Filipovski, Author at DWP-BALKAN

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Making Films from Collective and Individual War Trauma: Freedom and Responsibility

There are three facts about film as a medium that should be noted here, but also in general. The first is that audiences often forget that film is primarily a commodity intended to bring some kind of profit to investors. This profit isn’t always financial; sometimes it’s “artistic prestige,” shown through various festival awards. The second fact is that film […]

BREAKTHROUGH OF FILM INTO THE FUTURE OF MEMORY

In cinema, we have an interesting qualification for films that were made a decade ago. When we say a film “ages well,” we mean it hasn’t been overtaken by time—it remains relevant and corresponds with the present. I often shudder when viewers tell me my film Remake is visionary, because it reflects a generational fear of stories being retold or […]

DEPTH THREE

The Cleansing of Undesirable Art in Serbia There have not been many films or works of art in general produced in Serbia after 2000, which aim at critically examining the recent wartime past. They can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Even when some of them succeeded abroad, they were sidelined or marginalized in the country. The state, […]

Will Dara from Jasenovac and Aida from Srebrenica Ever Meet?

“I hope films like Quo Vadis, Aida?, Dara from Jasenovac, and others like them contribute to developing a culture of remembrance in the Balkans, respect for victims, and regional reconciliation,” stated Jelena Trivan, chairperson at the time of the Serbian Film Center’s Board, three years ago when news broke that Quo Vadis, Aida? was shortlisted for the Academy Award for […]

The problems of the youth in the context of dealing with the past in modern Macedonian cinematography

My friend was telling me, all in amazement, that a group of teenagers at a screening of a new Macedonian film in the cinema (not that it is different from a screening of any Hollywood title), were constantly looking at each other’s phones and reacting only to the action moment or the line that can (only briefly) catch their attention. […]

25 years after the war in Kosovo: is the space for peacebuilding shrinking?

A little more than a year ago, I was working on an assignment in Armenia and met a group of displaced ethnic Armenian women from Nagorno-Karabakh – the territory which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. These women had been displaced by the conflict to Yerevan and had set-up a community-center. After going through all the introductions, we sat […]

The Return of Ethno-Nationalism: How History Fuels Conflict in the Western Balkans

A report by the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights on dealing with the past in the region of former Yugoslavia has issued a stark warning: “the divisive and hateful narratives that spearheaded the wars of the 1990s are back and regaining strength.”[1] The report highlights a well-documented increase in hate speech, inter-ethnic violence and intolerance. There is an […]

Kosovar refugees in the turn of the century Macedonia:

The pendulum swing In the spring of 1999, following the repression of the Yugoslav authorities over the Kosovar Albanians and the start of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, approximately a quarter of a million Kosovars sought refuge in the Republic of Macedonia. The refugees were predominantly south Kosovar civilians who were forced to leave their homes by the state police […]

War Goes On

“We used to say, ‘We were lucky to be kids during the war,’ a sentiment shared among us sisters, now adults, as we reflect on the unnaturalness and cruelty of wars. It’s a stark realization of the ugliest form human power can take. Today, we feel we understand war better—the dangers, the threats—but during the war in Kosovo, we ‘were […]

25 years since the Kumanovo Agreement:

The Dominance of Hostility and Self-Victimization On June 9th it will be 25 years since the signing of the Military-Technical Agreement, concluded in 1999 at the military airport near Kumanovo, between the governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia on one side, and KFOR on the other. The agreement was signed by General of the Yugoslav Army Svetozar […]

Less is More: Redundancy as the essence of nationally tinted memorial practices

In the search for meaning, catharsis, and understanding of personal and collective experiences after wars, societies turn to memorial practices seeking refuge from forgetting and unforgetting. Memorial practices and the culture of memory (and forgetting) they create clearly communicate the stage of confrontation with the wartime past that a post-conflict society is in and the symbols, ideas, and values on […]

The Genocide in Srebrenica: A Perspective Through the Proposed UN Resolution

The planned adoption of a United Nations resolution on the Srebrenica genocide, scheduled for mid-May this year, represents a crucial step towards global recognition and commemoration of this tragic event from the still-recent past. Although the resolution itself does not carry direct legal consequences, it plays a fundamental role in the symbolic and declarative recognition of the crime and demonstrates […]

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