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| Balkan Rhapsodies: 78 Measures of War | |
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| Directed by | Jeff Daniel Silva |
Release date |
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Running time | 55 minutes |
Balkan Rhapsodies: 78 Measures of War is a 2007 documentary by Jeff Daniel Silva about the Kosovo War.
Balkan Rhapsodies is a "ruminative experimental mosaic", [1] exploring the Kosovo War through encounters with recovering civilians, observational moments, and Silva's own reflections on his various trips through war-torn Serbia and Kosovo.
Jeff Daniel Silva was the first United States Citizen granted access into the territory that was formerly known as Yugoslavia. His access was granted just weeks after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) launched a military operation that dropped bombs over the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. [2]
Lisa Stevenson, Professor of Anthropology, McGill University says,
"Balkan Rhapsodies: 78 Measures of War deftly juxtaposes the everyday and the exceptional, the sublime and the horrific, into a film that challenges us to reconsider what we thought we knew about war, about humanitarianism and about our own good intentions. It challenges us as students and scholars of the humanities and social sciences to interrogate our own process of meaning making - how we come to know what we do about war, and especially how we come to know and consume the pain and suffering of others. Balkan Rhapsodies is a beautiful and disturbing film, a film whose afterimage should provoke us to think about war and humanitarianism in a more sophisticated, and ultimately more compassionate way." [3]
Branka Bogdanov, Director of Film and Video, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston says,
"It's become a cliché that every documentary film/video tells a story, but what and whose story does it tell? Experimental filmmaker Jeff Daniel Silva, with his documentary Balkan Rhapsodies, exercises an exceptional talent to capture a kaleidoscopy of life in the post-war Serbia, after the NATO bombing in 1999. With this film Silva strives to crackle beneath the façade of ordinary lives, opening up a whole landscape of disillusionment and hope, humor and pain, and above all else succeeds in vividly capturing the bruised acceptance of a people in the aftermath of war. With its unique multilayered structure Balkan Rhapsodies remains open to interpretation and most importantly, each of the seventy-eight Rhapsodies is its own reality. Kudos for a filmmaker who exercises a profound commitment to the proposition that film is a vital manifestation and a document of the political volatile time we live in."
The Balkans, also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographic area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the whole of Bulgaria. The Balkan Peninsula is bordered by the Adriatic Sea in the northwest, the Ionian Sea in the southwest, the Aegean Sea in the south, the Turkish Straits in the east, and the Black Sea in the northeast. The northern border of the peninsula is variously defined. The highest point of the Balkans is Mount Musala, 2,925 metres (9,596 ft), in the Rila mountain range, Bulgaria.
The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which controlled Kosovo before the war, and the Kosovo Albanian rebel group known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The conflict ended when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intervened by beginning air strikes in March 1999 which resulted in Yugoslav forces withdrawing from Kosovo.
Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a partially recognised state in Southeast Europe. It lies at the centre of the Balkans. Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008, and has since gained diplomatic recognition as a sovereign state by 97 member states of the United Nations. It is bordered by Serbia to the north and east, North Macedonia to the southeast, Albania to the southwest, and Montenegro to the west. Most of central Kosovo is dominated by the vast plains and fields of Dukagjini and Kosovo field. The Accursed Mountains and Šar Mountains rise in the southwest and southeast, respectively. Its capital and largest city is Pristina.
The Rambouillet Agreement, formally the Interim Agreement for Peace and Self-Government in Kosovo, was a proposed peace agreement between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and a delegation representing the ethnic Albanian majority population of Kosovo. It was drafted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and named for the Château de Rambouillet, where it was initially proposed in early 1999. Among other things, the accords called for 30,000 NATO peacekeeping troops in Kosovo; an unhindered right of passage for NATO troops on Yugoslav territory; and immunity for NATO and its agents to Yugoslav law. Yugoslavia's refusal to sign the accords was used by NATO to justify the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia.
The legitimacy under international law of the 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has been seriously questioned. The UN Charter is the foundational legal document of the United Nations (UN) and is the cornerstone of the public international law governing the use of force between States. NATO members are also subject to the North Atlantic Treaty.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999. The bombings continued until an agreement was reached that led to the withdrawal of Yugoslav armed forces from Kosovo, and the establishment of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, a UN peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. The official NATO operation code name was Operation Allied Force whereas the United States called it Operation Noble Anvil; in Yugoslavia the operation was incorrectly called Merciful Angel as a result of a misunderstanding or mistranslation.
