FREE ZONE COMPASS

Veni vidi vici, directed and written by Daniel Hoesl, and Julia Niemann, starring Nahoko Fort Nishigami, Olivia Goschler, and Ursina Lardi.

To a certain extent, the film’s atmosphere is imbued with Buñuel’s spirit of paradox. A murderer who does not hide excessively and even admits to his crimes attempts to surrender himself to justice, but the process is far from straightforward. The complication lies in his immense wealth and influence. Ignoring the comic effects—which only underscore the paradox and powerlessness in the face of the obvious—the core narrative of Daniel Hoesl and Julie Niemann’s film explores the boundaries of freedom. Is unlimited freedom indeed freedom, or do laws and civilization inherently constrain it as a system of prohibitions? Does the freedom enjoyed by the privileged undermine the very concept of freedom? After all, didn’t Donald Trump famously claim that he could kill someone on New York’s Fifth Avenue without facing any consequences?

The Free Zone Compass examines the conditions under which freedom is possible. Which definition of freedom is sustainable? Can traditional mediators between rulers and citizens (assuming we are discussing citizens and not subjects) today counter both traditional authoritarian and contemporary forms of unfreedom, such as uncontrolled public spaces? Is “controlled public space” not a contradiction? If public space is controlled, it is not free; without any control, it becomes dysfunctional. Does the parliament, as a meeting place between government and citizens, hold any meaning if it becomes irrelevant? Contemporary populist dictatorships differ from traditional ones mainly in the degree of violence – traditional dictatorships simply employ higher levels of violence. Do these regimes rely on the kind of unfreedom that stems from “uncontrolled” freedom, the type that allows citizens to trample the streets with impunity? Can the media, dominated by tabloid consciousness, fulfil its role effectively? Can they sustain traditional media if they cannot financially support themselves?

We talk about these dilemmas in the Free Zone Compass with the editor-in-chief of the magazine Vreme Filip Švarm, philosopher, MP, and professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences Đorđe Pavićević.