Weight of chains

Work on the film

Filming began in 2009 in Canada with several interviews in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto. They continued at the beginning of 2010 in the USA - in Columbus , Dayton , New York and Washington , and ended in the summer of 2010 in Slovenia - Ljubljana ; Croatia - Vukovar , Djakovo , Jasenovac , Zagreb , Gospic , Knin ; BiH - Sarajevo , Trebin ; Serbia - Belgrade , Subotica , Kosovo-Mitrovica , Trepce , Pristina , Orahovec , Prizren and Strpc ^[2] . Processing of the footage ended in October 2010 ^[3] .

Archival footage was provided by the broadcaster Radio and Television of Serbia .

Summary

The Weight Of Chains demonstrates a new perspective on the participation of Western countries in the separation of ethnic groups in Yugoslavia and argues that the war was brought in from outside, while ordinary people wanted a peaceful life. Nevertheless, according to the author of the film, radical elements from each group, pushed by foreign curators, pushed the moderates back, and even ten years after the last conflict, hatred is strong enough, and people continue to spread myths about what happened in the 90s ^[4] .

The film begins with a brief summary of the history of Yugoslavia, a story about the idea of ​​Yugoslavia and how it came to life. As Malagursky himself explains, the film tells about the events in Yugoslavia during the Second World War and the formation of the SFRY . The pace of the story slows down since the death of Tito , and the author proceeds to explain what happened to the economy of Yugoslavia in the 1980s. In particular, the 1984 “Ronald Reagan Decision on National Security Decisions No. 133” of 1984, which defines US interests in Yugoslavia as promoting “trends towards a market-oriented Yugoslav economic structure,” is mentioned. Then, the role of the National Endowment for Democracy in Yugoslavia in connection with the formation of the G17 + party is analyzed . The author readily explains Privatization through liquidation , and presents it as one of the main reasons for the growth of ethnic tension in the late 80s and early 90s, further fueled by George W. Bush's “Foreign Financing Operations Act 101-513”.

Slobodan Milosevic , Franjo Tudjman and Alia Izetbegovic are criticized. They are described as power-hungry, non-caring politicians. Internal arsonists of the war also did not go unnoticed. Local media are shown as effective levers that mobilized public opinion in favor of the conflict. The film then clarifies that the West diplomatically openly and in a veiled form militarily supported separatist groups, provoking a conflict so that NATO could act as peacekeepers in its interests. The film describes in detail what the West has achieved in all the republics of the former Yugoslavia. The film includes previously unknown shots from a village in Bosnia, in which Serbs and Bosnian Muslims lived together until the end of the Bosnian war, but were separated in peacetime: Serbs in tears said goodbye to their Muslim neighbors, who decided to leave their relatives with the whole community places.

The Kosovo part covers most issues and the history of the region, explaining in detail why the war in Kosovo began . The film tells about the battle in Kosovo , the region’s return to Serbia’s sovereignty in 1912, the persecution of Kosovo Serbs during the Second World War and the SFRY, as well as the plans of Albanian irredentists to create an ethnically pure Greater Albania . Then, the interests of the Western powers in Kosovo are discussed, and why they decided to intervene in the separatist war in 1999 . In particular, a case of NATO bombing of a Serbian cigarette factory (which was later bought by Phillip Morris ) was shown, from which the author concludes that the purpose of the war was to enslave the country economically.

This film also shows the positive moments that people experienced in this terrible war - mutual assistance of people, regardless of their ethnic origin, courage and self-sacrifice. For example, the story of the widow of Josip Kira (former Osijek police chief, Croatia) Jadranki Cy about how her husband tried to resolve ethnic issues in 1991 by peaceful means. Or the story of the widow of Milan Levar, Vesna Levar about her husband’s struggle for exposing the ethnic cleansing policy in his native Gospic , where Croatian forces killed dozens of civilians of Serbian descent. Another story of the manifestation of heroism is about a young Serb named Srjan Aleksich , whose father talks about how his son saved a Muslim from imminent death.

After discussing the wars of the 90s , the film looks at post-war events. How the policies of the IMF and the World Bank influenced the newly created states of the former Yugoslavia. In addition, the EU is represented in a negative way. The theory that the author draws is that the Eastern European states were never considered equal partners of the Western. Rather, as markets for Western manufactured goods and a source of cheap labor. The way that the debt of the countries of the former Yugoslavia changed from 1990 to 2010 is graphically illustrated, accompanied by revelations about how much money each citizen of the former Yugoslavia would have to pay in order for his country to be free of debts.

The message of the film is a reminder of the negative effects of globalization and a call to the peoples of the former Yugoslavia to stop quarreling among themselves and realize why their former united country really broke up, in whose favor, and what is happening there to this day.

• weightofchains.com - The official website of Heavy Chain
• Weight Of Chains Online Movie Database
• Interview with the director on the Politics portal