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Mostar united
a man’s struggle to overcome the city’s ethnical divide
a documentary by Claudia Tosi

Developed with the support of

Stefilm via Berthollet 44 - 10125 Torino (Italy) - tel +39 011 6680017 - fax +39 011 6680003 - www.stefilm.it - info@stefilm.it
Mostar. The city is divided in East and West by the “Boulevard”

INDEX
SYNOPSIS
FILM TREATMENT
Mostar and me
Nenad’s challenge
Nenad and his job
Nenad and the “war children”
Nenad and his son Hasan
The “war children” are not united
Is Europe a way out?
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
DRAMATIC STRUCTURE
VISUAL APPROACH
CV DIRECTOR
CV PRODUCTION COMPANY
APPENDIX - THE CITY OF MOSTAR

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“Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006

Mostar united
a man’s struggle to overcome the city’s ethnical divide

a documentary by Claudia Tosi
SYNOPSIS
The ferocious nationalism of the former-Yugoslavia has
divided Mostar in two, by ethnic grouping and Nenad is not
welcome in his town anymore. Both Croatian and Muslim
nationalists hate him because he wants Mostar “to be once
again the town of Serbs, Croatians and Muslims together”.
They are turning Nenad’s life into a nightmare: as a
co-director of the Tourist Office, he’s attacked everyday by
nationalist media; as a director of the Velez School of soccer,
he’s without any financial help because, on his pitch, he
teaches to an army of “war children” not to ask if the others
are Serb, Croatian or Muslim. He is under crossfire and his
sons are beaten or threatened when they go to the “wrong
side” of town. The elder, Hasan, is fed up with living in half
Mostar, he’s dreaming Europe to be a professional footballer
and a free person. Nenad has lost his “Montmartre of the
Balkans” and now he might be loosing his son.
FILM TREATMENT
Mostar and me
Fifteen years after my best friend left Mostar to escape the
war that tore Yugoslavia apart, I stand on the Boulevard
that was once the front line. Still today this Boulevard
divides Mostar in two: Croats live in the West side, Muslims
in the East one. In the film archives I can see the reason
why my friend Svjetlana doesn’t’ want to come back to
Mostar anymore. In the same streets where once people
were happy and mixed, a fratricide war broke up
separated families. Today the same murderers that
tortured and killed their own friends and relatives, in the
name of the ethnical membership, live next door their
victims. Are there reasons to come back and live here?
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“Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006

Driving around Mostar, what I see are ruins, gutted
buildings and brand-new churches or mosques - it
depends on what side I am. Many people are sitting in bars
also during working time. The interview of my dear friend
Nenad that I am hearing from the car radio explains what it
is Mostar like: there is no job, economy is a disaster and
politicians are adding fuel to ethnical hate, “which is the
same situation that started the war”, he warns the
journalist.
Nenad’s challenge
Nenad is talking to the mic in the radio studio, right behind
the Boulevard, in the East side. He shrugs his shoulders
like somebody who despises the “new mentality”. A big
scar, heritage of the war, divides his forehead in two. The
45-year-old former Velez football player and nowadays
co-director of the Tourist Office takes the risk to talk about
the folly of this divided town openly.

4

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“Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006

Nenad and his job
Back in his office, few meters far from the Old Bridge,
Nenad has to face the umpteenth attack from West
Mostar. The Muslim sellers of the area and the divers are
accused to be in touch with mujaheddins and a danger for
tourists. Nenad is full of rage. Looking outside his office
windows, it’s not danger what you breath. You see
hundreds of tourists enjoying the shopping and the
“Thousand and one Night“ atmosphere in the rebuilt
Ottoman scenery, while domestic people enjoy coffee,
cigarettes and talks.
“Nationalists of both sides want
Mostar to be the town of the ones or the others, but
Mostar has always been the town of Serbs, Croatians and
Muslims together. This is what I am teaching to my
children!”, he says before running downstairs to Marshall’s,
the “headquarter” of his generation, to discuss about how
to reply to the enemy’s fire.
Nenad and the “war children”
There is no time off in Nenad’s daytime. After job, he wears
the Velez uniform and drive to North Camp with his older
son Hasan, the 17 years old rising star of Velez. A patch of
ground, snatched from the old barracks destroyed by
grenades, became the Velez School of Soccer pitch and a
dirty run-down block the changing room. On a gutted wall
you can still read Tito’s motto “Take care of unity and
brotherhood like you take care of your own eyes”. Nenad
is the director of the school where an “army” of kids, from
8 up to 18 years old, respect him as a father. “I teach them
what I learned here when I was a kid: Don’t care if
someone is Serb, Croat or Muslim!”.
Today the balls will be locked in the closet. The last match
was a catastrophe and Nenad knows why. “You are not
united! And when it happens it is pure defeat. Do I have to
remember you the terrible past we all had?!”, he shouts.
His son Hasan and the other “war children” listen to Nenad
standing silently around him.

