You are here:

All the Cities of the North

Name: All the Cities of the North
Director: Dane Komljen
Released: 2016
Duration: 100 min

Representation Score

7.8/10

Good

2016

Director

Dane Komljen

Runtime

100 minutes

Average Rating

No ratings yet

New Showbiz Analysis

Dane Komljen’s work disrupts conventional cinematic expectations by prioritizing systemic decay and historical fragmentation over individualistic storytelling. The film avoids traditional character arcs, opting instead for a contemplative, essayistic approach to the landscape. While the film lacks explicit, character-driven representation, its narrative structure is deeply invested in deconstructing Western industrial and capitalist ideals. It finds meaning in the remnants of society rather than in traditional social hierarchies. The strength of the work lies in its ability to challenge the narrative of modern progress. It offers a skeptical, postmodern view of established institutions through the lens of abandonment and loss.

Watch this, not that →

Category Breakdown

Does All the Cities of the North have LGBTQ+ representation?

Fair

The film's experimental, non-narrative structure avoids traditional romantic clichés. Its focus on fragmented, sensory experiences aligns with queer cinematic aesthetics that prioritize non-linear subjectivity over linear plot progression.

How does All the Cities of the North portray gender?

Fair

The narrative centers on landscapes and decaying industrial sites rather than traditional gender hierarchies. By focusing on abandoned bungalows and factories, the film disrupts conventional expectations of gendered control over the story.

How racially and ethnically diverse is All the Cities of the North?

Fair

The film focuses on a desolate, post-industrial landscape. While specific racial representation is unverified, the preoccupation with historical memory and the 'left behind' suggests a metaphor for underrepresented populations.

How does All the Cities of the North represent religion and culture?

Excellent

The imagery functions as a potent critique of industrial capitalism and environmental decay. The focus on revolutionary statues and forgotten decades challenges the perceived progress of Western modernity.

Does All the Cities of the North include disability representation?

Fair

The film explores vulnerability through its focus on lost and abandoned entities. The emphasis on sensory decay suggests a potential focus on heightened or neurodivergent sensory perception.

Present on Screen

Challenges mainstream, straight-centered, and capitalist storytelling conventions through an experimental lens.
Provides a potent critique of industrial capitalism and the environmental decay of Western modernity.
Subverts standard gendered power dynamics by centering landscapes over patriarchal structures.

Limited or Absent

Lacks explicit, documented depictions of queer identity or specific character-driven intimacy.
Provides no verifiable evidence of diverse racial or ethnic casting within the landscape.
Relies on interpretive, aesthetic readings rather than documented representation of disability.

Official Synopsis

It’s like almost all is lost. Yet still they are here – abandoned bungalows, an artificial lake, dirty plastic bottles, lost donkeys and stray dogs, draining pipes running over fields of salt, deserted factories, statues of revolutionaries, concrete playgrounds covered with weeds, rotten fruit, folded T-shirts, pop songs, decades of forgetting, a single room with a blue tent inside. And it felt like a kiss.

How are these scores produced? →