Of bees, birds, trees, and women: iconography, superstition and victimization of female characters in Yugoslav New Film

rule and monarchist Yugoslavia. Th e selected period fi lms Breza/ Th e Birch Tree (Ante Babaja,  , Yugoslavia) and Roj/ Th e Beehive aka Th e Swarm (Miodrag ‘Mi ć a’ Popovi ć ,  , Yugoslavia), both belonging to the Yugoslav novi fi lm (New Film) movement (  -  ), refract the workings of the vestiges of patriarchy in a family domain of Yugoslav socialist society. In these two costume dramas, patriarchy is portrayed to its fullest extent, due to their stories being set in the past, ostensibly unrelated to contemporary Yugoslav society and thus uninhibited by the drive to cater to the o ffi cial discourse of female emancipation. Applying a critical fi lm feminist perspective, by formal analysis via close readings of these two selected fi lms, this article examines the iconography linked to fi ctional depictions of heroines and delves into the representation of victimisation of women. I investigate whether the depiction of the female sorceress(es) embody the primitiveness, ignorance, and/or poverty of economically disadvantaged and historically oppressed pre-socialist village. In order to peruse not only the individual portrayal of female protagonists but the dynamics of their interaction, the Bechdel test is applied and complemented with concepts such as the ‘reversed masquerade’ and ‘cryptomatriarchy’, which sheds light on the relationship between women and the presence or absence of female solidarity.

e main aim of this study is to investigate why the directors of two selected Yugoslav New Films depict the patriarchal reign of a pre-socialist past, instead of their socialist present.Why did they choose to feature women as the main characters, which was less common in the Yugoslav novi lm (New Film) Movement?I propose the argument that this was a choice to criticise the real-life remnants of patriarchy in the family sphere of a nominally gender-equal Yugoslavia, by cinematically regressing into the past, into the pre-socialist times before the Second World War, instead of showing the socialist present of the s.In the two studied costume dramas, patriarchy is portrayed in its fullest extent, due to the stories being set in the past during Ottoman rule and monarchist Yugoslavia.e lms are ostensibly unrelated to their contemporary Yugoslav society and are thus uninhibited by the inclination to cater to the o cial discourse of female emancipation.e Yugoslav socialist state took all the necessary legislative measures for guaranteeing and promoting gender equality.What it could not fully eradicate were the patriarchal mindsets of people in the domain of the family, dating back and persisting from pre-socialist times.By having a critical attitude towards myths of the past, lms are critically relating to their contemporary myths.[] erefore, I contend that the selected period lms, Breza/ e Birch Tree (Ante Babaja, , Yugoslavia) and Roj/ e Beehive[ ] aka e Swarm (Miodrag 'Mića' Popović, , Yugoslavia), both belonging to the Yugoslav New Film movement, refract the workings of the vestiges of patriarchy in a family domain of Yugoslav socialist society.I observe the lms from a critical lm feminist perspective, by formal analysis via close readings.
In addition, my study scrutinises the represented victimisation of women, and the meanings behind iconography (of the birch tree, the white dove and the queen bee) linked to ctional depictions of heroines.In order to observe and analyse, both the individual portrayal of female protagonists and the dynamics of their interaction, the Bechdel test is performed.Although initially originating as a witty insight from a comic writer and not meant to be employed as a method to investigate the silencing of female characters in lms, in recent years the test has o en been applied to cinema for evaluating gender representation.[] e shortcomings of the somewhat over-simpli ed Bechdel test are complemented with concepts such as the 'reversed masquerade' ,[ ] and 'cryptomatriarchy' ,[ ] which shed light on the relations between women and the presence or absence of female solidarity.e former theoretical concept refers to the celluloid e aced femininity of elderly women, o en clad in black, who appropriate patriarchal attitudes from their male family members and use manly behaviour as a mask.[] e latter concept implies the hidden, obscured power of elderly women within a real-life household of a patriarchal family, speci cally regarding younger women.[] Lastly, I foreground how, in the selected lms, a female sorceress embodies the primitiveness, ignorance, and poverty associated with the economically disadvantaged and historically oppressed pre-socialist village.
e reason for selecting and analysing e Birch Tree and e Beehive is due to both being period lms set during pre-socialist times.e Birch Tree takes place in the era between the two World Wars, during the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, thus regressing into the times of tradition when patriarchy reigned.Similarly, e Beehive evokes bygone times in the more distant past of the First Serbian uprising against the Ottomans in .Moreover, these two case study lms were chosen due to both being shot in the times of socialism, when gender equality was proclaimed.e thematic distancing from current events in the socialist present by placing the story in the past, accentuated by the usage of costumes and settings, renders any ideological obligation towards the socialist state unnecessary.[] Consequently, it enables a subtlety in audio-visual or narrative character development.[] In contrast, gender representations as stereotypes are more frequent in Yugoslav lms which deal with contemporary themes.[] is is the case in many Yugoslav New Films, which makes the two analysed lms belonging to this movement rather exceptional, since they feature eshed out female characters and stories set in the pre-socialist past.
Jovanović[ ] notes that some lms classied as the Classical Yugoslav Cinema (generally speaking, lms with classical narrative preceding the Yugoslav New Film movement) were critical of the rural patriarchal tradition as a part of earlier times, while simultaneously implying that it might still be present in Yugoslav socialist society.Focusing on gender whilst peasant-themed, they initiated a debate on the patriarchal legacy of traditional rural life, stretching from the pre-socialist era into socialism, to some extent.[] My argument is in line with Jovanović's, since e Birch Tree and e Beehive elicit this kind of debate.us, there is a continuity of the Classical Yugoslav Cinema with Yugoslav New Film, which 'constantly destroys all existing societal myths and questions traditional values of one patriarchal moral' .[] erefore, drawing on Slapšak's, Jovanović's and Novaković's views, I contend that in the case study lms, directors Babaja and Popović criticised the real-life gender imbalance in the family domain of socialist Yugoslavia by portraying the workings of patriarchy, as set in the past.

Yugoslav new lm and gender
Both analysed lms belong to Yugoslav New Film, a loose auteurist movement without a manifesto, which Dušan Stojanović bookends between and .[] Yugoslav New Film tackles themes in an innovative manner, exhibits modern aesthetic tendencies in its form and is o en in opposition to Yugoslavian traditional narrative lm,[ ] a formally and thematically mainstream cinema that coexisted alongside it.Divergent in their styles, Yugoslav New Film directors sought an authentic connection not only to the topic they explored, but to the viewers as well.[] e unifying threads of the movement include social criticism, a more open attitude towards sexuality, and a pessimistic outlook on life.[] In addition, the depiction of generational con ict is one of the traits of Yugoslav New Film, which, generally speaking, is shared with the other initial 'new waves' that developed in several countries, such as French Nouvelle Vague, Japanese Nūberu bāgu and Czechoslovakian Nová Vlna.
