Transnational Cinema and Ideology

Representing Religion, Identity and Cultural Myths

Milja Radovic

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781135013202
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Teologia e religione
• Subtopic: Religione, politica e Stato

Increasingly, as the production, distribution and audience of films cross national boundaries, film scholars have begun to think in terms of 'transnational' rather than national cinema. This book is positioned within the emerging field of transnational cinema, and offers a groundbreaking study of the relationship between transnational cinema and ideology. The book focuses in particular on the complex ways in which religion, identity and cultural myths interact in specific cinematic representations of ideology.

Author Milja Radovic approaches the selected films as national, regional products, and then moves on to comparative analysis and discussion of their transnational aspects. This book also addresses the question of whether transnationalism reinforces the nation or not; one of the possible answers to this question may be given through the exploration of the cinema of national states and its transnational aspects. Radovic illustrates the ways in which these issues, represented and framed by films, are transmitted beyond their nation-state borders and local ideologies in which they originated – and questions whether therefore one can have an understanding of transnational cinema as a platform for political dialogue.

1
Introduction

Approaching Film and Religion from a Transnational Perspective

Films create worlds. ¹

—S. Brent Plate

This book is an interdisciplinary study of religion, identity, and cultural myths, as they are explored and depicted within transnational cinema. A number of political processes that are taking place cross-culturally, from the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement to the rise of nationalism and religious ideologies in Eastern Europe, have a transnational impact and dimension. Looking at cinematic representations of a number of interconnected issues such as gender, race, economy, nationalism, or religion through a transnational lens provides us with a better understanding of a number of “global, as well as local ideological and political processes”. ²

First I would like to explain why I chose a transnational perspective and what I mean by transnational cinema. The concept of transnational cinema keeps being redefined, and scholars such as Steven Vertovec point out the ambiguity of the term ‘transnational’, arguing that “the meaning of transnationalism has been variously grounded upon arguably distinct conceptual premises”. ³ It is often used in relation to diaspora and its “multiple identifications” ⁴, where “multi-locality” ⁵ serves the re-strengthening and re-creating bonds that are beyond geographical boundaries. ⁶ Transnationalism also suggests a flow of ideas that are taking place cross-culturally. Film, I argue, is essentially transnational in a number of ways: from production to distribution. The reinterpretations of ideas and narratives by diverse audiences across the world give to these cinematic narratives trans-national dimension.

In this book I approach cinematic representations of religion, identity, and cultural myths in diverse socio-political and cultural contexts from a transnational perspective. What I have defined as a transnational perspective refers primarily to first the cross-cultural flow and exchange of ideas, images, symbols, and stereotypes, which is directly related to the processes of interpretation and cultural reproduction, and second an understanding of cinema as cultural-ideological site that reflects political issues and processes, which are taking place worldwide.

Approaching cinema within a transnational framework provides us with a “particular insight” ⁷ into cultural processes that are taking place in diverse cultural-political spaces and which have a transnational dimension. As Briggs, McCormick, and Way argue, some historical-political processes such as “colonialism … liberalism, socialism, major religions” and so on, are “emphatically non-national”, ⁸ while “nationalism and imperialism” can both be considered as “transnational processes”. ⁹ Furthermore, Briggs, McCormick, and Way noted that although transnationalism can represent “longings on the left” versus “globalization” that stands for “the imperial universalism of the right”, in some cases transnationalism can still be associated with “corporate dominance”. ¹⁰

A transnational lens gives the critical perspective that is required to observe these cross-cultural processes not only from the local point of view but also in a wider ‘global’ context. For instance, the rise of religious nationalism that occurred in the Balkan region after the collapse of socialist Yugoslavia is a phenomenon that has also occurred in other post-communist countries: the processes that we find in Serbia we can also see in Russia. On the other hand, the distribution of wealth forms a culture of rich elite around the globe that, as Hannah Arendt argues, often has little to do with their own culture and society but has more in common with their own class from other countries. ¹¹ This is a culture that is substantially transnational, in a similar way that the shared struggle among different communities and the poor from all over the world is a transnational issue, as Zizek points out.

Embracing a transnational approach in studying cultural representations and cinematic depictions of the notions of religiousness, identity, or otherness provides a good ground for further critical reconstructions of both locality and globalism. Religion and its relationship to national and social identities in our changing transnational context is a topic that deserves attention: nation and religion are embedded in cultural myths that have more and more relevance in the global setting. Research into cinematic depictions of religion, identity, and myths reveals the cultural perceptions of these and shows that they are integral parts of the cultural ideologies and the narratives they produce.

One of the aims of this book is to provide an understanding of the links between religion, identity, and cultural myths, and their interconnection with dominant ideologies, by looking at their popular cinematic representations and cross-cultural understandings and interpretations in the films from different world regions. I will look at contemporary films produced in the U.S., Russia, and the Balkans.

Although my research is located within the field of film and religion, it is relevant to several other disciplines and fields, such as film studies, trans-national studies, and cultural and media studies. I employ a cultural-studies approach, similar to that used by Melanie Wright, as the most appropriate for this type of study. ¹² This approach incorporates different forms of analysis, such as the analysis of narrative, context, images and symbols, and critical reception. My approach also draws upon different fields and theoretical perspectives. I do not seek to analyze religious narratives per se; rather I look at how religion is interwoven within the mythological cultural narratives that shape our worldview.

