WR: Mysteries of the Organism

Belgrade-born Dusan Makavejev’s boldly radical masterwork is arguably the gold standard by which all avant-garde Balkan cinema is measured by; a dense, provocative mixture of Reichian therapy, sexual liberation and experimental non-fiction intercut with a Serb woman’s doomed love for a Russian skater. In Makavejev's homeland, the communist cultural minions banned the daring WR for sixteen years and the filmmaker was sent off into exile. With the filmmaker’s departure, the highly original innovations in Yugoslav cinema came to an abrupt halt. “Maybe it is like a mirror,” said Makavejev after he was banished for WR. “People hold it up to themselves and see reflected only what they are most offended by.”