Those Shocking Shaking Days

Which partisan unit would you join if you could choose between two possible styles of liberation? Can the critical contemplation of war be accomplished through poeticism or visuality? Do signs and sign systems collapse in the face of the impossible, the shocking, or do they just change? Selma Doborac's essay film THOSE SHOCKING SHAKING DAYS uses the Bosnian War of the 1990s to explore the representation of war and the extent to which atrocities can be depicted, if at all, by confronting its audience excessively with challenging questions. These appear on screen, embedded in soundless, static 16mm footage of destroyed houses overgrown with nature, or in amateur videos of the war. Others are posed off-screen to a black screen - the result and trigger of a critical reflection on images, for which there is currently unfortunately cause again. (Birgit Kohler)