On the Eve of Dissolution: Yugoslav Cinematography and Socio-Political Crisis from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s

The paper offers an analysis of the intellectual activism in Yugoslavia in the decades prior to the armed conflicts and the dissolution of the federal state – early 1970s to the late 1980s. The legislative, economic and political reforms in the country explain the subsequent occurrences in the region. The Prague Group of film directors is analysed in the context of the critical intellectual activism. The criticism expressed through their cinematography is mostly focused on the self-management system and the inability of Yugoslav socialist society to meet the needs and interests of its citizens. The analysis is aimed at identifying the early indicators of the crisis in Yugoslavia and describing the way the intellectual elite perceived them.