| First joint Serbian-Croatian film on Vukovar
B. Pavelić,
Glas Slavonije, www.glas-slavonije.hr
The Final Cut is the title of the documentary produced by Belgrade's
B92 on the Vukovar tragedy that has just been finalized by the Feral
Tribune editor Drago Hedl as the film's author and Belgrade director
Janko Baljak as the film's director. It consists of 40-minute three
parts in which roughly seventy participants in the events taking
place between the warring sides, with the help of extensive archive
material, reconstruct the Vukovar events between the first multi-party
elections in April 1990 and the Ovcara massacre in November 1991
and the subsequent Belgrade trial of the crime's perpetrators in
2005.
"We hope we succeeded in making a film in the best tradition
of the BBC documentaries. We attempted to make a story without a
single comment, which would, with the assistance of archive illustrations,
be narrated by participants on both sides", our paper was told
by Janko Baljak, author of several films on contemporary Serbia's
taboos such as war crimes, crime and economic breakdown. His most
famous film is probably The Crime That Changed Serbia, a documentary
on the Serbian underworld.
"Vukovar: The Final Cut is an authentic story that may not
be to everyone's liking because it has the other side in it too.
But, according to my firm professional belief, the story which has
no other side is not told to the end. We wanted to present the views
of as many direct participants in the events as possible and let
the viewers come to their own conclusions," explained film's
author Drago Hedl.
Authors used previously unseen archive material from the military,
private and other sources in Serbia, including, for example, unpublished
footage of Blago Zadro, and unreleased footage of the famous event
when a bomb dropped through all the floors of the Vukovar hospital
down to the basement but failed to explode. Among others, they have
talked to Tomislav Mercep, Vesna Bosanac, Branko Borkovic, Marin
Vidic Bili, Martin Spegelj, Ivan Vekic, Rade Leskovac, the defenders
of Vukovar, Brana Crncevic, Vojislav Stanimirovic, Serb volunteers,
members of the White Eagles paramilitary... The film sheds some
new light on many events, such as the massacre in Borovo Selo, departure
of Tomislav Mercep from Vukovar, crimes, arming of the Croatian
formations... "We have attempted to approach the material from
all sides. Film introduces us to the war in Vukovar and attempts
to reveal everything that has happened and why there of all places,"
said Drago Hedl. Film is scheduled to premiere at the coming festival
of documentaries in Zagreb in February.
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