Blokovi: New Belgraders from the ‘block’ (14 images)
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This is where Luc Besson filmed his movies: the Chinese district in the science-fiction sounding 'Blok 70', a post second world war neighbourhood traversed by a central avenue that Yuri Gagarin gave his name to. Long shunned by the residents of 'old' Belgrade, Blokovi's high-rises are also nicknamed the 'grand dormotories' of the 'blocks'. Yet this district built for the communist working-class is far from its perceived image of gloomy and grey, finds Paris-based Bosnian photographer Sladjana Perkovic
This photo-gallery is part of cafebabel.com’s 2011-2012 feature focus on the Balkans, Orient Express Reporter 2, a project co-funded by the European Commission and with the support of Allianz Kulturstiftung. Many thanks to Senka Korać aka cafebabel.com Belgrade
The Blokovi or 'the blocks' as they are nicknamed are one of the world's biggest social accommodation projects. Built on the left bank of the river Sava in 'New Belgrade', on the marshy plains before 'old Belgrade', this city-within-a-city is comprised of identical rows of residential buildings in concrete (Image: © Sladjana Perkovic for 'Orient Express Reporter II' by cafebabel.com, Belgrade)
Attracted by the bright lights of the capital, people from all over the now-former Yugoslavia headed towards the blocks of New Belgrade with their bags packed in the decades after the second world war (Image: © Sladjana Perkovic for 'Orient Express Reporter II' by cafebabel.com, Belgrade)
The district's neighbourhood values were thus exported with them from their small towns and villages, and everyone knows of everyone else. Apartment blocks are typically surrounded and cushioned by wide green spaces (Image: © Sladjana Perkovic for 'Orient Express Reporter II' by cafebabel.com, Belgrade)
Ivana Todorovic, documentary film director of A Harlem Mother, moved back to her home neighbourhood from New York a few years ago and is working on her next project. 'I like living in this part of Belgrade because it is so close to nature,' she says. The river hosts two little islands a few steps away, where Ivana will be going for a barbecue with friends later this weekend (Image: © Sladjana Perkovic for 'Orient Express Reporter II' by cafebabel.com, Belgrade)
A calm and clean promenade runs along the left bank of the river Sava, hosting plenty of green spaces, sports areas, cycle lanes and clubs on the boats. ‘When we’re in Blocks we don’t feel like we’re in Belgrade,’ the district’s young patriotic residents tell me (Image: © Sladjana Perkovic for 'Orient Express Reporter II' by cafebabel.com, Belgrade)
Mid-May temperatures along the river Sava (Image: © Sladjana Perkovic for 'Orient Express Reporter II' by cafebabel.com, Belgrade)
The Chinese community are an interesting detail in Blok 70. This shopping centre hosts Asian food, plastic toys and Bruce Lee t-shirts (Image: © Sladjana Perkovic for 'Orient Express Reporter II' by cafebabel.com, Belgrade)
Flats and shops are for rent (Image: © Sladjana Perkovic for 'Orient Express Reporter II' by cafebabel.com, Belgrade)
The blocks of New Belgrade have inspired many an international filmmaker and screenwriter, most notably French giant Luc Besson for the shooting of his production District 13 - Ultimatum (2009), where Blokovi become futuristic poor suburbs of Paris, and local films such as One-on-One (2002), about a basketball star from the blocks (Image: © Sladjana Perkovic for 'Orient Express Reporter II' by cafebabel.com, Belgrade)
Outside one of the apartment buildings, a stretch of green where residents have had to fashion a footpath across an unintentional moat to get to the water fountain. In Blokovi, be prepared to get your feet wet (Image: © Sladjana Perkovic for 'Orient Express Reporter II' by cafebabel.com, Belgrade)
Svetlana poses happily as a small crowd gathers behind me, and provide an insight into their life. ‘People can’t afford to buy even a bag of tomatoes anymore, just one or two,’ one of the residents says (Image: © Sladjana Perkovic for 'Orient Express Reporter II' by cafebabel.com, Belgrade)
The Serbian stencil artist Streetdog, 20, shows me the best graffiti artworks on the block, such as this one across the street from the Chinese commercial centre, which is on the wall of an IMT factory. The activity is so common here that an international graffiti jam called 'meeting of styles' was even organised here in 2010 ((Image: © Sladjana Perkovic for 'Orient Express Reporter II' by cafebabel.com, Belgrade)
Tramway number 7L, Blok 45 (Image: © Sladjana Perkovic for 'Orient Express Reporter II' by cafebabel.com, Belgrade)