The 2018 edition of TRUE STORIES MARKET presents five cases selected from the archives of key organisations that work to document the Yugoslav Wars to film and TV professionals. The cases listed below will be presented at the True Stories Market session on Monday, 13 August at 17:30.
In order to facilitate their transition from market to screen, after the festival an open call invites filmmakers to apply to execute a project inspired by one of the stories highlighted by the market. The Heartefact Fund awards a €3,000 grant to support further research.
PEACEBUILDING IN COMMUNITIES IN EASTERN
BOSNIA
From September
2012 through September 2014, an inter-ethnic group of Bosnian Serb and Bosniak
women, living in Kravica and Konjević Polje, worked intensively under the guidance
of a psychotherapist with the NGO Vive Žene. The group members shared their
wartime experiences and trauma, as well as the difficulties they face in their families
and communities in the present. The women have developed mutual feelings of
confidence and understanding, as well as a basis for joint activities in both
communities. They have been persistent in showing that it is possible to deal
with trauma.
Vive Žene was founded in March 1994 during the war in Bosnia
and Herzegovina, with the aim of supporting women and children, the most
vulnerable victims of armed conflict. From initial material support and crisis
interventions, Vive Žene has developed into a professional Centre for Therapy
and Rehabilitation, which is located in Tuzla and active throughout Bosnia and
Herzegovina. Vive Žene has been dealing with
facing trauma, a process that started several years before the war and
continues in the present.
NERMIN KARAGIĆ'S STORY
In the summer
of 1992 in Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nermin Karagić was twice taken to
be executed by shooting. He survived on both occasions, and again on a third, when
he was separated from the convoy that was supposed to take him to exile. Karagić
was a minor at the time. Traces of torture and beastly abuse can still be seen
on his face. He also witnessed the murder of his father, as well as of over 100
other civilians, to which he testified in the Hague. The International Criminal
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has selected his story as representative of
the crimes that were committed in Prijedor. At this time, Karagić is back in
his home town. He works hard to survive, still traumatised, but receiving no
institutional support. His story remains unknown to the public of Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
The Foundation for Building the Culture of
Memory was founded in Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the aim of
reconciling the consequences of war through documenting human-rights violations
and war crimes. The foundation also seeks to establish a centre for informing
and documenting, as well as to create new commemorative processes and
memorialisation practices.
YES, IT HAPPENED, BUT I KEPT ON WITH MY CHIN UP
There was
shooting, people were dying, but we all accepted it is as normal. I didn't have
a sense of war, because in our city, everybody continued to live their everyday
lives. But then, trouble came to town. The phones stopped working and I didn't
know what was going on. All of a sudden, the men were being taken away in the
early morning hours – among them my father, who was taken away to a camp. The
soldiers came into our shop, taking away our car, gold, and money. Feeling
anxious and frightened, women started to organise gatherings with their
children, hoping to feel better. We didn't know, and we couldn't ask, anything
about my father. Soldiers were breaking into houses, taking whatever and whomever
they wanted. I remember the night the soldiers broke into the house where we
were hiding, and started taking women away. I was among those they took away
and raped, although I had never had sexual intercourse before. I wasn't
supposed to tell anybody; my assailant threatened me with a rifle. The rape was
repeated several times throughout the night. I was raped by three soldiers.
Other women were raped as well. My mother was there, which I later told my
father, because I didn't have anything to hide. When I arrived at a safe place,
everyone already knew. The next time I met my uncle, he took me in his arms and
started crying. He knew, too. As did everybody else. I was the only one
everybody knew about. After that, they never stopped pointing their fingers at
me.
Medica Zenica is an expert non-governmental organisation
that offers psycho-social and medical support to women and children who are victims
of war and post-war violence, including victims of war rape and other forms of
war torture. The organisation also treats victims of sexual violence in
general, domestic violence survivors, and victims of human trafficking. Over
the past 26 years, Medica Zenica has provided more than 450,000 beneficiaries with
services throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, and has published more than 90
publications.
I WAS HARDLY A NEWBORN
The Srebrenica Genocide, the largest mass crime committed after World War
II, has shaped the destiny of a child who, at that time, had not yet been born.
In July 1995, after the fall of an enclave protected by the UN, the Army of
Republika Srpska killed approximately 8,000 men and boys. Ibrahim, the father
of an unborn boy, was among those who fell victim to the massacre. His pregnant
wife managed to reach the city of Tuzla. She gave birth in the hospital there,
and ran away after three days, leaving her unnamed child behind. Growing up in an
orphanage, the little boy's life was entangled in the research into mass
shootings and finding the remains of those who were killed in the massacre.
The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIRN BiH) is a non-governmental media organization that
specialises in monitoring and reporting on war-crime trials. Since it was
formed in 2005, BIRN BiH has been analysing and informing the public about
transitional justice issues and the work of war-crime chambers at state and
local courts across Bosnia and Herzegovina. BIRN BiH supports the development of
high-quality media, civil society, and the enforcement of human rights. In line
with this purpose, BIRN BiH publishes a substantial body of high-quality
reports, investigations into and analyses of crucial transitional justice,
political, economic, and social issues. The organisation facilitates broad
public debate on these topics through hosting cross-sector conferences.
CREATING A NEW NARRATIVE AND POLITICS OF
MEMORY
Through
exploring the dynamics that surround the building of a monument to children killed
in war, this story shows how a new narrative and politics of memory have been
created in the city of Prijedor. Local Bosniak politicians, including the municipality
president, openly sabotaged this project, because the monument would include
the names of every child killed in the conflict, regardless of their
nationality. Local activists and parent organisations are striving to ensure
that the children be remembered as innocent victims, and not as persons of a particular
nationality. A film based on this story should be able to shift the conflict
away from the imposed ethno-national lines towards one between disempowered
citizens and corrupt politicians.
Youth Centre KVART is a locally founded activist organisation that
has been actively working on dealing with the past in Prijedor, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, since 2013. Kvart's activities include dealing with human-rights
and social-justice issues, as well as working with local youth, delivered through
a cross-cutting approach.