Peter Handke's 1996 Serbian Travelogue Sparks Controversy, Compared to Balkan Filmmakers' Works

In January 1996, Austrian playwright Peter Handke published diaries from a visit to Serbia, triggering widespread criticism known as the 'Handke Affair.' His travelogue, 'A Journey to the Rivers: Justice for Serbia,' appeared in the Süddeutsche Zeitung shortly after the Dayton Accord. Handke's journey aimed to challenge anti-Serbian media narratives prevalent in Western outlets like Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Der Spiegel. The essay compares Handke's approach to cinematic explorations by Balkan filmmakers, including Emir Kusturica's 1995 film 'Underground,' which won the Palme d'Or but faced boycotts in France. Other films analyzed include Danis Tanović's 'No Man's Land' (2001), Srdjan Dragojević's 'Pretty Village, Pretty Flame' (1996), Lordan Zafranović's 'Occupation in 26 Pictures' (1978), and Theo Angelopoulos's 'Ulysses' Gaze' (1995). The paper examines how these works navigate the phenomenology of the Balkans, war, and observer reflexivity, referencing thinkers like Walker Percy and Slavoj Žižek. Handke's perspective drew parallels between Bosnian Serbs and Native Americans in Westerns, while Žižek critiqued Kusturica's work as fetishistic. The International Court of Justice at The Hague tried Slobodan Milošević, and Serbia objected to Kosovo's independence in 2008, keeping the Handke Affair alive. The analysis extends to the role of media distortion and ideological overdetermination in shaping Balkan narratives.