Private Fragments of Bosnia

The Italian documentary filmmaker Claudia Tosi travels to the birthplace of her best friend Svjetlana Sontag, Mostar in Bosnia. For twelve years, Svjetlana has not dared to go back, because a Mostar divided into east and west is a dead Mostar to her. The voiceover of the film consists of fragments from the numerous telephone conversations the two friends have had over the years. In one, Svjetlana confides to Claudia that she does not want to return because she is afraid she will no longer recognise her parents. She also refuses to give up the possibility to fantasise about how things could be in Mostar. A confrontation with reality and her personal memories would turn her life upside down. Her eventual trip takes her to signposts pointing to vanished villages, to minefields and devastated walls. Giovanni from Mostar explains how the Neretva River separated the Muslims and Croats. Guiseppe shows her around in a mine field (“Don’t step on those heaps of ground, beware of the barbed wire!”). The journey is interlaced with Super8 images of happier times. Bosnia seems safe now, but Svjetlana’s final question puts everything we have seen so far in a different perspective. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)