Reclaiming Community in Yugoslav Socialist Ruins: Dane Komljen’s 'All the Cities of the North'

• In Event: Yugoslav Internationalisms III: Domestic Recollections and International Gazes in Cinema after Yugoslavia

Abstract

Dane Komljen’s feature All the Cities of the North (2016), an unconventional docudrama centered on three men dwelling in the ruins of a Yugoslav socialist-era vacation resort, weaves an intricate web of observations on community, dwelling and architecture. This paper proposes to demonstrate how the narrative and the locations of the main plotline, on the one hand, and the film’s oneiric and essayistic sequences dedicated to architecture and self-organization, on the other hand, articulate a rumination on community by mirroring the micro-utopia of the three men in real manifestations of Yugoslav architecture and its associative transcontinental linkages.

Author

• Nikola Radic, U of Zurich (Switzerland)