Aside from the presence of generational con ict, the two selected lms also qualify as Yugoslav New Films for being innovative and prone to experimentation in terms of content, and style.ey are both rather formally stylised, with non-linear narrative structures.Subsequently, their editing is complex and interspersed with retrospective scenes, which could be another argument (but not exclusive) for categorizing them as Yugoslav New Films, as opposed to the mainstream lms with mostly invisible, linear editing and classical narrative dramatic structure.e formal characteristics of Yugoslav New Film are su used with absolute stylistic freedom, where every auteur freely choses means of expression that suit him[ ] best.[] e somewhat theatrical e Beehive has powerful black and white photography by Milorad Marković, whilst e Birch Tree -perhaps visually one of the most highly regarded Yugoslav lms -is shot in colour by director of photography Tomislav Pinter.Babaja seeks a classical beauty within his images, while simultaneously being entirely modern thematically, with the fact that he touches upon unexplored spheres of social politics and bodily transience.[] His rst feature length ctional lm Carevo novo ruho/ e Emperor's New Clothes ( ), based on the tale by Hans Christian Andersen and set in an unde ned past, is a critique of any rule, possibly even including that of Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito.Keeping that in mind, it is not surprising that Babaja's next lm e Birch Tree -which, as Gilić notes, was inspired by two novels written by Slavko Kolar in the interwar period[ ] -is set into the past in order to comment on the contemporary issues of that socialist present. is aspect is common in both of the aforementioned lms.
Namely, Babaja addresses the precarious position of a woman in a rural environment, speci cally as she di ers from the collective as an individual, whether with her fragile body or otherwise.Popović, a painter by vocation, also has a streak of social criticism in his artistic opus, both in his paintings and lms.Pursuing social equality, 'his lms would confront the past and the present of Yugoslavia' .[] Popović's and Babaja's work are in line with the de nition of Yugoslav New Film as a movement tackling 'socio-national themes in a highly gendered mode, contrary to earlier propagandist lms which systematically e aced gender for the sake of class (communist, patriarchal) struggle' .[] However, as Yugoslav lm critic Boglić[ ] notes, in modern Yugoslav New Film, a woman takes secondary place since the lms of the directors who inaugurated this new wave, such as those of Aleksandar Petrović, Vatroslav Mimica, Zvonimir Berković, Matjaž Klopčić, and Babaja, primarily gave agency to a male hero as the subject of the action.In their lms, the female character is o en a passive object, stripped of her independence and equality.[] Nevertheless, there were also a few real heroines, for instance: the mother queen bee Stojanka (Mira Stupica) in e Beehive by Popović; the wife of Hasan bey in Hasanaginica/Kameni despot ili jedna mogućnost narodne pesme Hasanaginica ( ) by the same director; or the mother in e Wild Growth/Samorastniki ( ) by Igor Pretnar.[] However, many more were women-objects, who only watched as their destiny unfolded, tragically constrained by the mores of their society.[] A typical example of female characters from that era of Yugoslav lm, due to 'her passivity, certain helplessness and utmost dependence on a man'[ ], is the much-mistreated Janica (Manca Košir), from Babaja's e Birch Tree.Yet, in contrast to Boglić's aforementioned critique of Babaja's woman-object, Krelja perceives it as a quality that regardless of whether Janica is dead or alive, the plot of the lm revolves around her 'as opposed to the extreme marginalization of other heroines in so many ction lms from this region' .[] erefore, the focus on women as main characters makes e Birch Tree and e Beehive worthy of attention.
A er viewing lms, out of both mainstream and Yugoslav New Films, directed by Yugoslav directors from until , I nd that what many Yugoslav New Films share is a physical or symbolical harm, self-harm, neglect or control directed at female characters.Since Yugoslav New Film is frequently perceived as liberated, as De Cuir observes, it is ironic that female characters were usually portrayed as victims, who 'were o en mistreated, abused, and even murdered' .[] Modern Yugoslav New Films, in Boglić's view, are mostly 'male' lms, which show all that is conservative in female nature, and all the negative excesses of somewhat more nominal than e ectuated Yugoslavian real-life gender equality.[] Oscillating somewhere between myth and the degradation of a fetishized female character, with more frequent tendency towards the latter, these lms are o en one-sided.[] is is because they show only extremes or societal blackness, without depicting nuances or the other side of a past contemporary Yugoslav society, with numerous possibilities o ered to Yugoslav working woman.Consequently, her reality with its complexities of both advantages and shortcomings does not exist in those lms.[] Krelja notes that a common denominator of Yugoslav New Film auteurs is a similar outlook on a woman and her body.[] On the one hand, a female character is o en represented as bearing a signi cant part of the guilt that the world is not a better place to live in, due to carrying a seed of evil, being infected with weaknesses of society, or having a tendency towards indelity.[] us, a woman is the cause of a man's doom, and in turn a man consequently rapes or murders her.[ ] Yugoslav New Film auteurs frequently (and wrongfully) attributed signicant vices of reality to a woman in their intent to approach lm as a conscience of society, as if she herself was personi cation of reality and life.[] On the other hand, in cases when a female character is portrayed as morally decent, she is perceived by a male character, or even the entire environment, as a passive object suitable for inhumane treatment, and is submitted to individual degradation.[] erefore, from Krelja's observations, it can be deduced that in Yugoslav New Film, a woman and her body is, generally speaking, either a source of wickedness or a target for male vice, which results in her mistreatment.
Depictions of sexuality and gender in the context of Yugoslav New Film, and the attitudes of its directors towards gender norms, are yet to be acknowledged as one of its main traits.[] Considering that Yugoslav New Film is dominated by male directors and mostly features men as the lead characters, the mere shi of focus on women as the main protagonists in the two selected lms is attention worthy.Moreover, they are eshed-out characters, as opposed to many Yugoslav New Film depictions of women as stereotypes.Aside from the fact that Babaja and Popović criticise the patriarchal behaviour towards the depiction of female characters, they are also occasionally complicit in, or have ambivalent viewpoint on, the matter of gender asymmetry.

