In Postcolonial Europe

Barbara Kita

Abstract

A book review of Krzysztof Loska’s Postkolonialna Europa. Etnoobrazy współczesnego kina [Postcolonial Europe: Ethnoimages of Contemporary Cinema] (2016). The reviewer argues that the reflection on the situation of contemporary European cinema seen through the prism of post-colonialism, permits a fresh, yet critical, look at well-known films and also notice those that fall within the festival or niche national cinema margins. According to Kita the publication is a complex and comprehensive review of changes in themes present in films: stereotypes of image, race, gender, creation of new historical narratives, European heritage. Having discussed the construction of the book and critically reported on its main thesis, the reviewer notes that the work ends with a brief sketch on transcultural and hybrid music, which, in her opinion, weakens the conclusiveness of the whole book. Rather than offering a synthetic summary of a long and ordered history of the cinema, it offers a new theme, and a promise of its development.