Temenuga Trifonova

The value of ‘precarity’ as an analytical concept lies in its ability to bring together concrete experiences of insecurity and vulnerability, and their cinematic representations, with larger social and political debates about the psychological and physical effects of neoliberalism and the possibilities for resistance to it. While the heterogeneity of the concept of precarity as a continuum of insecure conditions is reflected in the heterogeneity of the films representative of the new European cinema of precarity, what brings these films together is the affective dimension of precarity—ranging from alienation through mental and nervous breakdown to imposterism—and the fact that they are all produced in response to a common climate, and motivated by shared concerns and challenges. The project explores the dominant affective states that capture the dynamic of precarity in recent European films—from anxiety, frustration and depression, to anger, resentment and resignation—while seeking to uncover the new potential conditions of solidarity envisioned by the new European cinema of precarity.