Jagd nach Gerechtigkeit

This movie gives a rather simplistic glimpse into war and the war crimes of the Slobodan Milosevic regime (Post Yugoslavia - Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia,etc.) and the lead tribunal At the Hague, Netherlands of Canadian Louise Arbour.

The movie is less than two hours and in that time the director is too choppy in bringing this story together. This movie does not really flow very well and because of this I felt that I did not connect well with the characters and did not feel their pain. Yet, Because I remember watching the actual trials on TV (which were actually more interesting), I knew that I should have felt a lot more compassion and empathy for the actors portraying the victims in this movie but I did not. However, having said this, I still feel the information in this movie is important and the main character is interesting but I am not sure how true to life this movie really is with regard to the actual characteristics of Louise Arbour.

I really enjoyed watching this movie! Only a few parts were slow, but it was only setting the mood and building up to the action. I thought this movie was very educational, it taught me more about my Croatian heritage. I also learned more about Louise Arbour, and I can say she has a very great influence on me. Time magazine named Louise Arbour one of the world's 100 most influential people in April of 2004. I recommend this movie to people that like historical movies (obviously). This movie was very dramatic, but still told the truth of events in the former Yugoslavia. Louise Arbour is a brave hero, and I'm glad they made a movie honouring her. If you see the movie, I hope you'll like it.

Hunt for Justice is about the setup of Slobadon Milosevic for his trial in the Hague. While it was a little too clinical in presentation the subject matter could have gotten very depressing very quickly. A Canadian Judge, Louise Arbour, becomes the Chief War Crimes Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the UN in Yugoslavia. She battles everyone to pull out the evidence that sent Milosevic to trial. Not a bad docu-drama with class A directing and production work. The 'evidence' was disturbing by the shear discussion of the facts, happily they didn't go into too much detail and no real pictures of the tortured.

Lazy movie made by a lazy director. The characters are grotesque. Despite the tragic of this war, there is no emotion at all in the movie. Symbolism is artificial and inefficient (and old Bosnian woman giving a photo of her son to Arbour will "concretize" her willingness, will awake the super-mother sleeping inside her, a corpse eaten by worms to show the horror of genocide... too much is sometimes worst than not enough).

This movie is only an advertisement, an empty elegy to a woman who is not a hero. She worked for United Nations. Remember UN failed to protect civilians at Srebrenica. Who are the true heroes of this war? A Canadian judge leading post-mortem trial for atrocities that happened mostly because her organization failed to prevent them? Where is the criticism in this movie?

While the story of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Tribunal, and of Louise Arbour's work at it as Prosecutor, is exciting, interesting and highly relevant, this film does it no justice. On the plus side, it does contain archival material and some location shots, which contributes to authenticity. The courtrooms themselves are accurately represented, as are -- mostly -- courtroom proceedings, in as far as they are seen. It is also clear that the case files were consulted when writing the script. However, the film is, regrettably, also replete with ludicrous mistakes and misconstruals, poor acting and clichés. Just some examples -- and as these might be budget-related problems, they are the most innocuous -- the same trio of generals turn up to plague the brave prosecutor both in the field and at NATO HQ; the same guards seem to be on duty all the time and at all trials; and one and the same interpreter seems to be at work 24/7, working from and into all languages known to man. Procedural and factual errors also abound, a Russian-speaking woman is passed off as a Croat, and there is a good helping of soppiness to boot. Watch this film only if you can't be bothered reading a good book on the subject.