The films of contemporary Croatian director Dalibor Matanić, who has been active since 2000, are conspicuously absent from the most thorough study on the subject of cosmopolitan humanism in post-Yugoslav cinema, Dino Murtić’s 2015 monograph Post-Yugoslav Cinema: Towards a Cosmopolitan Imagining. In this contribution, a thesis is proposed that Matanić’s work stands as a shining example of post-Yugoslav cinema’s humanism, cosmopolitan humanism included. In order to prove that, Murtić’s theory of cosmopolitanism in post-Yugoslav cinema is showcased, along with its forerunner, the post-Yugoslav stylistic current of »the film of normalization« as advocated by Jurica Pavičić (2011; Pavičić, as well, chose to bypass Matanić’s opus in his study). By attentively observing Matanić’s films, we show how they fit Murtić’s and Pavičić’s criteria nicely. A conclusion is reached that Matanić’s opus does not merely represent a most welcome rejuvenation of Croatian cinema in the last two decades, it is furthermore an important contribution on the part of arts to comprehend the mental landscape of Southeastern Europe, and a prism through which this very particular geopolitical region can be viewed as showing promise for a peaceful coexistence of different cultures. The post-Yugoslav cinema’s cosmopolitanism, as pursued by, among others, Matanić, provides a ray of hope that the future of this region is nevertheless bright.