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“Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006

Nenad and his son Hasan
There is a special relationship in between Nenad and his
son. While Nenad was in the war, Hasan was in Germany
with his mother, but Nenad swears that if he is still alive it
is thanks to him. He remembers that once that it was
shelling like hell, he was sitting in what was left of his son’s
room, crying like a baby, thinking of his small kid clinging
on his leg because he didn’t want to leave his father. He
found a small toy and kept it in the pocket of the uniform
as an amulet. Not even the grenade that divided his head
in two could kill him. Every year, for the main Muslim
celebration, Nenad takes Hasan to several cemeteries to
visit the 45 relatives who died in the war.
The “war children” are not united
Looking at Hasan and Nenad you cannot but notice how
alike they are. On the right arm they both have the same
tattoo, the Old Bridge and a dragon, which means eternal
love and engagement for Mostar. But what makes the big
difference is that Hasan is exposed everyday to the “new”
mentality. Nenad teaches his son the importance of

6

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“Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006

“brotherhood and unity”, but what Hasan learns from the
environment is separation. For instance, Hasan attends the
Gymnasium. “We study here with our Croatian peers. We
have the same lessons but different programs, teachers
and classrooms” he says, before entering the left wing of
the butted Austro-Hungarian pink building. The “Others”
are in the right wing. The first institution of “re-found unity”
is actually a school of “apartheid”.
On the way back home, Hasan sits under the Bridge to
attend the anti-fascist celebration for the victims of IIWW.
“While we celebrate the day of antifascism, our
“neighbours” celebrate the day of fascism(…)”, says the
speaker. Hasan claps and says: “This is why we cannot go
to the same classrooms. We have completely different
point of view on history. I cannot blame my peers to be
Nationalists, I think this is Democracy!”.
When the city soccer derby of Hasan generation is close,
the atmosphere in the gymnasium is tough for him. The
students of the Croat program support the team of West
Mostar, Zrinjski, and Hasan is a target, because he’s the

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7
“Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006

star of Velez team. To protect the kids, Nenad drives the
players to Zrinjski stadium with a bus. Only 300 mts
separates it from the Velez headquarter, but you never
know what can happen to these boys after they cross the
Boulevard. When both teams are ready to enter the pitch,
Nenad keeps his players inside the dressing room until the
police are not there to patrol the match.
Is Europe a way out?
For Hasan life in Mostar is too hard. His great talent is his
passport for Europe. The Balkans have great expectations
on Europe to find a way out, but is Europe ready for the
Balkans? Last time that Nenad’s team was in Italy without
him for a friendly tournament I assisted to a shameful
interview: “You are Muslims, you are Croatians….what
would you do if a Serb would kill you?”, asked the
journalist to Nenad’s 13 years old “war children”. Looking
at the footage of the interview he got crazy. “My kids are
not zoo animals! An interview like this can destroy years of
work on their post-war traumas!”.
When Hasan gets the invitation for a try training from one
of the most important Italian teams, Nenad organises a
barbecue for friends and relatives to celebrate Hasan.
Everybody makes a comparison in between father and son
and it is not clear who is the main character of the event.
The past melts with the presents, joyful and sad memories
mix and one thing is clear: before the war there was no
reason to leave Mostar, but “It is better to be a good
Mostarian abroad that being turned into a bad one at
home”, says Nenad. I ask myself what it will be of this town
if all the good Mostarians will go abroad.
Nenad and his wife drive Hasan to Split, to the ferry. The
boy doesn’t leave the deck of the ship until he cannot see
his parents anymore. Europe is stingy when it come to
visas, they are not allowed. Hasan, in the small berth,
listens to melodic Balkanian music. He’s sad and excited.
“If I will go to play in Italy, I will send part of my salary to

