The Mother as a Protagonist in Macedonian cinema

Abstract

As a future screenwriter, I am especially interested in the social, cultural and psychological characteristics that influence the development of film characters. The main focus of this thesis is the depiction of women, particularly mothers, in Macedonian film. The female character is not sufficiently exploited or explored and it's one of the main hoops missing in the already fragile Macedonian cinematography. Given this objective, this thesis explores the real and authentic representation of the woman in Macedonian cinematography, especially the depiction of the mother, by considering the female protagonists in three films from Macedonian cinema that have both influenced the Macedonian culture and have been influenced by the Macedonian culture. Those three films are Vojislav Nanovic's Frosina (1952), Teona Strugar Mitevska's A Woman who brushed off her tears (2012) and Milcho Manchevski's Mothers (2010). The female characters are examined for how they match up to real and ideal models from traditional cultures, how characteristics coming from the East-West dichotomy are used in the creation of these characters, and how the characters relate to Jung's description of the mother archetype.