2000s, shortly before and after Slovenia joined the EU. These films, which include Rezervni deli (Spare Parts) (2003), the short film “Evropa” from the collection Visions of Europe (2004), and Slovenka (Slovenian Girl) (2009) engage with questions of identity as Slovenia renegotiates its relationship with “Europe” during the early 2000s. The aim of this paper is to examine how identities, both national and regional, are interrogated in these films.

Author

• Siobhán Seigne, Ohio State U