8

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“Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006

Velez, like all other Mostarians playing in Europe!”.
I came to Mostar to find the reasons for my friend’s
homecoming and finally I understood why Svjetlana will
never come back: it is better to be a good Mostarian
abroad than to turn into a bad one at home. I look at
Nenad in North Camp, training the 8 years old team, the
“teletubbies” generation. It is amazing to watch at them
kissed by the late afternoon sunrays and by the wind,
running in the wide wild field in the middle of nowhere.
Around the pitch, there are sheep, too. It is so peaceful and
beautiful here. But the gutted wall behind me doesn’t allow
forgetting the past.I look at the kids and ask myself: will
they stay to rebuild or will they leave to feel free?
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
MOSTAR UNITED starts where I put the word end to my
previous film, dated 2004, “Private fragments of Bosnia”.
“Private fragments of Bosnia” first originated because I
wanted to convince my best friend Svjetlana to return to
Mostar after she had fled it in 1992 because of the war.

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9
“Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006

I succeeded in my aim, but her reaction forced me to
undertake a new research. She said her pure and naïve
Mostar had died and what was left were its killers with their
minarets and churches. The “Montmartre of the Balkans”
was not there anymore and there was no reason to come
back. She was wrong. I found the last survivors of that
civilization based on unity and brotherhood and they need
help because they are close to extinction. They are where
they were all their life, around the soccer team that made
them feel united and brothers after the II World War, in the
Velez Football Club. They fight to make Mostar once again
the “town of Croats, Serbs and Muslims”, to erase the
divisions.
Nenad is “the hero” who has the strength to put himself
against those who want to vanquish his people from the
face of the earth and kick out of Mostar the unwelcome
ethnical memberships. Yielding to anger, vendetta and pain
would paralyse Nenad and make him the same as his
tormentors. As Simone Weil says, the exercise of force
turns man into stone, incapable of seeing himself equal to
others and belonging to the same humankind, be they
victim or bloody executor.
I feel caught up in Nenad’s battle. I am fascinated by
people who work day in day out, in their own small way, for
social justice. I believe it is the only possible way to
improve the world. Regardless of the outcome of the

10

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“Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006

battle, this approach is a revolution in itself. Nenad
teaches me that we do not have to be rich or powerful to
make a mark on society and that we can do it using what
we are best at. In his case, football. Mostar is not so very
different from the rest of the world: an elite made up of
potentates tries to neutralize its adversaries. The only way
out is to infect as many young people as possible with the
germ “of equality”. There is no alternative in this global
world, unless we want to turn the planet into a time bomb.
DRAMATIC STRUCTURE
MOSTAR UNITED opens with a comment by Svjetlana
who condemns Mostar to a future filled with hate. The film
is driven by the search for a different path.
The issue between Svjetlana and myself fades into the
background while Nenad comes up to the foreground and
comes back, now and then, to lead the narration.
Nenad leads us through the war, after-war, present and
future with his personal life. He experienced pure
happiness when Mostar was the Montmartre of the
Balkans, then he felt the grief of war and the despair of the
post-war. History is told to us through his feelings and
memories, the present through his actions, his everyday life
and his relationship with the environnement. His son Hasan
is an important second character, because he is the result
of the dived mentality. He attends a “divided” gymnasium,
he doesn’t cross the Boulevard which divides Mostar in
two, he was left by his croatian girlfriend because of her
parents’ pressure. Nenad is trying to erase what this
divided society is building and the “war children” are the
battle field where past and present are fighting. Future is
uncertain: will they stay to rebuild something new thinking
of the past, will they accept the status quo or will they leave
to feel free?
The film follows the pursuing of Nenad’s goals and his
battles with the environnement. The archives (personal, old
super 8, footage from Sarajevo film library...) will provide
the visual background of Nenad’s feelings and memories.

