After the War
In the heart of the Balkans live a small Islamic people of Slavic origin, without a country of their own. What had kept them together and protected for centuries was their home, Gora, high up in the beautiful mountains of southern Kosovo, between today’s borders of Serbia, Macedonia and Albania.
The Kosovo war of 1999 brought unrest into these fable-like parts. The Gorani, who fought mainly on the Serbian side are now left alone, surrounded by an Albanian majority and their own dark memories of the war. When it becomes too hard to live under this cloud of death, many leave Gora forever, searching for a new life.
Through this little elegy we are guided by a few of the remaining
inhabitants of a Gorani village close to the Albanian border – two
merry old ladies, the boy Šeap and his uncle Sultan, the shopkeeper,
muezzin and the disobedient cows who wander through the village on their own. It is only a question of time when the silent but cruel wind will carry all of them away, like it has so many others.
directed and filmed by: Srđan Keča
editing: Miloš Stojanović
sound: Vladimir Uspenski
produced by: Srđan Keča, David Solomon
Awards
- 1st Prize, Mediterraneo Video Festival (Paestum, Salerno, Italy)
- Best Documentary, Balkan Black Box Festival (Berlin, Germany)
- Audience award, DokumentART (Neubrandenburg, Germany)
- SONY Student Film Award, Astra Film Festival (Sibiu, Romania)
- Jury award, Alternative Film/Video Festival (Belgrade, Serbia)
Selected festivals
- DokumentART, Neubrandenburg, Germany
- Document Film Festival, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
- Balkan Black Box, Berlin, Germany
- Festival dei Popoli, Florence, Italy
- Febiofest, Prague, Czech Republic
- Mediterraneo Video Festival, Salerno, Italy
- Kunst in Oorlog (Art in War), Utrecht, the Netherlands
- Beelf voor Belld, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- OFFshore, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
- Worldfilm, Tartu, Estonia
- Festival of Ethnologic Film, Belgrade, Serbia
- Alternative Film/Video Festival, Belgrade, Serbia
- Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival
- Zolotoy Vityaz (Golden Knight), Kaluga, Russia
- Festival of Documentary Film CRONOGRAF, Chisinau, Moldova
- Asterfest, Strumice, Macedonia
- European Film Festival Palic, Serbia
- DokuFest, Prizren, Kosovo
Press
Review of the Sofia Film Festival by Ron Holloway, published in «KINO – German Film and International Report», also in a special edition of this magazine dedicated to the Cannes FilmFestival and the spring issue of the Canadian magazine «Kinema». (see the last paragraph of the article)
