The Yugoslav Black Wave: sex, subversion, socialism
Home to one of the most distinctive of all Eastern Bloc filmmaking traditions, Yugoslavia produced a rich cinematic heritage – including the radical subversion of the “Black Wave” movement of the 1960s and ‘70s, which critiques the post-war socialist state from within. Explore our collection of Black Wave titles, including important works by Aleksandar Petrović and Dušan Makavejev.
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Movie + 2 extrasLove Affair, or The Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator
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Directed by Dušan Makavejev • 1967 • Yugoslavia
This gleefully subversive, formally skittish, and surprisingly moving oddity from the inimitable Dušan Makavejev is a high point of the Yugoslav Black Wave. Centred around the doomed romance between a Hungarian switchboard operator Izabela (Eva Ras...
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Movie + 3 extrasI Even Met Happy Gypsies
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Directed by Aleksandar Petrović • 1967 • Yugoslavia
One of the first films from Eastern Europe to explore the lives of the Roma in sympathetic detail, and to cast Romani-speaking Roma in order to do so, Aleksandar Petrović’s Cannes-winning classic builds a complex and humanistic narrative out of...
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Movie + 2 extrasBreakfast with the Devil
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Directed by Miroslav Antić • 1971 • Yugoslavia
Acclaimed poet turned filmmaker Miroslav Antić made his indelible contribution to the Yugoslav Black Wave with this apocalyptic tale of love among the ruins of war and natural disaster. Set in 1947, the film captures life in a Vojvodina village duri...
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Movie + 2 extrasThe Tough Ones
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Directed by Miodrag Popović • 1968 • Yugoslavia
Renowned painter turned filmmaker Miodrag Popović made his indelible contribution to the Yugoslav Black Wave with this harsh but humanist take on the psychic scars of war. Two brothers, Isidor (Jovan Janićijević-Burduš) and Gvozden (Danilo ‘Bata’ S...