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“Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006

VISUAL APPROACH
The camera of MOSTAR UNITED identifies with the reality.
Aware of situations in which there is conflict between the
protagonists, and the surrounding environment, it waits for
events to happen, provoking without conditioning them,
listening to the central characters when they feel the need
to explain the present or show the past through what they
have conserved. Archives are used like fragments of the
past, lyrical excerpts which can visualize what’s going on in
Nenad’s mind. They are more emotional than narrative.
The director of photography is Brand Ferro, one of the leading Macedonian cinematographers.
Brand is a good friend of mine and of Nenad. I like his light
shots, the natural way he compose the scene via sequence planes that never lose the focus of action. We are part of
the lives of the people whose story we are telling and we
want to bear this in mind.
CV DIRECTOR
CLAUDIA TOSI
1970, Modena, Italy
Major filmography
- Private fragments of Bosnia, 52': Best Documentary
Genova film Festival 2004, Best documentary
Mediterraneo Video Festival, Paestum,2005, Selected
IDFA 2004, Reflecting Images, Selected “Festival dei
Popoli”, Firenze 2004, One World Human Rights
International Documentary, Prague, 2004,
and
broadcasted TSI (Suisse) and YLE (Finland).
- Building the Winter Games, 3x46' Stefilm International for
Discovery Europe, 2006
CV PRODUCTION COMPANY
Stefilm is one of the leading Italian documentary production
company's. It specialises on historical, social and cultural
documentaries. It is committed to creating documentary

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“Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006

programming which brings Italian themes and talent to the
rest of the world and to re-establishing a thriving
documentary culture in Italy.
Stefilm's founders, Stefano Tealdi, Elena Filippini and
Edoardo Fracchia, have been working since 1985 with
broadcasters and filmmakers to build a strong core of
documentary professionals, developing stories and
characters that reflect the complexity of today’s society
and the best of the world’s culture and art. The three
partners are active industry leaders both at home and
abroad: Stefano Tealdi was chairperson of the European
Documentary Network (EDN), and is currently national
co-ordinator of INPUT – Television in the Public Interest.
Stefilm is also a member of the steering committee of the
Discovery Campus.
Today the company has a thorough understanding of the
creative and production approach to the international
market. The most recent co-productions, developed with
the support of the MEDIA Programme of the European
Union, have been financed by international broadcasters
going from National Geographic Channels International to
Arte.
The Italian richness, diversity and contradictions are an
endless source of inspiration for documentaries. Stefilm
has produced films on its conflicts (“Citizen Berlusconi”,
"Porto Marghera – The story of a lethal deception" and
"Don Cesare – Priest on the Frontline"), on its cinema
("Rice Girls"), on its music ("Fred"), on its food and wine
(“Ice Cream: an endless passion”,"Uncorked in Italy!"), on
its social transformations ("Crumbling Houses" and "Like
Fossils"), on its roots (“ My Three Peaks”, “Mirabella –
Sindelfingen"), on its mysteries (“Leonardo, the man behind
the shroud?”), on it's know-how ("Building the Winter
Games") and on it's culture ("Piemonte Stories").

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“Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006

APPENDIX
THE CITY OF MOSTAR
Prior to the Bosnia-Herzegovina War, Mostar was
considered the Montmartre of the Balkans. A beautiful
town at the foot of the hills in the East of ex-Jugoslavia,
100 kms from the sea. The city was a stranger to ethnic,
religious and national divisions; it was the city in Yugoslavia
with the most mixed marriages. Indeed Mostar was the
symbol of East-meets-West. But during the war, the Old
City was nearly razed to the ground; 90% of the Old City’s
population was either massacred or deported; the famed
Ottoman bridge, the Stari Most, was destroyed by a
Croatian tank after a two-day siege.
In one fell swoop, one of the world’s most secular and
cosmopolitan civilizations was almost completely wiped
out.

