Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

A transnational regioscape in the making : The Baltic Sea in Christian Petzold’s Barbara and Ilze Burkovska-Jacobsen’s My Favorite War

Mrozewicz, Anna LU (2023) In Folia Scandinavica Posnaniensia 34. p.133-144
Abstract
The Baltic Sea has effectively separated the Scandinavian and Eastern European countries, especially in the period when this body of water constituted a part of the Iron Curtain and functioned for Scandinavians as an imaginary protective moat. From the East-Central European perspective, the Baltic Sea offered a hope of escape to freedom, encapsulated in the cinematic trope of the sea as a ‘blue boundary’, or a ‘horizon of hope’. But the Baltic Sea was also feared as a life- threatening border, as expressed in the trope of ‘Baltic noir’, a variation of the ‘Eastern noir’ trope (Mrozewicz 2018) – imagining the sea in nocturnal scenery as wild and under state control. The article discusses screen representations of the Baltic Sea understood... (More)
The Baltic Sea has effectively separated the Scandinavian and Eastern European countries, especially in the period when this body of water constituted a part of the Iron Curtain and functioned for Scandinavians as an imaginary protective moat. From the East-Central European perspective, the Baltic Sea offered a hope of escape to freedom, encapsulated in the cinematic trope of the sea as a ‘blue boundary’, or a ‘horizon of hope’. But the Baltic Sea was also feared as a life- threatening border, as expressed in the trope of ‘Baltic noir’, a variation of the ‘Eastern noir’ trope (Mrozewicz 2018) – imagining the sea in nocturnal scenery as wild and under state control. The article discusses screen representations of the Baltic Sea understood as performative regioscaping practices (Chow 2021), offering insights into the memories and histories of human mobilities across the Baltic Sea beyond official narratives, as well as into the human relationship with the sea as both a cultural boundary and material body of water. As demonstrated by the analyzed film examples, Christian Petzold’s Barbara (2012, Germany) and Ilze Burkovska-Jacobsen’s My Favorite War (2020, Norway, Latvia), the Baltic Sea continues to be an important spatiotemporal node in the transnational re-telling of the region’s history and identity. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
transnational cinema, the Baltic Sea on screen, the Baltic Sea region, regioscape, blue humanities, Christian Petzold, Ilze Burkovska-Jacobsen
in
Folia Scandinavica Posnaniensia
volume
34
pages
12 pages
publisher
Versita
ISSN
2299-6885
DOI
10.14746/fsp-2023.34.10
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
b29ac3de-6faa-47f9-a372-5daa75ae99fa
date added to LUP
2024-02-12 15:54:05
date last changed
2024-02-13 09:55:31
@article{b29ac3de-6faa-47f9-a372-5daa75ae99fa,
  abstract     = {{The Baltic Sea has effectively separated the Scandinavian and Eastern European countries, especially in the period when this body of water constituted a part of the Iron Curtain and functioned for Scandinavians as an imaginary protective moat. From the East-Central European perspective, the Baltic Sea offered a hope of escape to freedom, encapsulated in the cinematic trope of the sea as a ‘blue boundary’, or a ‘horizon of hope’. But the Baltic Sea was also feared as a life- threatening border, as expressed in the trope of ‘Baltic noir’, a variation of the ‘Eastern noir’ trope (Mrozewicz 2018) – imagining the sea in nocturnal scenery as wild and under state control. The article discusses screen representations of the Baltic Sea understood as performative regioscaping practices (Chow 2021), offering insights into the memories and histories of human mobilities across the Baltic Sea beyond official narratives, as well as into the human relationship with the sea as both a cultural boundary and material body of water. As demonstrated by the analyzed film examples, Christian Petzold’s Barbara (2012, Germany) and Ilze Burkovska-Jacobsen’s My Favorite War (2020, Norway, Latvia), the Baltic Sea continues to be an important spatiotemporal node in the transnational re-telling of the region’s history and identity.}},
  author       = {{Mrozewicz, Anna}},
  issn         = {{2299-6885}},
  keywords     = {{transnational cinema; the Baltic Sea on screen; the Baltic Sea region; regioscape; blue humanities; Christian Petzold; Ilze Burkovska-Jacobsen}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{133--144}},
  publisher    = {{Versita}},
  series       = {{Folia Scandinavica Posnaniensia}},
  title        = {{A transnational regioscape in the making : The Baltic Sea in Christian Petzold’s Barbara and Ilze Burkovska-Jacobsen’s My Favorite War}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.14746/fsp-2023.34.10}},
  doi          = {{10.14746/fsp-2023.34.10}},
  volume       = {{34}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}