Gender equality in Yugoslavian socialism and representations of gender
In order to ascertain whether there is a correlation between the analysed lms set in the past and a seeming misalignment with gender issues in the Yugoslav socialism of the s, I look into Yugoslav legislation.In Yugoslav society, gender equality was rst legally enforced by the constitution of .[ ] All subsequent constitutions have continued to enforce it but, most importantly for this paper, the socialist state actively propagated it.[] e Socialist State overtly and clearly let it be known that gender equality was a reward for active participation in the Second World War (as Partisan ghters, nurses, and civilians who supported the struggle by bringing supplies in the rear of battle eld).[] Women were granted legal bene ts, such as the political rights to vote and to be elected to political bodies.[] Furthermore, they gained rights to one year-long paid maternity leave, health insurance, access to education, freedom of choice, equal pay, marriage and divorce rights.[] e aforementioned aspects reveal, if the causes of gender-based discrimination towards women in the family domain were to be investigated, that the laws were not the source of it, on the contrary, they prevented it,[ ] thus being, at the time 'some of the most progressive legislation in the world on women' .[] ey gave Yugoslav women 'by far more rights than American and Western European women' .[]. e so-called 'women's question' was considered as resolved because, according to the state rhetoric, with the abolition of class that took place, and legal and political reforms, gender inequalities were expected to consequently disappear.[] Socialism indeed triggered a substantial improvement in women's rights, but on the other hand, it failed to fully keep the promise of their liberation.[] Despite being empowered by employment, Yugoslavian women performed a second, unpaid shi in their own homes a er coming back from work, by doing child-rearing and household chores, in most cases unaided by their husbands.[] us, 'in the private sphere, legislation was unable to resist the old values and replace them with something new' .[] Reproducing the remnants of patriarchal mentality and their stereotypes in regards to the position and the role of women, mass media reinforced the ideal of a capable, hardworking, family-oriented housewife who does not leave the domestic sphere.[] Both in everyday life and in the popular press, Yugoslav women gradually ceased to be represented as Partisan ghters and were 'le as happy housewives or worker women at the conveyor-belt' .[] e words of Tito were also in line with this trend.At the ird Congress of the Antifascist Front of Women (AFW), a communist women's organisation, he spoke about 'the speci c duties' of women, such as nurturing and caring, especially for children.[] Moreover, he mentioned how mothers dedicated to child-rearing should be perceived accordingly as the ones building socialism and performing socially-useful work, 'because proper raising of children is their rst obligation' .[] Furthermore, books also peddled disparate values for women and men.A study published by Rajka and Milan Polić in on the representation of female characters in schoolbooks for children, like corresponding studies made in France or Great Britain, concludes that 'there are fewer female characters in the books, women have the stereotyped roles of mother, housewife, nurse or teacher, and they are given more negative traits than boys' .[] Women were not only underrepresented numerically as the main characters in the schoolbooks ( percent women, percent men), but the roles they performed and the meanings ascribed to their portrayals also di ered, thus socialising them to become maternal and indecisive, and to pay excessive attention to their own looks.[] Consequently, the socialist state's implementations of gender equality and female empowerment were 'constantly being hindered by the values transmitted by the mass media and upheld by the old patriarchal system' .[] In his study of Yugoslav cinema in the s, Davor Beganović[ ] notes the role of images to represent, while simultaneously affecting the ideological and political situation in a particular society.e idea that lms not only re ect, but actually create meanings at the societal level, can also be borrowed from Paolo Favero's observation on Italian cinema, which is that certain ' lms share a capacity to promote an image' .[] Considering that not only in Yugoslav New Films, but even in mainstream lms, depictions of gender equality were rare, especially in contemporary themed lms, they concurrently refracted and promulgated an image of a subjugated woman.However, this is in contradiction to the o cial stance of the Yugoslav socialist state to endorse gender equality.Signi cant e orts were made to legally enforce emancipation of women, which resulted in the increase of worker-mothers.Unexpectedly, they are mostly absent from cinematic depictions of both work and the family sphere.An exceptional example of a lm that promotes gender equality within a Yugoslav household, set in a past contemporary socialist Yugoslavia, is the formally and thematically mainstream Muškarci/Men (Milo Đukanović, , Yugoslavia).
Celluloid gender asymmetry in the family sphere and generational con ict e contrast between gender equality promulgated in socialism and the gender asymmetry in the family sphere is present in both everyday life of Yugoslavia (as the double-burden), as well as in the two lms I discuss.e Beehive tackles the relativity of guilt via the public trial of a wife named Stojanka, exposed to shaming by a mob of villagers during the process.She allegedly betrayed her husband Nikola (Danilo 'Bata' Stojković) -an outlaw opposed to Ottoman rule and wanted for the murder of Halil bey (Bekim Fehmiu) -by revealing his whereabouts to the Ottoman occupiers.at resulted in Nikola's death by stoning inside a well where he was hiding.Supposedly, Stojanka arrives at such a di cult decision in order to prevent vengeful Halil bey's brother (also Bekim Fehmiu) from burning down her house and the people in it, including her newlywedded son Stojan (Dušan Golumbovski) and his bride Ljubica (Olivera Vučo).e Birch Tree is about fragile Janica, who perishes due to post-birth complications, the harshness of peasant life, lack of access to any proper medical care, and neglect by her mother-in-law and husband Marko Labudan (Velimir 'Bata' Živojinović).
In both lms, motherhood is suppressed.Janica loses a new-born baby girl, who dies sometime a er birth.Stojanka's son Stojan is killed by the Ottomans, while her relationship with her young daughter deteriorates because Stojanka o ers herself to be raped by Halil bey in her place.She protects her from sexual assault with her own body but does not manage to spare the daughter from witnessing her own rape, which traumatises the girl.In e Birch Tree, the grim end of the main heroine is made known to the spectators early in the plot.Contrary to that, e Beehive is more open-ended, which leaves the spectators perplexed as to whether the heroine will be granted a pardon or severely punished for her purported transgression of social codes.
In order to establish a link between these cinematic depictions of the pre-socialist past in male-dominated societies and the seemingly unrelated real-life in the socialist present of the s, I highlight that in both lms, there is a generational con ict, manifest in the de ance of young girls towards their mothers regarding the choice of a romantic partner.In e Beehive, Ljubica's mother tries to convince her, immediately before and a er her wedding, to leave the house she is marrying into, but in vain.Similarly, in e Birch Tree, both Janica's mother and brother chastise Janica for dancing three times with woodward Marko at a village festivity, despite the fact that he is a notorious womanizer, and that he had sued her father for cutting down an oak tree.It is important to note that in the reality of socialist Yugoslavia, the inviolable authority of parents over children started losing its grip due to the process of urbanisation.[] is was because the patriarchal subjugation of women via men started signi cantly weakening, especially in regard to the economic sphere, since more women were becoming employed and educated.[] is was also true in the legal sphere, where egalitarian inheritance, marriage and divorce rights were guaranteed to a married woman.[] Urban living, and the migration of the work force from villages to cities, created conditions for greater independence and more freedom for children in a family, including the right to freely choose ones' future marriage partner.[] is switch is indirectly re ected in the two analysed lm representations.
However, the patriarchal way of thinking typical for agrarian environments, which lingered on from the pre-socialist era, was resistant to change.[] e high in ux of rural populations into the cities had the consequence that the traditional outlook on gender roles in the family also persisted in the urban environments to some extent.[] While simultaneously being employed, women were also doing most of the household work, and o en were solely responsible for the upbringing of their children.[] Consequently, they were overburdened by their multiple roles.According to data from , a woman worked, on average, somewhere between and hours per week (at work and at home), out of which between and hours were unpaid work (in her own home).[] e socialist state tried to alleviate any contradictions that the societal role of the employed woman-mother brought, with increasing societal care for children, speci cally by building public kindergartens, nurseries and day-care centres.[] It is important to keep in mind that in Yugoslav socialism, many laws were rati ed which were integral to gender equality, such as: women's right to vote and to be voted for; the right for equal pay for equal work; the right to keep one's maiden last name when marrying; the right to have full custody over children a er divorce; the right to paid maternity leave before and a er childbirth; the freedom of reproductive choice; the right to schooling and education; the free choice of profession and employment; the right to social services and health insurance.[] Still, the enormous improvements that Yugoslav socialism brought, including economic independence and legal equality, were not enough to completely change the patriarchal mindsets of people and the image of women in the domain of family relations.[]

Bechdel test, 'reversed masquerade' and 'cryptomatriarchy'
In order to fully comprehend how women are represented in the two studied lms, it is important to explore the interpersonal relationships amongst themselves.e Beehive is one Out For, where one of the characters declares that she only watches lms if they meet three prerequisites.[] us, it is undertaken by an examination as to whether: ( ) there are at least two important female characters in a ction lm, ( ) who talk to each other, ( ) about something besides men.[ ] In academic literature, it is also sometimes referred to as the Bechdel-Wallace test,[ ] but nonetheless, its de nition is the same.In addition, in some sources, a requirement for the test is that both women should be named.[] In e Beehive both names of the two most prominent female protagonists are known: Stojanka and Ljubica.e two women make a covenant between them, in the scene preceding the modest wedding ceremony of Ljubica and Stojanka's son Stojan, held in secrecy in Stojanka's house.Even though men are mentioned during this scene, it is done sporadically.erefore, the main focus of their conversation is not on men, but on the mutual agreement between the two women on how to run and preserve the family, so the lm passes the Bechdel test.Ljubica, being the reproductive female member in the family unit, takes Stojanka's place of the dominant matriarch.e shi in hierarchy is consensual.Stojanka utters and Ljubica repeats a er her: 'God, give me happiness and longevity.And may I become by right and on time the queen bee in this beehive.May I live in prosperity.And may my strength calm down with one husband.Amen.' e covenant is sealed when Stojanka touches Ljubica's chin (il.), a er which Ljubica exclaims to Stojanka the word 'mother' with a lachrymose, trembling voice and hugs her.
