Though obviously not a well-funded effort, there is not much to complain about technically in this important film which, unfortunately, few people will ever see.
Set in Vancouver, B. C., the film portrays a brutalized Bosnian muslim refugee family (father, his catatonic wife, and their rebellious teen-aged son) whose lives and suffering in Bosnia are never forgotten in their day-to-day existence as emigres, with hints at their experiences provided in conversations which blend in naturally in the script and, if anything, are sometimes more bleak or chilling than contrived film recreations would have been. Their paths cross with a family of Bosnian Serb immigrants who left Bosnia prior to the genocide of the muslims by the Serb forces. The natural emotions among members of both families are convincingly portrayed, powerful and poignant.
This film takes the side of long-suffering humanity and mercifully makes no judgment on the main characters despite their frequent failures to achieve Hollywood-style implausible triumphs of good will over old prejudices and fears. It brings the horror of ethnic violence and genocide down to the level of the individual, and spares us the kind of tidy, satisfying and utterly ridiculous happy ending which most producers would have insisted upon and which would have ruined this gem of a film. It's bleak, but that's realistic and necessary, and its honesty allows the moments of grace which do occur to seem real and possible, not contrived, and therefore to touch the soul more deeply.
I'm tempted to say that this film should be seen by every Serb, but that would be unfair -- it should be seen by all of us who have been tempted to see another group of people as, well, somehow not quite as good, quite as human, or quite as deserving as themselves.
That systematic rape, murder of civilians and mass forced relocations of whole communities occurred in Europe so recently, after what we supposed we 'civilized' folks had learned from the Nazi horrors, is a chilling piece of insight into what makes us tick and what makes seemingly ordinary people somehow become capable of torture, rape and murder of their neighbours. Having said that, this is not a propaganda film for any group or ideology, though it is apparent that many people in the Serb diaspora as well as, certainly, most Serbs still living in the Balkans, choose to remain blind to the deeds of their countrymen, much as many Germans did during and after the Nazi reign of terror across Europe.
If you get a chance to see this film, don't miss it. It's a better film than many Oscar nominees over the past few years.
