Baltic cinemas - flashbacks in
ENIn this paper, I will approach the cinemas of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania using the regionalist concept of ‘Baltic cinemas’, to emphasise shared and general aspects in the national cinematic processes, because ‘by looking regionally we see trends that otherwise remain neglected’ (Iordanova 2003: 12). The identities of the national cinemas of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are marked by several distinguishing features. They participated in the cultural self-definitions and self-images of the three politically independent nations after they gained their independence in 1918. Discontinued from their pre-war legacy, they became part of the Soviet film industry for the socialist re-invention of national imaginaries. They were challenged radically by the disruption of film production, distributional capabilities and capacities, and screening policies in the transition from the Soviet command economy to a European/global capitalist one. The 1990s and 2000s have brought new cinematic practices and experiences, new ideological agendas to the region, as well as new discussions/interpretations of the notion ‘national cinema’ in its meanings of inclusivity/exclusivity and processuality.