is signals not only Ljubica's acceptance of succeeding Stojanka as the queen bee of the family she is about to marry into, but an act of female bonding as well.However, there is an enmity between Stojanka and Ljubica's mother, though it does not a ect Stojanka's relationship with Ljubica.On the contrary, Ljubica twice ignores her mother's urging to leave Stojanka's house and return home with her: the rst time just before the modest wedding ceremony held in secrecy in the house, the second time when the Ottomans arrive in front of the house at the end of the wedding, in pursuit of Stojanka's outlaw husband.Ljubica's mother's opposition towards her daughter's marriage and her hostility to Stojanka only seem to fortify the embattled solidarity between Ljubica and Stojanka.
In e Birch Tree, female solidarity towards Janica is only expressed by Jaga (Hermina Pipinić), her in-law, who shows empathy for her when Janica is on her deathbed.e lm passes the Bechdel test, for instance, because of a conversation between the duo, during which feverish Janica loses track of time due to the illness and asks Jaga how many days have passed since her new-born baby daughter Ljubica, who died ten days a er birth, was buried.
Jaga stands out from other peasant woman not only because of her compassion for Janica, but with her orange pullover as well.Its warm colour correlates to her warm personality.In contrast, other peasant women are clad in dark clothing, ominous and malicious.e group gossips about Janica, in her presence, while she is on the sickbed, as if she were already dead.ey say how she was always thin and weak, and express surprise while recounting how her husband Marko le a girl, who was fat, strong, and rich, for Janica.From this, it can be implied that in the countryside, where women were expected to do hard physical labour, slenderness was associated with sickness and corpulence with health.Although both lms pass the Bechdel test, it does not necessarily mean that they depict women being kind to each other or expressing solidarity.Namely, there is a friction between Stojanka and Ljubica's mother.e most harrowing lack of solidarity that Janica experiences is from her mother-in-law.
Building on Riviere's concept of 'womanliness as a masquerade' ,[ ] and in my view further in uenced by Doane's 'theorization of femininity as masquerade' ,[ ] Bogojević employs, within Yugoslav cinema, her own concept of the 'reversed masquerade' , where female characters, such as grandmothers and mothers, emphasise their masculine attributes and utilise them 'as a mask disguising and e acing their femininity' .[] With the sense of womanliness obliterated, the androgynous older women, frequently clad in black, are far crueller than the male characters, as they x both men and women with a sadistic voyeuristic gaze.[] ey reinforce patriarchal attitudes, initially adopted from their fathers and then spouses.[] Although intended for a di erent example and time period of Yugoslav cinema, Bogojević's theory is applicable to my case study lm e Birch Tree, because the aforementioned elderly women, grim and deprived of womanliness, show no empathy for beautiful and fragile Janica.Nevertheless, ageing is approached di erently in e Beehive because mature and digni ed Stojanka retains her femininity.She expresses no enmity towards her young and pretty daughter-in-law, but solidarity with her.While elderly women from e Birch Tree perpetuate patriarchy, Stojanka undermines and confronts it.In contrast, the worst mistreatment Janica encountered is from her insensitive mother-in-law, who pressures her -on a day she is so feverish that she could not even go to the graveyard, with her husband Marko to bury their new-born daughter -to take a cow to graze in the pouring rain. is contributes to Janica's premature death.
A family constellation in socialist Yugoslav society was labelled by Simić as 'cryptomatriarchy' ,[ ] in some of its traditional incarnations.However, references to matriarchy should not create a misleading impression of 'a denial of women's subordination by implying that it is women who are in power in fact' .[] Actually, there is a discrepancy between the coexistent unexpected power of elderly women and the machismo of a patriarchy marked with patrilineality.[] e power of women was obfuscated, due to the seemingly male dominance over the household members and society in general, which was 'more a public than a private fact' .[] Women attained 'this power not by virtue of being wives, but as the result of becoming mothers, and, eventually, grandmothers' .[] Not only in rural, but even in urban environments where they predominantly worked, women ran the family domain, while simultaneously 'exerting a certain in uence on their sons even outside the context of family life' .[] e revered and authoritative position of mothers increased gradually with time through their sons as proxies.[] In contrast to the in uential position of mothers and grandmothers, daughters-in-law were regarded as outsiders upon entering the husband's extensive family and were utterly powerless until the birth of their own male children, who would perpetuate the family name.[] Due to an initially subordinated position, a daughter-in-law's prospect of marital union was reliant on a good relationship with her dominant mother-in-law, because of the 'powerful in uence of mothers in the marital a airs of their sons' .[] In line with Simić's thoughts on 'cryptomatriarchy' in real life, in e Birch Tree, 'the real threat to a woman's position in the family stems, not so much from her husband as from her mother-in-law, against whom a daughterin-law's principal weapon is the status and pride that results from grandparenthood' .[] By failing to provide a healthy male heir, Janica's already inferior status as a newcomer worsens further, whereas Ljubica's implicit pregnancy in e Beehive contributes to elevating her status as a matriarch, as a queen-bee.e role reversal between Stojanka and Ljubica is obvious in the denouement of the lm when Stojanka, the former symbolical queen-bee, is shown leaning her head on Ljubica's shoulder, as if passing on to her the legacy of the role of the new queenbee.Both Popović and Babaja are critical of the patriarchy, while Babaja places the forces of patriarchy not only in male characters, but in female as well; for instance, Janica's motherin-law and other elderly women.is relates back to the point that women's relations, in the studied lms as well as in life, are not uniquely ones of solidarity and resistance.Nevertheless, this might be problematic if understood without taking into consideration the context that women, socialised as such, perpetuate the patriarchal stances accrued from their fathers and spouses.

