Partisan Songspiel. Belgrade Story

A video film by Chto Delat. Music by Mikhail Krutik. Script: Vladan Jeremić, Rena Rädle, Dmitry Vilensky & Tsaplya. Director: Olga Egorova (Tsaplya). Set: Vladan Jeremić, Tsaplya, Rena Rädle, Dmitry Vilensky. Costumes: Natalya Pershina (Gluklya). Choreography: Nina Gasteva. Camera and lighting: Artem Ignatov. Editing and Post-Production: Olga Egorova (Tsaplya) and Dmitry Vilensky. Production was done in Belgrade in July 2009 by Biro Beograd za Kulturu i Komunikaciju. The film presents an analysis of a concrete situation: Partisan Songspiel begins with a representation of the political oppression (forced evictions) the government of the city of Belgrade enforced on the Roma people inhabiting the settlement of Belleville, on the occasion of the summer Universiade Belgrade 2009. It also addresses a more universal political message about the existence of the oppressors and the oppressed: in this case, the city government, war profiteers and business tycoons versus groups of disadvantaged people − factory workers, NGO/minoritarian activists, disabled war veterans, and ethnic minorities. At the same time the film establishes something that we can call the “horizon of historical consciousness,” which is represented through the choir of “dead partisans” who comment on the political dialogue between the oppressors and the oppressed.