How I Killed a Saint

A young woman returns from America, the land of jobs, money and peace, to a world a million miles away: a Macedonia torn apart by internal conflicts. Returning to her family she discovers that her beloved younger brother Kokan has grown to become a NATO-hating, confident, nationalist ‘freedom fighter’ and a runner for black marketeers, dreaming of ‘killing a saint’. The film tells their interwoven story, as he leads her into danger across the border carrying illicit goods and she reveals she is searching for her three year old daughter (a secret to him).In her début feature Mitevska creates a totally convincing presentation of a country in conflict with itself, of people in a state of continuing uncertainty, plagued by outbreaks of violence, in constant tension and stress. Kokan’s youthful arrogance and pride in his ‘terrorism’ hides his real need for identity. His sister, Viola, is no less troubled, lost in America but finding herself now in a ‘home’ that she no longer recognises.How I Killed a Saint is one of several new features from the Balkans that suggests that the urgent need to make films dealing with the terrible conflicts of our time may lead to the emergence of a new generation of talented film-makers. [S.F.]