“Reunion – Ti Ar Etter Krigen” showing tonight at the Capitole 2, this film review is written by Suzy Nelson-Pollard.
The international world premiere of « Reunion – ten years after the war » directed by Jon Haukeland, was shown yesterday at the Vision du Réel film festival and will be repeated again today at 18:00 at the Capitole 2. The documentary is a fascinating insight in to peace dialogue initiatives, human relations and the lesser-known aftermath of a well-known conflict.
In 1999 before the breakout of war in Kosovo, several brave young Albanian and Serbian students agreed to participate in an interethnic dialogue mediated by a Norwegian peace studies specialist. The discussion was electric, with Albanian fury and Serbian accusations; neither side could be brought to understand the other’s pain. The exchange was filmed by Jon Haukeland, but was never shown back in Kosovo due to the war that erupted only weeks later.
Ten years later, Haukeland decided to organise a reunion with the same articulate students, to bring them back together and to recreate a discussion around the topic of Kosovo. Some of the students were untraceable, had disappeared or were killed during the war, most of the Serbs had moved away from Kosovo, many were married, had children and had started new lives. After having been tracked down, most agreed to sit back around the table, to listen to each others’ stories and to rekindle the discussion that had in most cases been repressed from public dialogue.
The mediator asked each person around the table to start with explaining where they were during the war and their life adjusting afterwards. The Albanians were taken aback hearing the Serbian stories of their brothers killed, their escapes abroad and the unease they felt now in Kosovo. The Serbs tried to understand how desperate the Albanians must have been that they felt relief when the war started. The peace specialist wisely explained that while two independent sides of the story coexist without overlapping, politicians, media and propaganda can perpetually manipulate the fear and animosity. It is only when the two sides start to intertwine that reconciliation can be plausible. “We are getting in to the core of the subject here, who is writing the history”.
“Are you happy now? Now that you got what you wanted, free Kosovo?” ask the Serbs, many exiled. “The tables have turned, you repressed us for so many years, now the power is in our hands, what can we do for you?” The Albanians suggest that the future may be brighter once the wounds have healed.
The director of the film doesn’t claim to have a solution to the situation or a method to erase the pain, nor does he attempt to explain all the nuances of the conflict or to endorse dialogue initiatives as the only method. The film is especially fascinating on a more human level, how the participants have suffered, matured, how much more measured their responses are. The dialogue opens up deep repressed traumas that at times are extremely moving. How many generations will peaceful coexistence take, and could it be accelerated by initiatives such as this Norwegian film?