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War broke out in 1992. The Serbs surrounded the city, but
were quickly ousted. Months later, in 1993, the second
wave of conflict began, the bloody fratricide between
Croats and Muslims.
According to native Mostarians, the tragedy was sparked
by the thousands of farmers who converged upon Mostar
in the 1980s in search of work. By refusing to give up their
traditions of national and religious identity, they changed
the face of the city almost overnight. The war was bitter
and fierce with thousands killed in a door to door battle.
Snipers along the streets and tank shellings destroyed the
town phisycally and the survivors spiritually. Muslims were
murdered or deported to concentration camps in the name
of ethnic cleansing. The city was split in half. Native
Mostarians dug into the Old City to defend it. And while the
Old City was being destroyed, people on the “Croatian”
side of town flocked to cafés and bars to sip coffee or
celebrate on-target mortar shots.
A peace treaty was signed in Dayton (U.S.A.) on November
21, 1995, which stipulated the reunification of Mostar.
While the more recent Mostar inhabitants still tend to
harbor a strong sense of division, the “old Mostarians”
refuse to adopt such an outlook, completely foreign to their
way of thinking, and continue to pass onto their children a
vision of life without barriers.
But growing up in such a divided context does not help
young people to avoid the vortex of hatred generated by
the macabre intimacy foisted upon the city, where today
victims and perpetrators walk the same streets, and the
ubiquitous graffiti message “never forget” is a
double-edged sword.
Mostar’s population has since been cut in half, with
approximately 60,000 inhabitants remaining. Many who
were not killed in the war sought refuge abroad, especially
in the Scandinavian countries (at least 35,000), Canada
and the United States. Today there are more native
Mostarians living in Oslo than in Mostar itself. For these

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“Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006

exiles the return home, even if only for a visit, is always a
shock. The recent proliferation of crosses, minarets,
mosques and churches is making the city unrecognizable.
The streets have new names, based on “political” logic
touted on both the East and West sides. Levels of
unemployment are disastrously high, corruption runs
rampant, and the general state of precariousness makes
optimism an impossible luxury. This scenario of
economical disaster is terribly similar to the one that served
to fuel ethnic and national hatred, which gave start to the
war in 1992.
In addition to this, unfair distribution of areas of influence
and power raise tension between Croats and Moslems in
Herzegovina; Moslems and Serbs in central Bosnia; while
in northern Bosnia, it’s everybody against everybody else.
Seventy-five per cent of economic aid to
Bosnia-Herzegovina is spent on maintaining the country’s
palaeolithic bureaucracy afloat, while the remaining 25%
ends up financing the construction of places of worship
rather than the restoration of factories.
In this context, it’s easy to see how organized crime has
been able to step in with its control of drug traffic and the
arms business, two driving forces of the local economy.
It is thought that an enormous quantity of arms still
circulates in Bosnia-Herzegovina, ready to re-ignite the
conflict at any time. In recent years 16 million bullets,
180,000 hand grenades, 43,000 rifles and pistols, 3,500
mines and 40,000 kilograms of explosives have been
confiscated.
Beginning in 2005 European EUFOR replaced NATO
forces here, with the delicate task of keeping an utterly
tenuous, fragile peace.
Seven thousand new troops arrived, with headquarters at
Sarajevo; a field division is located in Mostar.
Despite the “no-war” situation declared a decade ago at
Dayton, a truly peaceful solution to the seething conflict
remains a far reach.