Victimization
According to Kaplan, among the patriarchal mechanisms to control female discourse and desire in Hollywood cinema are victimization, self-righteous murder, rape, and fetishizing.[] In the victim pattern, the female protagonist su ers and o en perishes through illness or impoverishment.[] '[T]he gures women are asked to identify with are usually victims.'[ ] ose victimized and powerless female characters reinforce the sense of worthlessness among female spectators.[] Similarly, Haskell[ ] points out that in Hollywood women's lms, ordinary heroines were portrayed as victims through the myths of self-e acement and martyrdom, which were also buttressed by the mass media.e underlying motive of those representations is to maintain patriarchy by in uencing women to come to terms with the position they are stuck in, and hence to discourage them from questioning it.[] Examples of the victimhood pattern can be found also outside the Hollywood cinema.
e case study lm e Birch Tree illustrates how director Babaja reinforced gender norms permeated with the patriarchal subjection of women by following the victimisation pattern, if Kaplan's,[ ] and Haskell's[ ] theories are applied to Yugoslav New Film.e lm is reminiscent of melodramas, which were, according to Fischer,[ ] in the most cases directed by men, and foregrounded a female heroine who faces a predicament in her domestic life revolving around the motherhood and marriage.Doane notes that in that genre, heroines have been disconnected from desire.[] ' e dominance of the bed in the mise-en-scène of these lms is the explicit mark of the displacement/replacement of sexuality by illness' .[] Likewise, e Birch Tree's main heroine Janica does not have an active sexuality.On the contrary, Janica's love for her husband Marko seems almost platonic and not corporeal.Regardless, Janica's choice of a life partner of a man whom she was warned about, a womanizer, leads her to a grim destiny, as if she takes his sins upon her.A er the new-born baby she gave birth to died, Janica also falls ill and perishes, probably as a consequence of an unsanitary countryside childbirth without medical assistance.As Chakravarty notes, women appear inseparable from their bodies.[] Following the Second World War, in Yugoslavian villages, births continued to take place under inadequate conditions, since customs and beliefs were given preference by the countryside folks to proper medical assistance.[] A er liberation, and in the decades that followed, many institutions focused on the protection of women, pregnant women and mothers.[] Despite all the e orts of the socialist state and the women's organisation AFW (Antifašistički front žena/ Antifascist Front of Women) to provide healthcare and enlighten the people health-wise, for the majority of women, in many rural parts of the country, bad hygienic habits and superstitions persisted for a long time.[] In Yugoslavia, of all the babies born in , , were delivered without professional help.[] e reluctance of individuals in more rural villages to seek proper medical aid, not only during childbirth but also in regard to any type of illness, is echoed in the lm e Birch Tree.
When Janica is on her deathbed, Jaga goes out of the house and calls Marko to come inside because Janica wants to see him for the last time, but he is busy preparing the decoration of the agpole.He has been asked to be a ag-bearer at a wedding, which is a traditional custom.For him, this element of tradition is apparently more important than saying goodbye to his dying wife.His response to Jaga is that he will go see Janica when he nishes adorning the agpole.It is di cult to comprehend why he even accepted the joyful role in the oncoming wedding festivity in the rst place, especially knowing he might be in mourning at any moment.He also prioritizes insigni cant preparations instead of Janica, so she passes away without her dying wish being ful lled: to see the man she loves.erefore, Janica's fate ts the above-mentioned victimization pattern.[] A er she is buried, Marko indulges in hedonism at the wedding celebration, but eventually goes through the moment of catharsis where he repents and humbles himself in front of the white birch tree, which symbolizes Janica.us, the woman is victimized with pathos.In this lm, the underlying androcentric ide-ology of the patriarchal society is that women should tolerate husbands who neglect them, because if they do so, their soul will go to heaven.
ey will be rewarded in the a erlife for the hardships they have su ered.Despite the fact that Babaja's lm is critical of patriarchy by the very selection of theme and giving prominence to a woman, it still reinforces gender inequality by the usage of stereotyped representation of a saint-like, passive and neglected female character who acquiesces to her su ering.To borrow Kaplan's thoughts on American melodrama, a lm can simultaneously have elements resisting dominant patriarchal gender ideology and closure that buttresses it.[] Consequentially, it appears that the narrative normalizes female su ering, reinforces the male-dominated order and controls women by implanting the idea of posthumous reward or sancti ed remembrance a er underappreciated existence.
In contrast, e Beehive portrays a woman who refuses to be victimised.When Stojanka is raped, she is not overtaken by the rapist Halil bey, but instead she deliberately o ers herself in order to protect her daughter from impending rape.However, her sacri ce is not appreciated by her husband Nikola, nor by her daughter.In fact, she is exposed to victim-blaming, because Nikola calls Stojanka a 'Turkish whore' , as if it was her fault for being sexually assaulted.Although Nikola kills the rapist, he does not arrive in time to prevent the rape, but only interrupts it.Building on Žižek's theory of the impotence of the gaze when a male gure of authority forcibly witnesses the rape of a family member, which activates 'the vicious cycle of guilt' ,[ ] Brinkema[ ] points out the utter powerlessness of a samurai husband, eye-witness to the rape of his wife in Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, ). Correspondingly, Nikola projects his own humiliation onto Stojanka due to witnessing her rape (implied, not shown), because the harsh words he utters are most likely his own sense of guilt reshaped into blame.Not only does Stojanka's relationship with her husband deteriorate due to her rape, but that with her traumatized daughter does as well.ey both ironically ask Stojanka on separate occasions if it is possible to breathe under the hay, alluding to her rape, when she pulled a stick that was holding some hay above her and the rapist to make it fall on them, in order to prevent her shocked daughter from watching.e patriarchy not only blames Stojanka for being raped, but later for Nikola's death when she nds herself exposed to shaming at the public trial.Ultimately, Stojanka is, in Haskell's words on Hollywood cinema, 'the woman who begins as a victim of discriminatory circumstances and rises, through pain, obsession, or de ance, to become mistress of her fate' .[] Even when the odds are against Stojanka, she is not a passive object, but an active, de ant subject who stands behind her decisions.
A certain empathy may be discerned in Popović's stance towards women through some details of the plot.During the incident when the Ottomans trap the subjugated village people in the courtyard of the caravansary and beat them in order to give away the outlaws' hiding place, they also suspend an orthodox priest by his neck with a noose, and leave him in a position where he barely touches the ground with his feet.When Stojanka's young daughter is dragged by the Ottomans to be raped, Kahriman (Rade Marković), as the mouthpiece for the director, says to the hung priest: 'Oh my priest, a er all it is more di cult for a woman in a white gown than for you in a black one' .However, any exposure of female characters to sexual violence, even if the director has a critical stance towards it and it is implied instead of shown like in e Beehive, might be still interpreted as problematic because it increases the amount of represent-ed violence towards women in public discourse.us, both Babaja and Popović victimised their characters.

e iconography of women and the feminine
Another approach to investigating the representation of female characters is looking into their iconography, which can be used to diverse e ects, such as to stereotype, disempower or empower.For example, patriarchy can be expressed through stereotypical visual iconography of female protagonists, such as mother, child, grandmother and good wife.[] A good wife is blonde,[ ] as Janica from e Birch Tree is, whereas Stojanka from e Beehive follows the pattern of a self-sacri cing mother to some extent.During the time of silent cinema, because the spectators struggled to grasp the plot from the speechless images, the producers simpli ed matters by introducing xed character iconography.[] us, audiences were promptly provided with information about characters of both genders, because their looks, conduct and traits were standardized, which resulted in stereotyp-ing.Johnston[ ] points out that cinema quickly found a diversity of expression for portrayal of male characters, whilst the representation of female characters remained limited and stereotypical, undergoing only slight modi cations, in comparison with the images of women from the silent cinema Panofsky described.Woman is portrayed as unchanging and in nite; thus, she is inhibited as a social and sexual being.[] In both lms, an important female protagonist is, at a certain point, iconographically associated with an animal, insect or a plant.Iconography as a concept detects and categorizes the signi cant patterns, which can be conducted by numerous ways of analysis, such as a holistic perspective in terms of the general visual style of the lm, or a speci c one, in regards to particular symbols that are embedded in the lm,[ ] the latter being the focus of interest in this article.While in e Beehive, Stojanka and Ljubica personify a queen bee, the heroine from e Birch Tree, Janica, is iconographically linked to a slender birch tree, and also, at the moment of her demise, with a white dove.In Christian iconography, the white dove symbolizes a soul or the life spirit of the faithful aspiring towards heaven.[] Also, some female Christian saints, for instance, Saint Eulalia of Mérida, are portrayed at the moment of their demise with a white dove, signifying the soul, ying out of their body to heaven.[] e very moment when Janica dies, a white dove ies out of the house towards the sky, which an odd, religious, male villager Joža (Fabijan Šovagović), nicknamed 'the Holy' , sees, but the husband Marko does not.e white colour of the bird in Christian art implies that the spirit is good.
