Dead end: An anthropological analysis of the film "Stairless"

Abstract

The anthropological analysis of the film Stairless (2014) will encompass: shedding light on the most important data on the production of the film, a description of the diegesis with an analysis and fragmental reception of the film, as well as some of its effects. The specifics of this film, aside from the fact that it belongs to the category of TV movie, which has a rich tradition in Serbia, but a lesser attraction than commercial films, at least when it comes to scientific attention paid to it, is extrapolated from circumstances and the focus on an old person as the protagonist. From the way in which the illness of the retired professor of neuropsychiatry – Alzheimer's dementia – is presented, it was possible to display all the problems with which those who fall ill, as well as those who are affected by it, face. In the end, a lack of possibilities in a dead end street, puts the protagonist in a nursing home for the elderly, and makes the viewer face certain effects of the film – the fear of old age, but also dilemmas and norms which regulate the handling of this issue in contemporary Serbian society.