The Manaki brothers, Yanaki and Milton, were photography and cinema pioneers of the Balkan Peninsula and the Ottoman Empire. They were the first to bring a film camera and create a motion picture in the city of Manastir, an economic and cultural center of Ottoman Rumelia. Their first film, The Weavers, was a 60-second documentary of their grandmother spinning and weaving; this is regarded as the first motion picture shot in the Balkans. The Manaki brothers used a 35 mm Urban Bioscope camera that Yanaki imported from London in 1905. Yanaki and Milton filmed documentaries about various aspects of life in the city of Manastir.
Miroslav Lazanski was а Serbian journalist, military analyst, politician, and a diplomat who served as ambassador of Serbia to the Russian Federation. Previous to his appointment, Lazanski was a Member of parliament. He wrote on political and military matters and was a correspondent and commentator for the Belgrade daily Politika. He was a member of the National Assembly of Serbia from 2016 to 2019 as member of the governing coalition led by the Serbian Progressive Party.
The Grdelica train bombing occurred on 12 April 1999, when two missiles fired by US aircraft F-15E Strike Eagle hit a passenger train while it was passing across a railway bridge over the Južna Morava river in the Grdelica gorge, some 300 kilometres (190 mi) south of Belgrade, Serbia. At least 20 civilian passengers were killed or declared missing. Estimates of the total death toll run as high as 60. It is considered the deadliest rail disaster in Serbian history.
Kosovar–Turkish relations refers to the historic and current relationship between Kosovo and Turkey. Kosovo has an embassy in Ankara and Turkey has an embassy in Prishtina. Both nations are predominantly Muslim and have sought to join the EU.
Kosovo: Can You Imagine? is a 2009 documentary film directed by Serbian Canadian Boris Malagurski about the plight of Serb communities living in Kosovo at the time the documentary was filmed. Former Canadian general Lewis MacKenzie, former Canadian diplomat James Byron Bissett, former UNMIK officer John Hawthorne and economist Michel Chossudovsky appear in the film.
A series of war crimes were committed during the Kosovo War. The forces of the Slobodan Milošević regime committed rape, killed many Albanian civilians and expelled them during the war, alongside the widespread destruction of civilian, cultural and religious property. According to the Human Rights Watch, the vast majority of the violations from January 1998 to April 1999 were attributable to Serbian police or the Yugoslav army. Violations also included war crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army, such as kidnappings and summary executions of civilians. In 2014, the Humanitarian Law Center released a list of people killed or gone missing during the war, including 8,661 Kosovo Albanian civilians, 1,797 ethnic Serbs and 447 civilians of other ethnicities such as Romani people and Bosniaks.
Christianity in Kosovo has a long-standing tradition dating to the Roman Empire. The entire Balkan region had been Christianized by the Roman, Byzantine, First Bulgarian Empire, Serbian Kingdom, Second Bulgarian Empire, and Serbian Empire till 13th century. After the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 until 1912, Kosovo was part of the Muslim Ottoman Empire, and a high level of Islamization occurred. During the time period after World War II, Kosovo was ruled by secular socialist authorities in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). During that period, Kosovars became increasingly secularized. Today, 90% of Kosovo's population are from Muslim family backgrounds, most of whom are ethnic Albanians, but also including Slavic speakers and Turks.
Al Jazeera Balkans (AJB) is an international news television station headquartered in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina aimed at the media markets of the countries that used to be constituent units of SFR Yugoslavia. It is part of the Al Jazeera Media Network.
The Dubrava Prison massacre was the war time killing of at least 99 Kosovo Albanian prisoners and the wounding of around 200 more in the Dubrava Prison, in north-western Kosovo between the dates of 22 and 24 May 1999.
The Batajnica mass graves, are graves that were found in 2001 near Batajnica, a suburb of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. The graves contained 744 Kosovo Albanians, civilians, killed during the 1998-99 Kosovo War.
Jeff (Daniel) Silva is a Boston filmmaker and film programmer. Ivan & Ivana (2011) and Balkan Rhapsodies: 78 Measures of War (2008), have been exhibited at film festivals and museums internationally, including MoMA's Documentary Fortnight, The Viennale, Visions du Reel, Valdivia, Flahertiana, and DocAviv.. In 2017, he worked on Linefork, a feature about Lee Sexton. Silva programmed cinema for 15 years at the Balagan film series, which he co-founded in 2000. He was a teaching fellow at Harvard University. Silva taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) in Boston.
Ivan & Ivana is a documentary directed by Jeff Daniel Silva in 2011.
The Insurgency in Kosovo began in 1995, following the Dayton Agreement. In 1996, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) began attacks, which targeted Serbian governmental buildings and police stations. The insurgency led to the Kosovo War in February 1998.
The Weight of Chains is a 2010 Canadian documentary film directed by Boris Malagurski. The film argues that the breakup of Yugoslavia was "orchestrated by Western powers in furtherance of imperial ambitions". According to the filmmaker, it also presents stories of "good people in evil times". It was released on December 17, 2010.