ANTE BABAJA (1927-2010) (II)

The body and emancipation from the body in Ante Babaja’s documentaries

The key motif in Ante Babaja’s documentaries is the phenomenon of the body. Babaja uses the body as a physical proof and a metaphor of his pessimistic attitude towards absurdity of life narrowed down to a helpless, depressed and mean individual. The text describes the way in which Babaja develops this attitude through the motif of the body but also the way in which he confronts this attitude. Furthermore, there are examples of some of Babaja’s extremely rare documentary excesses imbued with the celebration of life, the value of a human being and human desire that can result in success. Following the metaphor of the body, these are the rare films in which Babaja managed to emancipate himself from the physical.

Juraj Kukoč