WR: Mysteries of the Organism. 1971. Yugoslavia/West Germany. Written and directed by Dušan Makavejev. 35mm courtesy Janus Films. In Serbo-Croatian, English, Russian, German; English subtitles. 84 min.
For a documentary gathering, the Flaherty has regularly embraced films and filmmakers beyond disciplinary boundaries. WR: Mysteries of the Organism, which screened at the 1971 seminar organized by MoMA’s own Willard Van Dyke, is just one instance of the program’s adventurous spirit. Serbian iconoclast Dušan Makavejev’s fearless mix of documentary, erotic comedy, and psychoanalysis pronounces Communist orthodoxy as being little more than a colossal case of sexual repression. The film was immediately banned in Yugoslavia, at the same time that it enthralled Western audiences.
Filmmaker Julia Reichert (also highlighted in this series) reflected on Makavejev’s presence at the seminar in the journal Wide Angle: “He was our first European filmmaker. His sensibilities were so different. Since he came from a socialist country, we expected him to be a really radical, proletarian filmmaker, interested in working to promote socialist ideas. He foiled marvelously all of our expectations! First of all the radical/experimental/ironical form of the films he threw us. We were focused on making films that would reach large numbers of people with a message. We saw that as our job, given the tumultuous times. His lack of interest in accessibility was a surprise to us. He revelled in ambiguity; we believed its opposite was paramount. He was a radical filmmaker, way ahead of his time. His complex relationship to his socialist homeland helped us to build a more sophisticated understanding of political filmmaking.”