My Beautiful Country (Die Brucke am Ibar)

It is not easy to be neutral when talking about war. It is not easy for a photojournalist to choose between his responsibilities as a documentarian and as a human. History is written by the victors or rather is more disseminated. The question of taking side of which country is not as straight forwards as it is decided in the meetings of politicians over a table, having a cigar in one hand and a glass of cognac in the other hand. The life of innocent people is definitely not the first concern in these meetings.

In “My Beautiful Country”, Michaela Kezele, the Serbian-Croatian director, observes the war from the perspective of human relations and emotions, emotions that don’t recognize war. Danica, a young Serb who still mourns the loss of her husband during the war, lives in a small Albanian-Serbian village near Ibar river with her two young boys. When Ramiz, an Albanian soldier seeks refuge in her home, she is scared and hesitant at the same time. By accepting him, she would be officially making her home a shelter for her enemy; by refusing him, she would disregard her values as a human. She chooses the first because these values still weigh more than the rules that made her once neighbour, her current enemy. A bridge over Ibar, which is the translation of the original title (Die Brucke am Ibar), separates these neighbours, but cannot raise hatred in people like Danica who doesn’t have time for hatred!

The natural relation between Ramiz and Vlado, Danica’s younger son develops into a friendship, which is in stark contrast with the way soldiers brutally humiliated their opponents in the beginning of the movie.

Love develops between the alleged enemies; between Vlado and a young Albanian kid, between Vlado and Ramiz and of course between Danica and Ramiz. The beauty of this film is how these loves relate and their protagonists follow each other as they take us with them throughout their journey.

An important issue brought up in the film was the use of depleted uranium ammunition by NATO in Kosovo and Bosnia. This issue was so controversial that prevented the screening of the film in parts of the concerned region.

The tragedy of war is not always about people who are killed by their enemy but people who are killed by their ally. This, in my opinion was the highlight of this film and the director portrayed this as delicately as possible.

“My Beautiful Country” was Kezele’s first feature film and was shown in the 36^th Montreal World Film Festival.