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Synopsis
2-line version
An immigrant returns to former Yugoslavia to see how
ordinary people are rebuilding their lives after 10 years of war and ethnic cleansing.
In the process, his own history comes back to haunt him.
100-word version
What
happens to ordinary people after the war is over and the news cameras and aid workers have
left? This is what Leon Gerskovic was
determined to find out when he returned to his homeland – what was once Yugoslavia. As he watched the news
of Kosovo from the safety of his American living room, Gerskovic knew that he needed
to go back to see how victims of earlier Balkan wars were coping. At the time, he had little idea of how much his own
history would come back to haunt him.
175-word version
What happens to ordinary people after the war is over
and the news cameras and aid workers have moved on to new hotspots? This is what
Leon Gerskovic was determined to find out when he returned to his homeland – what
was once Yugoslavia. His journey took him and his team to Bosnia, Croatia,
and Serbia. There he met invisible refugees of a forgotten war, veterans questioning
what they fought for, a woman trying to maintain the middle class life she once took for
granted, men who have turned to music for rehabilitation and reconciliation. People
dealing with their own fears, prejudices, and hopes for the future. People who once
believed it could never happen to them. As Gerskovic witnessed the physical and
psychological displacement years after the fighting ended, he also had to re-live his own
painful history.
250-word
version
What
happens to ordinary people after the war is over and the news cameras and aid workers have
moved on to new hotspots? This is what Leon Gerskovic was determined to find out
when he returned to his homeland -- what was once Yugoslavia. Like many other
Americans, Gerskovic was glued to his television during the spring of 1999, watching the
images of NATO planes bombing Serbia and thousands of refugees fleeing Kosovo. Unlike most other Americans, however, he had
firsthand knowledge of what was transpiring. The
news reports brought back vivid recollections of the war in his native Croatia only eight
years earlier.
As
history repeated itself before his eyes, Gerskovic decided he couldn’t remain a
passive viewer in his American living room. Instead,
he resolved to return to his homeland to learn how victims of the earlier Balkan wars were
coping. At the time, he had little idea of how
much of his own history would come back to haunt him.
Gerskovic’s
journey would take him and his team to Bosnia , Croatia, and Serbia. There he meets
veterans questioning what they fought for, invisible refugees of a forgotten war, a woman
trying to maintain the middle class life she once took for granted, men who have turned to
music for rehabilitation and reconciliation. People
dealing with their own fears, prejudices, and hopes for the future. People who once believed it could never happen to
them.
300-word version
Like many other Americans, Leon Gerskovic was glued to
his television during the spring of 1999, watching the images of NATO planes bombing Serbia
and thousands of refugees fleeing Kosovo. Unlike most other Americans, however, Gerskovic
had firsthand knowledge of what was transpiring. The news reports brought back vivid
recollections of the war in his native Croatia only eight years earlier. As history
repeated itself before his eyes, Gerskovic decided he couldn’t remain a passive
viewer in his American living room. Instead, he resolved to return to his homeland
to learn how victims of the earlier Balkan wars were coping. At the time, Gerskovic had
little idea of how much of his own history would come back to haunt him.
Gerskovic’s journey took him and his team to four
countries: Hungary (to interview war refugees), Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia. Armed
only with small DV cameras and a knowledge of the language and the culture, they were able
to go deeper than the news reports and get ordinary people to talk: refugees of an all-but
forgotten war, two men who turn to very different types of music for rehabilitation and
reconciliation, veterans questioning what they fought for, a woman trying to maintain the
middle class life she once took for granted, people still living with physical and
psychological displacement years after the fighting has ended and the aid workers have
moved on to other hotspots.
As he talks to each of these people, Gerskovic also
reflects on his own history and wonders aloud, “With war still raging inside of me,
will I be able to record the stories of people who are so close to me? Am I
different now?” It is this question he must face as he journeys into the fears,
hopes, prejudices, and everyday existence of people living in a postwar society.
People who once believed it could never happen to them.
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