The Doors Remain Open and Queer Parallax

Problematizing the chronic non-existence of representations of queers in Eastern European cinemas during socialism, this article tackles the issue in the context of Yugoslav cinema. Enquiry into the relation between Yugoslav cinema and queer sexuality so far has been mainly conducted as an exercise in homo-spotting: the authors would more or less catalogue gay and lesbian characters sporadically appearing on-screen. Important and necessary as it is, this approach should be supplanted by the analyses that go beyond the pinning down of overt homosexual identities, and explore their very stability. Arguing for employment and testing of queer theory with regard to the history of Yugoslav cinema, this article looks at The Doors Remain Open (Vrata ostaju otvorena, 1959), a film by Czech émigré director František Čap.

The integral version of this article can be found in the printed KINO!