The Powder Keg

‘In the past few years, a number of films have been made about the conflict that bled and divided what was once Yugoslavia. Most of them dealt with Bosnia. As a Yugoslav of Serbian descent, I’ve long felt the need to use the lives of ‘ordinary people’ to dramatize the state of mind of my own nation, which, lest we forget, still lives daily under the yolk of a long emabargo, an embargo which was supposed to weaken the regime but in fact only hurt mainly the poor.It took several years for a democratic Serbia to awaken and call for the downfall of a regime which has produced a society based on Might. Unfortunately, Might has prevailed, as in most Slavic countries where a fatalistic mentality has crushed any attempt at change.This is why Boris, Michael, Dimitri, Ana, Kosta, Natalia and the others, who think they have their lives in hand, are in fact all caught up in a spiral of Balkan madness. Which doesn’t mean they’ve lost their sense of humour and which doesn’t stop them from demonstrating their humanity. It is in that humanity that I place my hopes.’ (Goran Paskaljevic)