94 minutes / Color/B&W
Serbian; English; French; Arabic / English subtitles
Closed Captioned
Release: 2023
Copyright: 2022
Self-described "artivist" Mila Turajlić mines Yugoslavian newsreel archives to tell a story of international solidarity and resistance to the binary of the Cold War. Focusing on the work of cameraman Stevan Labudović, who traveled the world on Yugoslav "peace missions" and was embedded with Algerian freedom fighters for three years, the films in this diptych can be watched together, but also stand alone as fascinating independent documentary works.
At an Algerian museum, Serbian filmmaker Mila Turajlić is struck by an exhibit featuring an old film camera. It belonged to a Yugoslav cameraman, celebrated as a hero in Algeria. His name is Stevan Labudović, he is 87, and he lives in Belgrade. Turajlić, from the same city, had never heard of him.
Known as the finest cameraman in Yugoslavia, he was handpicked in 1960 by Yugoslav President Josep Broz Tito to support the Algerian anti-colonial effort, in part because he saw parallels between the Algerian resistance and the Yugoslav partisans’ fight against Nazi occupiers in WWII. Labudović’s mission: to make films countering French propaganda.
In CINÉ-GUERRILLAS: SCENES FROM THE LABUDOVIĆ REELS Turajlić follows Labudović’s work in Algeria through intimate interviews with him and Algerian revolutionary contemporaries—and, more importantly, through his newsreel footage, which she matches up with excerpts from his diary. Labudović lived with the Algerian fighters, filming them as they traveled through the mountains, sometimes engaging in sabotage. No impartial observer, he brought along newsreel footage of the Yugoslav resistance to raise morale. And, unlike others covering the war, the Algerians trusted him totally.
CINÉ-GUERRILLAS: SCENES FROM THE LABUDOVIĆ REELS is a testament to international solidarity, and to the power of images in the fight for decolonization.
“A documentary based on an inherently fascinating subject for those looking for something at the intersection of secret film history and Cold War artefacts.” —Filmmaker Magazine
“Prize-winning director Mila Turajlic unearths a fascinating lost chapter in Cold War history in this archive-heavy documentary.” —The Film Verdict
“This film is a tribute to a man who was directly involved with the FLN and shows a rare inside viewpoint on an historical event.” —Educational Media Reviews Online
“Captivating and insightful… Library patrons and students studying popular uprisings, the history of Algeria, or colonialism will find many intriguing stories and thoughtful analyses surrounding an inherently spellbinding topic. Highly Recommended.” —Video Librarian
“No contemporary discussion of anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism should be considered complete without the historical episodes brought to our renewed attention by Mila Turajlić.” —Slavic Review
Select Accolades
Re-traces the birth of the Non-Aligned movement, examining how a global project of political emancipation was constituted by the cinematic image.
Mila Turajlić | 2023 | 100 minutes | Color | Serbian; English; French; Arabic | English subtitles | Closed Captioned
A Belgrade apartment divided in two—with one half that has been locked for generations—tells the story of Serbia's political turmoil.
Mila Turajlić | 2018 | 104 minutes | Color | Serbian | English subtitles
Chronicles the Yellow Wasps, a Serbian paramilitary unit operating in Bosnia in 1992.
Ilan Ziv | 1996 | 70 minutes | Color