[ ] When the Catholic priest arrives too late to administer the last rites, because Janica has already died, a tearful Joža humbly declares, on his knees, that the white dove he saw ying out of the roof of Marko's house at the moment of Janica's demise was her soul, as pure as the white dove, but the priest dismisses the idea.Furthermore, trees are used twice as an iconographic analogy for Janica's dissimilarity to other country girls.It is said that she resem-bles a slim birch tree, whereas they are equated to sturdy beech trees.Birch has white bark and is thin and tall, just like the slender Janica, who is always dressed in light colours -mostly white or light beige -both in life and death.She wears a light-toned, beige sweater with a white apron, over a pale-coloured skirt when she does daily chores, such as attending grazing cows; she stands out in white during a village dance festivity while the other girls wear colourful orange embroideries; her head is also seen festooned with a plain white scarf (il. ) that underlines her exquisite beauty and virtue due to its resemblance to a nun[ ] (in a scene a er the festivity, when her mother and brother scolded her for dancing with Marko); she was adorned in white when she was getting married; and she was also in white when her deceased body was exposed in an open co n.In the Western Christian Church, white is a symbol of purity and innocence.[] Il. .Caption from: Ante Babaja, e Birch Tree, e lm makes a full circle.It begins with a scene where the ailing Janica appears in light coloured, whitish clothing, with a single whitebarked birch tree; thus, the director draws a parallel between the two by underlining their symbolic relation in as many as eight shots in that scene.When a feverish Janica collapses, while cows are grazing in the pouring rain, pious Joža, who was nearby, carries her in his arms to her husband's house.roughout the lm, characterised by complex plotting, the scenes of Janica's illness, looming death and funeral, are interspersed with retrospective scenes of Janica's life.In one retrospective scene, Janica, still unmarried, speaks to Joža, while sitting next to the birch tree to which she is iconographically linked (il.).Platonically in love with her, Joža is carving an angel out of a piece of wood with, as he states, resemblance to Janica in order to capture and preserve the great, eeting beauty given to her by God.He advises her never to marry anyone, but instead become a nun.Janica responds that she would go for Marko right away if he wanted her, in a display of utmost female submissiveness.Consequently, the choice of earthly over heavenly seals Janica's fate.A er her death, Joža places the angel he carved on her grave, which echoes Grant's assertion that 'religious icons are always already infused with symbolic meaning' .[] us, director Babaja elevated Janica to the status of a symbol -an Angel -just like the pious Joža symbolises the Apocalypse, a recurring old woman perpetually spinning wool represents Death and Janica's husband Marko stands in for a Demon.[] Il. .Caption from: Ante Babaja, e Birch Tree, e lm ends with a scene in which the newly-widowed Marko, a er a night of brawling, excessive drinking and womanising, at rst in a t of rage, wants to tear down the very same above-mentioned birch tree with an axe.He then does completely the opposite.Ashamed and humbled, he kneels down next to the birch tree, and while hugging it, shrieks 'Janica' in remembrance of his departed wife, whom he could have treated better while she was alive.In addition, the title of the lm e Birch Tree emphasises this relation between Janica and the birch tree, illustrating to the spectators that the birch tree stands for Janica.She, therefore, is seen to have ful lled the path of victimization, from neglected and self-e acing wife during life, to posthumously appreciated and sancti ed, as if the moral of the story was that women should endure the hardships of life because there is a reward in the a erlife.
As in e Birch Tree, in e Beehive there is also an iconographic motif that recurs throughout, but in this case, it is the bee.Its iconography is revealed in the opening shot of the lm, which shows a swarm of bees on a honeycomb (il.).
e shot is underscored with humming music composed by Zoran Hristić, which sometimes evokes the buzzing sounds produced by a swarm of bees.e opening credits roll over the image of bees.Eventually, once the credits are nished, the shot dissolves into a medium close-up of Stojanka, which then dollies in to her close-up (il.).She appears as if she is looking at the camera, thereby breaking the fourth wall.e brazen gaze that Stojanka returns to the camera-cum-spectators, her proud posture underlined by the slight low angle framing and the above-mentioned editing technique of the dissolve, which juxtaposed Stojanka with the shot of bees, all imply she is the queen of the beehive, the matriarch.e iconographic leitmotif, bees, appear again in a line from the lm, spoken by Kahriman, nicknamed Turk: ' A woman is, in any case, a man's doom, like a bee for a drone: rst she overwhelms him, then crushes him and at length stays to live with the posterity' . is zoomorphism (that is, the inclination to perceive the human behaviour through the lens of the behaviour of animals),[ ] originates from Kahriman, who is the voice of the reason in the lm.In my opinion, he is the voice of director Popović.Given that Kahriman has beehives, much of his wisdom springs from observations of the life of bees.A judge orders Kahriman to testify at Stojanka's trial, held in the caravansary's courtyard a er the defeat of the Ottomans, and resembling Rashomon, due to the multiple perspectives shown in retrospective sequences (for example, of Ljubica's mother, a priest and Kahriman).Kahriman's testimony is not only aimed at his diegetic audience of villagers, present at the public hearing and resembling the chorus in a Greek drama, but also at the lm viewer, because he occasionally looks directly at the camera.At rst, it appears as if Kahriman-cum-director is judgmental of Sto-janka's potential responsibility in the death of her husband.However, Kahriman eventually takes Stojanka's side, as if assuming the role of her spokesperson in light of her almost impenetrable silence.To borrow Blackwell's words on a silent woman from e Seventh Seal/Det Sjunde inseglet (Ingmar Bergman, ) '[t]he silence that de nes her character lends her authority, for silence articulates disillusionment with the patriarchy and insight into the corruption of language inherent in it' .[] Owing to Kahriman, in the course of the trial, although mostly stubbornly silent but powerful regardless, Stojanka is gradually given an opportunity to be understood, instead of condemned for her decisions.
