Review of Cinema Komunisto

Communist Yugoslavia was a unique country in the history of the world. While communism meant stagnation and poverty everywhere else, Yugoslavia split from Stalin in the early days after WWII and became the only progressive communist country ever. The country was built on a communist foundation, but because of the mentioned split, Yugoslavia made close ties with the West. That meant a lot of freedom for its citizens. People could travel freely around the world (with a very powerful passport, they didn't need visas for almost any country), the small private businesses were allowed which helped the economy to thrive, the middle class was well off, and people were watching Hollywood movies and listened to western music, which brought country culturally closer to the West than East.

Cinema Komunisto is a brilliant documentary that depicts the history of communist Yugoslavia through the lenses of its movie industry. Yugoslavia should be studied in the history books as a unique and complex experiment that was very successful for some time until it spectacularly failed. Both events, the rise and the fall, should be studied, as many conclusions can be made from both of them. Cinema Komunisto doesn't try to take a holistic approach but documents the rise and the fall from a unique perspective. Anyone interested in the history of Yugoslavia will enjoy this film as it provides another view of that country that can't be found in any other documentary.