Authors

Discussion

In the decades after the war, the debate on reconciliation becomes a popular topic not only in  fictional movies (Ustav Republike Hrvatske, Krugovi, Muškarci ne plaću etc.) but also in the production of documentaries: however, these reveal a wide range of perspectives on reconciliation, depending on the source of financing on one hand and a Balkanist perspective on the other. While documentaries such as Orkestar directed the Bosnian director Pjer Žalica portray the relationship between the members of the Sarajevo rock scene with humour rather than over-dramatization and resentment, films which were recorded under the sponsorship of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) highly emphasize successful cases of multi-ethnic bonding and activism (e.g. movies Granica and Volim SFK). Reconciliation, however, seems to be an impossible concept according to documentaries filmed by foreign productions, such as Al Jazeera’s Once Upon a Time in Sarajevo where a British journalist struggles to make peace between three members of a once prominent group of comedians Top Lista Nadrealista. With a critical analysis, I show how reconciliation is communicated in the language of documentary movies.