Anthropological Analysis of the Depiction of Deprivation in Old Age In the Case of the Movie Night Boats

Abstract

This anthropological analysis focuses on the Croatian feature film Night Boats (2012), directed by Igor Mirković. The subject of the movie is a partnership that develops between two residents of a nursing home in Zagreb, highlighting, among other things, numerous problems and difficulties that the elderly face while trying to pursue a new romantic relationship at the very end of their lives, in specific nursing home conditions. The couple’s escape from the nursing home serves as an act of resistance, leaving room for the analysis of visual depictions of the various deprivations encountered by the elderly. Depictions of physical, emotional and economic dependency which result in an inability to make independent decisions, are in accordance with the results attained during several years of field research conducted in nursing homes in the Republic of Serbia. This research, which explores new partnerships as strategies of action among nursing home residents, will be compared with the film’s visual interpretations. Interpreting the visual depiction of deprivation and infirmity, which society associates the elderly with, will also include a semiotic interpretation of the symbolic expression that is used in the movie.

Keywords

• movie
• old age
• deprivation
• partnership
• semiotics