Partisan Songspiel. Belgrade Story from chto delat on Vimeo.
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 visited 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.