Post-Communist Lavender Menace: Lesbians in Mainstream East European Film

Abstract

The article examines four films-Károly Makk's Egymásra nézve (Another Way, Hungary, 1982), Maja Weiss's Varuh meje (Guardian of the Frontier, Slovenia 2002), Dalibor Matanić's Fine mrtve djevojke (Fine Dead Girls, Croatia, 2002), and Dragan Marinković's Diši duboko (Take a Deep Breath, Serbia, 2004)-as post-communist or dissident national allegories. In all of these films by straight directors the lesbians represent a metaphorical threat to the hetero/sexist national order, but they are unfortunately little more than simulacra. They can be emotionally real (and fun for the straight male audience to ogle), but that ultimately works against them, because instead of representing real lesbian communities, they still have to affirm the stereotype of tragic lesbian destiny straight audiences find comforting.