02:06 – Anatomy of Pain

‘During the bombings, you lose the possibility to be a subject; you change into an object.’ (Miroljub Vuckovic)
Under the poetic title ‘Letters from Belgrade’, the festival is presenting a small selection of two documentaries from Yugoslavia. The everyday truth of Yugoslavia in 1999 was however far from poetic: the dictatorship that had lasted several years was followed by Nato bombardments.One of the strongest opposition groups in the last ten years in the capital was Radio B92. After it was banned by the regime and closed, the friends who worked together in B92 decided to go underground together. The video diary Are They Bombing Over There? follows their days and nights in the period when Belgrade was bombed. This video diary has a ‘home-movie’-like feel. Like Anatomy of Pain, it is raw material that does however reveal more about the situation there than any artistic approach or explanation could have done. Anatomy of Pain shows the situation just after the bombing raid on the television station, and the frustration of relatives of the 16 members of staff who died (the bosses had fled in time). Director Janko Baljak is at present working on part two of his documentary, in which he wants to reveal the truth about what happened then.
This compilation programme will be introduced by Miroljub Vuckovic, director of the film institute in Belgrade.