RETURN TO EUROPE
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA – A MIRACLE THAT DOES NOT SHINE

DOCUMENTARY / A 2008 / HD CAM / 45 & 52 MINUTES
directed by Robert Neumüller

Synopsis

From 1992-95 an incredibly brutal war raged in Bosnia-Herzegovina between Serbs, Croats and Bosnians. It cost the lives of 100,000 people, drove millions to flee and left behind a trail of destruction and suffering. A lot has changed since then, although the wounds have certainly not all healed. Most of the displaced persons have returned, property has been given back and the damage to most of the buildings has been repaired. The country is demilitarised and violence between the ethnic groups has largely
disappeared. But the injustice suffered by many creates an obstacle to the creation of a common state. The population is now becoming increasingly aware that only pragmatic cooperation can help the country to gain control of the political and economic problems.
The film visits places in the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska and Central Bosnia, which were worst affected by the fighting and ethnic cleansing.
It includes interviews with high-ranking politicians, rock musicians, football players and businessmen, traumatised victims, artists, bullfighters, war criminals and philosophers and documents their lives and thoughts.
What all of them have in common is that, despite different physical and psychological injuries, they are working on their own futures and that of their country – as well as they can. Fra Mirko, one of the protagonists of the film, says: “For me it is a miracle when two people who have waged war on each other sit down at a table together”. This miracle secretly shines but it happens again and again every day in the many villages and towns of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

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