Beldocs 2024: Warm Film (by Dragan Jovičević) | Review
Dragan Jovičević’s debut feature about the appearance of queer themes through the history of Serbian cinema opened the 17th Beldocs Film Festival.
Warm Film (Topli Film) takes its title from an old-fashioned phrase ‘warm brother’ that used to be used widely to signify a gay man. It brings a selection of scenes and storylines in Serbian cinema that either have homosexual overtones or deal with queer stories. The idea behind this retrospective is to show that queerness always existed in Serbian cinema and therefore in society. The film goes on to question why reactions to queer stories are more extreme today than they were in the past.
Warm Film opens with actor warmup exercises, camera setups and other behind the scenes prep. A question arises with urgency – are you afraid to be making a queer movie? Đorđ and Đorđ (Galin and Mišin respectively) are students of acting whose careers might be over before they even start depending on the tabloid reaction to the documentary film they are helping to create but they both express hope that times have changed. Their role in this hybrid documentary is to research and act out queer scenes from Serbian classics.
The enumeration of queers scenes begins with one of the first Serbian movies The Life and Death of Đorđe Karađorđe (1911). Here two men kiss on the lips in greeting as was tradition of the time. Other instances of relationships between men at the beginning of Serbian cinema are attributed to the lack of female characters and the inexperience of filmmakers. Because the filmmakers had limited experience with the medium of film, some stories can today be (mis)interpreted as queer.
In the 70s, camp pop-culture influenced the saturated film market in Yugoslavia and the repressive communist organs couldn’t control everything that was created and queer themes were used as covert critique of politics and society of the time. This esthetics influenced classics such as Spy on Heels (1988) and Marble Ass (1995) that overtly and pointedly tell queer stories featuring transgender characters are most prominent examples. This seemingly liberal attitude towards queer experiences changed with the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the rise of nationalism and remains negative and judgemental until today.
In between movie clips that enlighten us on the presence of queer themes, the actors in the present day interview film historians, actors and directors that were involved with making queer themed films and recreate major scenes within the documentary. There is a slight disbalance between the sharp, bright scenes of the documentary and often faded look of films up to the 2000s. The reasoning behind the hybrid scenes sometimes feels unsatisfactory although Galin and Mišin are sufficiently talented and charismatic at performing them. Overall, Warm Film is a welcome showcase of queer instances in Serbian film even though some scenes feel like they were included superficially. Although Warm Film announces concern at a societal backlash and prosecution from the very beginning, it ends with a lukewarm ripple. As a standalone addition to the list of films it created there needed to be a stronger conclusion.
One of the Balkans largest documentary film festivals, Beldocs is celebrating its 17th edition from May 22nd to 29th, 2024.