Films are “created worlds” ¹³ where modern mythologies overlap and communicate particular ideological constructs. Cinema as an “alternative world” of “artificial character” ¹⁴ has been a source of debate and examination by a number of philosophers and scholars who have looked at the correlation between the real and fantasy. In this book I approach cinema as a constructed world of symbols, rituals, and myths, through which ideological realities are continuously reconfirmed. Cinema embodies the ideological concepts of the cultures in which it operates. By ideology I mean the ruling set of ideas that predominates in society, and that involves the mental framework, as Hall argues, from language to imagery of thought and systems of representation. ¹⁵

Philosopher Slavoj Zizek argues that we do not live in a post-ideological world but on the contrary we live in times in which ideology emerges as an “articulation of non-ideology”. ¹⁶ In this sense, the apolitical cultural elements are what an ideology consists of. The “appropriation” ¹⁷ of these so-called apolitical elements turns cinema into a complex ideological machine.

It is important to say that I approach myths communicated through cinema as a form of ideological expression. ¹⁸ Religious beliefs and practices are essential for modern ideological discourses across the world. In order to discuss these ideologies, I focus on the ideas of religion and nationhood that are embedded in a number of cultural and national myths. These myths are ideological matrices in which the complex interrelation between religion and national or social identities takes place to build specific meanings. In order to discuss those meanings and their ideological aspects, I first focus upon a) the role of religion in the process of the creation and re-creation of social and national identities, such as in the Balkans and Russia, and b) religion as a form of civil religion that is a cornerstone of national identity in the U.S. Next, I look at how religion and nationhood are embedded in national and cultural myths, and what ideological connotations are communicated through the medium of cinema.

Structure of the Book

This book consists of seven chapters and is thematically structured in a way that I concluded would be most useful for its readers. Films are categorized regionally: I focus on the cinema of each country, providing both a discussion of the cultural context and film analysis. I consider the same aspects in the analysis of each film narrative in order to bring them together in the final discussion. In each chapter I look at the cinematic depictions of religion, identity, and nationhood as part of national and cultural myths, in films from different regions. To understand how each of these ideas in the context of the film constitutes certain ideological meanings, I look at the cinematic representation of ‘the other’, conflict, nationhood, and just war.

In this introductory chapter I discuss the criteria for film selection as well as the reasons why I chose the films from these particular world regions, in order to identify the theoretical context that has informed and framed my exploration of transnational cinema. Chapter 2 is devoted to contextual analysis of contemporary perceptions of religion and nation embedded in national and cultural myths. I discuss the major concepts of nationhood and religious identity in Eastern Europe, primarily in the Balkans and Russia, and in the multicultural Western context. In the second part of Chapter 2 I discuss major theoretical perspectives on transnational cinema. My discussion is centred around two major issues—the relationship between ethnic and global, and the connection between myth and film: myths in film and film as myth. In Chapters 3, 4, and 5, I analyze contemporary films from the Balkans, Russia, and the U.S. In Chapter 3 I look at the cinematic representations of nationalist-religious ideology, identity, and conflict in contemporary films from the Balkans. Chapter 4 is dedicated to exploration of national myths and their cinematic depictions. I am interested in religious revival and contemporary implications of national myths, such as the myth of ‘Mother Russia’, and their representations in Russian ‘religious films’. In Chapter 5 I analyze contemporary Hollywood films, which I approach as sites of ideology, and the links between American nationalism and religion and the perceptions of a foreign ‘Other’. In my concluding chapter, Chapter 7, I discuss the major perspectives that a transnational approach brings into the explorations of the cross-cultural representations of religion, nation, and identity in cinema.

1.1 Why Study Religion, Identity, and Cultural Myths from the Perspective of Transnational Cinema?

To understand the meanings of the complex interrelations between religion and identity in specific cultural contexts, it is useful to look at the contemporary cultural and national myths through which these refract to build a specific meaning. The myth of the Chosen Nation, for example, which I discuss throughout this book, rests upon a strong sense of national identity and religion—one that gives a sacred dimension to the nation. The myth of being a Chosen Nation, which we find in Russia, Serbia, and the U.S., is a myth that reemerges in a modern context. By studying this myth as it is expressed in the cinema of diverse regions, we can learn a great amount about the religion of contemporary societies and its relation to changing identities. In other words, by researching the reemergence of these ‘old-new’ myths and their cultural implications, we can better understand the ideological context of society. The intertwined connection between religion and identity and their mythical expressions inform us about the ideological discourses at hand. Through cinema, modern myths are told and retold, for which reason filmmakers can be considered to be the new myth makers. Cinema thus becomes the space in which cultural myths, based upon notions of religion and nationhood, are expressed.

If we study the ideological aspects of cinematic representations of religion, identity, and cultural myths in a global context, and if we want to compare them or in any way link them together, it is necessary to approach them from the transnational point of view. Why is this? The discussion of global and national aspects of these cinematic representations cannot be done otherwise, simply because, as I argue, there is strictly speaking no national cinema. The relation between local and global is dialogical: it is not just a one-way flow from the mainstream, global (Hollywood) cinema to the periphery that consequently becomes ‘colonized’. When we look at Balkan cinema, this is exactly the case. For instance, a stereotypical representation of ‘others’, and self-representation are dialogical: while our view of ‘others’ springs from our specific local ideological viewpoint, our self-representation might just as well be shaped by global stereotypes. The modes of transnational production and distribution of films have allowed the emergence of differences in narratives and aesthetics. Interpretations will vary depending on the cultural contexts in which the films are presented. ¹⁹ To approach these issues and understand the impacts that these cinematic mythical constructs have on the wider scale, it is important to take the transnational cinema perspective. The diverse definitions of transnational cinema, however, do not exclude the so-called national, culturally...