Tribeca Review: Milosevic on Trial

Posted by Robin Ruinsky (robin@filmschoolrejects.com) on April 30, 2008

There are films that entertain and take us places we are unlikely to ever see in person. Then there are films that make us uneasy, are hard to watch because they explore the darker side of our fellow human beings.

Danish director Michael Christoffersen shows us this dark side of humanity with his documentary about the war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the perpetrator of genocide in the former Yugoslavia. It was an act of genocide that was politely renamed “ethnic cleansing” and took the lives of at least 125,000 people while displacing 3 million.

The film follows the long road that the trial took over a period of four years beginning in February 2002. Nicknamed “Butcher of the Balkans” Milosevic was brought to The Hague to be tried for his crimes.

Cristoffersen clearly was devoted to exploring the entire process of a trial that moved like a glacier. He edited 2000 hours of trial footage to add to his own behind the scenes interviews with lead prosecutor Geoffrey Nice and Dragoslav Ognjanovic, Milosevic’s friend, advisor and lawyer. He shot 120 hours of film and between both he somehow managed to distill it all into a tight 70 minute documentary film.

The film of the trial wasn’t shot for artistic purposes but the director uses the file footage effectively to give insight into the events at the trial. He shows the central drama of the courtroom where the action takes place. The strategy is behind the scenes outside the courtroom. Mioslevic remains defiant throughout, a man who won’t recognize the legitimacy of the proceedings. His lawyer pronounces him a hero and seems as blind as his client to the reality of the destruction left in his wake. Milosevic chose to defend himself, but avoided paying for his crimes when he died of a heart attack four years into his trial before a verdict could be reached.

But even if he escaped a verdict the trial and this film will let people reach their own verdict about the “Butcher of the Balkans”.

Read more articles by Robin Ruinsky