| A Moving Document
Vesna Lausic,
Slobodna Dalmacija, www.slobodnadalmacija.hr
Hedl and Baljak managed to make a moving documentary which will
leave no one indifferent. Film is scheduled to premiere in Belgrade
in three days
The long-awaited film Vukovar: Final Cut by Belgrade director Janko
Baljak and Osijek journalist Drago Hedl finally premiered at a press
screening in the Tuskanac cinema.
Produced by the Belgrade television B92, the film tries to reconstruct
what went down in Vukovar during the six months, since the beginning
of May till its fall on November 18, in 1991, by providing statements
from the participants in the tragic events – victims, but also war
lords. Film begins and ends with a trial and conviction of criminals
in Belgrade, and after a brief overview of the nationalist context
(on both sides), with lot of previously unseen archive footage,
Vukovar: Final Cut brings testimonies from Vukovar women whose sons,
husbands and brothers were executed in Ovcara, Doctor Vesna Bosanac
and defenders headed by Branko Borkovic and Marin "Bili"
Vidic. Their roles in the horrific events will be explained by Tomislav
Mercep, General Martin Spegelj, Ivan Vekic and Ferdinand Jukic,
as well as Serbian author Brana Crncevic, General Aleksandar Vasiljevic
and the three Serbian soldiers.
"For the first time the film presents both sides, those who
attacked and who defended Vukovar. We did not want to equalize them,
because that is not how it happened; our intention, as in every
journalist work or a trial, was to hear out the other side, in order
to tell the story about one of the most painful Croatian subjects
fair and square," co-scripter Drago Hedl told the press conference.
There will be much discussion whether he and the director and the
numerous contributors succeeded in their intentions, but one thing
is certain: Hedl and Baljak managed to do a moving documentary which
will leave no one indifferent. Film will premiere in Belgrade in
three days, and it remains unknown where the general public would
be able to see it – on public televisions both in Croatia and Serbia
and Montenegro, in theatres or someplace else.
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