Hundreds of lights appear on the screen, and we see thousands of bodies undulating to the rhythm of the music. One woman darts frantically among them, racing back and forth across the stage. She is dancer and actress Sonja Vukićević, renowned for her anti-Milošević activism and her performance at Yugoslavia’s final Day of Youth in 1988.
Vukićević made history that day with her dance solo at the slet—the Slavic term for a mass public performance—celebrating the Communist revolution. It was to be the last such event, taking place as it did just before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the start of the devastating wars across former Yugoslavia.
Excerpts from a teenager’s 1988 diary are intercut with new footage of the now 74-year-old dancer, recordings of her dance solo, and shots of apartment blocks built during socialism. By tracing the shift from socialist collectivism to the emergence of nationalism, Slet 1988 invites viewers to draw connections between the aging of bodies, architectural structures, and political ideas. An intellectually challenging and fascinating work.
Stills