In one of Kahriman's testimonial declamations, occasionally directed at the camera, director Popović modernistically intertwines past and present.Kahriman is visually placed in the past, witnessing an incident at the very same location -the caravansary's courtyard -where the present-day hearing takes place.Once he remains alone, his oration starts, as if on cue.However, he is sonically situated in the present time of the lm, addressing his -in this instance -invisible but implied audience, from Stojanka's trial in the present.Kahriman iconographically links men and drones, by verbally collocating them: 'Warriors, heroes, outlaws, men, drones, the top brass, you know nothing except to ght and protect your honour, and that is worth nothing' .us, he implicitly criticises patriarchy.Further on in his lengthy speech, while directly looking at the camera he addresses Stojanka and her daughter-in-law, Ljubica, whom he iconographically relates to a queen-bee: When the time comes that the young queen bee replaces the old one, the two of them agree on something important.What is the message that the old queen bee passes on the young one and pledges her to do?What is it that the young queen bee learns and that is the most important until eternity?Stojanka?Ljubica? [ ] In the following retrospective sequence, it is implied that Stojanka tried to avert the Otto-mans from setting her house on re with household members inside, in order buy time for the newlyweds to extend the lineage of the family by procreation, in an ultimately futile attempt to save her son.e mission to perpetuate the symbolical beehive is what she taught Ljubica, upon passing on to her the legacy of the role of the queen-bee.eory on e Seventh Seal is applicable in this instance, stating that 'the lm a rms Western culture's very problematic equation between the female and emotion, nature, and family' .[] In another scene earlier in the lm, Kahriman says 'fertile as Ljubica' and points a nger at her, whereupon she faints, as if taking a cue from him. is implies that she is pregnant.While one man pours water over her and helps her, together with her mother, to stand up, Kahriman states: When a young queen bee grows strong and ies upwards, befuddled drones follow her. e queen bee ies higher and higher.e weaker drones fall behind, one by one.At length, the strongest drone catches up with the queen bee.She gives herself to him.ey both have a nice time.A erwards he falls dead, and she returns to command in the beehive.By right and on time.
During this speech, Ljubica is present in the most of the shots: either in the foreground or background of the compositions that include Kahriman, or in a shot excluding him, but underscored with Kahriman's voice-over.us, the directorial intent was to iconographically link Ljubica with the young queen-bee.Although director Popović reinforces the essentialist stereotype of women as related to nature and reproduction, he posits the family hierarchy as matriarchal, empowering female characters through the iconography of bees.

Superstition
In contrast to the empowerment of two female characters by associating them with queen bees, a male character in e Beehive is disempowered by being linked with a lifeless drone, through the interplay between iconography and supernatural beliefs.Actually, in both lms, there are supporting female characters who resort to magic in order to heal or to harness power; thus, to borrow Jovanović's words on sorceresses in the Yugoslav Classical cinema, '[e]mbodying the pre-modern ignorance' .[] In a scene taking place on the wedding night, Ljubica's mother gives bride-to-be Ljubica a small, lucky charm bundle, made of cloth with a honeycomb and a dead drone inside.e magic superstition is supposed to ensure Ljubica a special place in her new home.If she throws the witchcra bundle in the well, all of the household members will obey her when they drink the enchanted water.e bundle is found by Stojanka's husband Nikola inside the well, his hiding place, a few moments before he will be stoned to death by his enemies, the Ottomans.e charm brings him bad luck and becomes a sinister omen of his demise.is retrospective sequence toward the beginning of the lm stages Kahriman's recounting of the events from a third-person omniscient perspective, since it would have been impossible for Kahriman to see what is happening with Nikola and the dead drone deep inside the well.In the preceding scene, before Nikola discovers the charm, his wife Stojanka makes a step forward towards the well.Her motives for doing so remain ambiguous, but in the context of the sequence, her actions appear to indicate that she is presented with the dilemma of whether or not to divulge Nikola's hiding place to the Ottomans.
In the scene that follows Nikola's bundle discovery, when according to Kahriman's version of the event, Stojanka reveals that Nikola is in the well, the camera zooms into her face from medium close-up towards full close-up, emphasizing the gravity of her position.However, Ljubica's testimony in the denouement of the lm, shown in retrospective from the neutral, third-person perspective, eventually sheds new light on the event and to some extent contradicts Kahriman's recollection.It is, therefore, reminiscent of Rashomon's multiple perspectives during a trial.Ljubica -who was inside of the house with some wedding guests and her newlywed husband, Stojanka's songives an account of the incident, stating that she asked Stojanka to stall the Ottomans.As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that Stojanka did not tell the Ottomans where Nikola was hiding, but on the contrary, Nikola red a gunshot at her when she leaned above the well, thinking wrongly that she had betrayed him.us, he reveals his hiding place himself.Nevertheless, it remains ambiguous as to why Stojanka went to the well in the rst place.Was it just to buy time from the Ottomans or contemplate whether she must commit treachery for the purpose of trying to futilely save her foolhardy son, by enabling him and her daughter-in-law Ljubica to consummate their marriage in order to protect the family line from perishing?Furthermore, it is unclear whether Stojanka knew where Nikola was hiding at all, because she was inside the house when he hid.Once he gives away his hiding place to the Ottomans by shooting at Stojanka, they start throwing rocks at him.Director Popović underscores Nikola's demise by creating an audio-visual connection between him and Stojanka.Back in the house, every time Stojanka hears the sound of a rock landing inside of the well, and potentially killing Nikola, she hits her head on a wall, corporeally expressing her grief.
e deeper meaning of Nicola's death is grasped through iconography.Stoned to death by Ottomans in the well, iconographically speaking, Nikola becomes the dead drone.e link between the two is visually ampli ed in Kahriman's aforementioned recollection, with a tilt up from a detail of a dead drone on top of a honeycomb, held by Nikola's hand, onto a big close-up of Nikola's face.Sorcery with the dead drone, therefore, does not cause his demise, but foreshadows it.
Similarly, in e Birch Tree, female characters resort to the supernatural.When Janica's fatherin-law Tomo (Stjepan Lektorić) suggests his wife call a doctor in order to examine the gravely-ill Janica, she rejects the idea.Instead, she decides to invite an old woman, called Ježovićka, who performs magic healing rituals by removing curses, hexes and spells.Janica's mother-in-law further states that if Ježovićka cannot help Janica, not even God can. is re ects a rural way of thinking imbued with superstition, prejudices, and, as Rožić would have it, 'a blend of Christianity with almost magical concept of life' .[] e conversation takes place while tending two cows.It ends with a conciliatory statement by Tomo: 'Do as you wish, those are your female matters' .In line with Simić's view on phenomenon of 'cryptomatriarchy' in Yugoslav society, 'the authoritative and in uential positions occupied by older women appear anomalous in light of a social character stressing patrilineality, patrilocality, and male dominance' .[] e arrival of the village sorceress Ježovićka across a meadow is observed and announced by a little boy.Also, it is underscored with the music of composer Anđelko Klobučar, which introduces the notion that something peculiar is about to take place.'[T]he scene of "curing" ill Janica with paganist ritual may be understood as direct announcement of death' .[] Once inside the house, Ježovićka concludes that someone cast a spell on Janica.Ježovićka's and faces of other women present in this scene, with the exception of Janica, are enveloped in dark scarves, which gives the impression of a funeral wake.[] Also, the female characters are clad in black, murky blue and dark green, cold-coloured clothing, except for the positive female character Jaga, who wears a warm-coloured terracotta orange waistcoat pullover, and Janica, who is covered with an orange blanket and wearing a white shirt.Orange, red and yellow are regarded as warm colours, because an image abundant with them will provoke an optimistic feeling in the viewer, whilst green, blue, and violet are perceived as cold colours and will invoke an opposite, pessimistic emotion.[] Predominantly cold colours are in accordance with the sad plot points -Janica's illness and forthcoming death -eliciting a sombre mood in the viewer.e colour concept employed in sad scenes is that cold colours are in the majority, whilst warm terracotta appears in traces, o en as their striking visual counterpoint.
