The Bankruptcy Estate Dossier
digitally remastered TV series
3 x 30 min
edition 1/3
2008 – 2018
Part of the work was exhibited at the 50th October Salon Circumstance in 2009.
With this documentary series, the Playground production completes the story of a failed privatisation of two companies from Zrenjanin: using ŠINVOZ and BEKO as examples, it actualises the attitude of society as a whole towards the processes of economic transformation and opens a public dispute on the social consequences of this transformation.
Combining documentary recordings of labour strike, video archives, and statements from experts in different social studies such as economics (economists and economic media analysts) or workers’ rights (trade union representatives, legal experts, labour psychologists) as well as from the representatives of state bodies and institutions competent for the privatisation process, crime and corruption fight, social dialogue initiation – we try to reach the answer to the question: Why the position and rights of workers are seldom talked about?
Realisation and research team:
Dragan Gmizić, Dragan Kolarov, Csaba Polgár, Vuk Vukmirović, Saša Srećković
Director: Želimir Žilnik
Producer: Sarita Matijević
© Belgrade Cultural Centre, the October Salon Collection, and the artist
Purchase agreement: III-5-291/18.10.2021.
Inventory number: 1706
Photo: video frame, courtesy of the artist
Selected bibliography:
50th October Salon, Circumstance. Belgrade Cultural Centre, 2009.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Želimir Žilnik (1942, Niš, Yugoslavia) is an artist-filmmaker from Novi Sad, Serbia. In his highly prolific career, Žilnik has made over 50 feature and short films, which have been exhibited internationally at film festivals including Berlin, Toronto, Rotterdam, Moscow and Oberhausen. From the late 60s, his socially engaged films in former Yugoslavia earned him accolades, but also censorship in the 70s and the 90s for his unflinching criticism of the government apparatus. His power to observe and unleash compelling narratives out of the lives of ordinary people is the common thread throughout his work.
Recently, Žilnik has been the subject of major career retrospectives at Kunsthalle Wien, 2020/21; Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2019; Cinemateca Argentina, 2018; Mar del Plata Int. Film Festival, 2017; Anthology Film Archive, New York & Harvard Film Archive, 2017 etc.
His work has been featured in programs of art galleries, museums and art institutes around the world (Documenta, Kassel, Germany; Venice Biennale, Italy; ICA London, UK; National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA; MUMOK, Vienna, Austria; MACBA, Spain; Museo Universitario Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, Mexico, etc.).
www.zilnikzelimir.net