Commencing the supernatural ritual, Ježovićka deposits hot coals into a clay bowl with water and hovers with a knife above it, making the sign of a cross.is is underscored with Ježovićka's ominous chanting and music by Klobučar.In the following magic ritual, she places on Janica's belly what appear to be two trimmed horns with clipped tips and blows into them.en, she puts squirming leeches on Janica.e menacing atmosphere is also ampli ed throughout the scene with the usage of expressive close-ups.For instance, the cold-hearted mother-in-law is opposed to a dead chicken hanging upside down on a rope, foreshadowing the outcome of her cruel treatment of Janica.In addition, an old woman who recurs through the lm spinning wool, reminiscent of one of the Greek Moirai (the Fates), is shown engulfed in gloomy fumes of burning coal.Beside the old face of Ježovićka, portrayed in close-up in the foreground, is juxtaposed a cruci x, the symbol of Christian iconography that hangs on the wall in the background, thus signifying a mixture of Christianity with superstition.e supernatural curing session ends on a sour note with Janica fainting.
In a further sequence of a supernatural ritual, also set during Janica's life, the ordinary peasant women try to heal her by making her look at her re ection in a mirror (il.).Superstition looms a er Janica's death as well, when one of the peasant women covers the mirror with a black headscarf.As Perić notes, it was believed that the deceased would come back home if they saw their own re ection in the mirror.[] Also, one female hand shown in a detail shot stops the pendulum of the clock.Subsequently, the peasant women throw water out of the old wooden trough bowls behind the departing funeral procession.e custom is also intended to prevent the deceased person from returning.[] In both of the lms studied, female characters who perform sorcery personify the poverty, ignorance, lack of education and backwardness of the pre-socialist countryside.ese are portrayed in e Birch Tree in monarchist Yugoslavia and in e Beehive under oppression by the Ottoman occupiers.Witchcra is exclusively associated with the feminine.In e Beehive, it serves as a bad, foreboding omen, foreshadowing Marko's death, whereas in e Birch Tree, it contributes to the demise of the heroine, because she is placed in the hands of an incompetent, superannuated local female folk healer, instead of a competent doctor.e lms criticise patriarchy, while at the same time, by inclusion of the witchcra performed by female characters, implicitly blame women for predicaments that occur and their place in patriarchy, especially in e Birch Tree.
e portrayal of Janica's mother-in-law suggests that she bears the responsibility for bringing the village sorceress instead of taking Janica to a doctor, which ends fatally, whereas Marko as a husband should have been culpable.In e Beehive, the indictment of female guilt is proclaimed by a woman.Stojanka's young, traumatised daughter accuses Ljubica and Ljubica's mother of being indirectly accountable for her father's death, due to their charm with a dead drone, although the Ottomans are the ones who actually killed him by stoning him.Simultaneous oppression of female characters by the patriarchy, while some of them inadvertently act as its proponents, demonstrates the ambivalent stance of the directors on women.ey are concurrently critical of women's treatment by patriarchy, while chiding them for how they mistreat each other, mainly as seen in e Birch Tree.On the other hand, the directors tackle female solidarity, of which e Beehive is a strong example.

Conclusion
Yugoslav socialist society fostered female emancipation due to its progressive legislation from onwards. is gave women equal rights with regards to the workplace, education, marriage, divorce, inheritance, one-year fully paid maternity leave, and freedom of choice, while simultaneously the remnants of patriarchal mentality lingered within the family sphere.Although set in pre-socialist times, the analysed lms implicitly criticise the vestiges of gender inequality in the family domain of their socialist present.Keeping in mind that Yugoslav New Film was auteur cinema, I argued that Babaja and Popović, by deliberately regressing into the past instead of choosing contemporary themes, fully scrutinise patriarchy in the family domain, without catering to the o cial gender equality discourse.Although the two analysed lms are far from feminist lms, due to using regressive stances towards the women depicted, still, they not only address gender troubles in bygone pre-war times, but also point to their present-day, post-war social problems.However, besides criticising the patriarchy, Babaja, and to a smaller extent, Popović, also put the blame on women as executors of the patriarchy, due to expressing enmity towards other women.While Popović stresses camaraderie amongst women more than friction, Babaja emphasises rivalry between women more than solidarity and also vindicates Marko by showing him repent for neglecting Janica, instead of condemning him for her death.Although hostility between women is unfortunately part of real-life societies, without setting it in the proper context that women are socialised to be enemies by their male family members, female family members who perpetuate patriarchy, and society in general, the directors take an ambiguous stance towards male-oriented ideology.
Furthermore, this research assessed the meanings behind the iconography of the heroines in e Birch Tree and e Beehive.e birch tree symbolises the ethereal, slender, elegant and fragile nature of Janica, while the white dove stands for Janica's pure soul aspiring towards heaven.e queen bee symbolises Stojanka's and later Ljubica's power and dominant position within the family.Nonetheless, Janica is a passive character and an object, whereas Stojanka is an active character who takes matters into her own hands and is thus a subject in her own right.erefore, in the light of their characters' trajectories and the lms' denouements, the iconography of e Birch Tree disempowers Janica due to her untimely death, while the iconography of e Beehive potentially empowers Stojanka due to an open ending that gives some hope that Stojanka may be pardoned.Nevertheless, it is not de nite.e empowering e ect is also diminished by the fact that Stojanka's story is mostly presented by a male narrator (whose voice initiates not only his retrospectives shown from objective perspective in third person, but sometimes of others, such as Ljubica's), instead of by Stojanka who is relegated to silence.In addition, Stojanka is exposed to domestic violence from her husband, whereas Janica is not, but is instead neglected.e characters of Janica and Stojanka, taken together, indicate the entire tone of how women stood vis-à-vis the patriarchy in contemporary Yugoslavia -to borrow Haskell's words, 'from reverence to rape' ( ), since Janica is revered by 'holy' Joža and Stojanka is raped by Halil bey.In both lms, only female characters are engaged in magic and stand for the impoverishment, scarcity, ignorance and backwardness of pre-socialist society.
Regardless of the gender ideologies behind the representations, both lms are extremely valuable, because in the Yugoslav New Film movement, female characters were seldom given main roles.Most importantly, as I have argued, Babaja's and Popović's analysed lms regress into the past and refract real-life gender inequalities of a family domain from a bygone socialist present, therefore criticizing them.my research and this article.My gratitude goes beyond words to my dear colleagues Natalie Kowalik, Chernelle Lambert-Sebrechts and Ryan Pescatore Frisk for their generous and indispensable support with the proofreading.In addition, my heartfelt thanks goes to Paraskevi Olbricht, Robert Olbricht, Iva Jurišković and Đorđe Čekrlija.Also, I truly appreciate e orts of Images sta : Maciej Pietrzak, Patrycja Rojek, Joanna Pigulak, and Sabrina Haenze.Lastly, I am greatly indebted to Dr. Paolo Favero, Dr. Frederik Dhaenens, and Dr. Alex Forbes, whose constructive feedback enriched this article.

Funding:
is work was supported by the University of Antwerp Research Fund [DOCPRO BOF] from September until August .
Ibidem, p. . of the rare movies from Yugoslavian New Wave which, in my opinion, passes the Bechdel test (which investigates the presence of female characters in media).e Bechdel test originates from Alison Bechdel's comic Dykes to Watch