16

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  • 1. Mostar united a man’s struggle to overcome the city’s ethnical divide a documentary by Claudia Tosi Developed with the support of Stefilm via Berthollet 44 - 10125 Torino (Italy) - tel +39 011 6680017 - fax +39 011 6680003 - www.stefilm.it - info@stefilm.it
  • 2. Mostar. The city is divided in East and West by the “Boulevard” INDEX SYNOPSIS FILM TREATMENT Mostar and me Nenad’s challenge Nenad and his job Nenad and the “war children” Nenad and his son Hasan The “war children” are not united Is Europe a way out? DIRECTOR’S NOTE DRAMATIC STRUCTURE VISUAL APPROACH CV DIRECTOR CV PRODUCTION COMPANY APPENDIX - THE CITY OF MOSTAR 3 3 3 4 5 5 6 6 8 9 11 12 12 12 14
  • 3. “Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006 Mostar united a man’s struggle to overcome the city’s ethnical divide a documentary by Claudia Tosi SYNOPSIS The ferocious nationalism of the former-Yugoslavia has divided Mostar in two, by ethnic grouping and Nenad is not welcome in his town anymore. Both Croatian and Muslim nationalists hate him because he wants Mostar “to be once again the town of Serbs, Croatians and Muslims together”. They are turning Nenad’s life into a nightmare: as a co-director of the Tourist Office, he’s attacked everyday by nationalist media; as a director of the Velez School of soccer, he’s without any financial help because, on his pitch, he teaches to an army of “war children” not to ask if the others are Serb, Croatian or Muslim. He is under crossfire and his sons are beaten or threatened when they go to the “wrong side” of town. The elder, Hasan, is fed up with living in half Mostar, he’s dreaming Europe to be a professional footballer and a free person. Nenad has lost his “Montmartre of the Balkans” and now he might be loosing his son. FILM TREATMENT Mostar and me Fifteen years after my best friend left Mostar to escape the war that tore Yugoslavia apart, I stand on the Boulevard that was once the front line. Still today this Boulevard divides Mostar in two: Croats live in the West side, Muslims in the East one. In the film archives I can see the reason why my friend Svjetlana doesn’t’ want to come back to Mostar anymore. In the same streets where once people were happy and mixed, a fratricide war broke up separated families. Today the same murderers that tortured and killed their own friends and relatives, in the name of the ethnical membership, live next door their victims. Are there reasons to come back and live here? Stefilm via Berthollet 44 - 10125 Torino (Italy) - tel +39 011 6680017 - fax +39 011 6680003 - www.stefilm.it - info@stefilm.it 3
  • 4. “Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006 Driving around Mostar, what I see are ruins, gutted buildings and brand-new churches or mosques - it depends on what side I am. Many people are sitting in bars also during working time. The interview of my dear friend Nenad that I am hearing from the car radio explains what it is Mostar like: there is no job, economy is a disaster and politicians are adding fuel to ethnical hate, “which is the same situation that started the war”, he warns the journalist. Nenad’s challenge Nenad is talking to the mic in the radio studio, right behind the Boulevard, in the East side. He shrugs his shoulders like somebody who despises the “new mentality”. A big scar, heritage of the war, divides his forehead in two. The 45-year-old former Velez football player and nowadays co-director of the Tourist Office takes the risk to talk about the folly of this divided town openly. 4 Stefilm via Berthollet 44 - 10125 Torino (Italy) - tel +39 011 6680017 - fax +39 011 6680003 - www.stefilm.it - info@stefilm.it
  • 5. “Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006 Nenad and his job Back in his office, few meters far from the Old Bridge, Nenad has to face the umpteenth attack from West Mostar. The Muslim sellers of the area and the divers are accused to be in touch with mujaheddins and a danger for tourists. Nenad is full of rage. Looking outside his office windows, it’s not danger what you breath. You see hundreds of tourists enjoying the shopping and the “Thousand and one Night“ atmosphere in the rebuilt Ottoman scenery, while domestic people enjoy coffee, cigarettes and talks. “Nationalists of both sides want Mostar to be the town of the ones or the others, but Mostar has always been the town of Serbs, Croatians and Muslims together. This is what I am teaching to my children!”, he says before running downstairs to Marshall’s, the “headquarter” of his generation, to discuss about how to reply to the enemy’s fire. Nenad and the “war children” There is no time off in Nenad’s daytime. After job, he wears the Velez uniform and drive to North Camp with his older son Hasan, the 17 years old rising star of Velez. A patch of ground, snatched from the old barracks destroyed by grenades, became the Velez School of Soccer pitch and a dirty run-down block the changing room. On a gutted wall you can still read Tito’s motto “Take care of unity and brotherhood like you take care of your own eyes”. Nenad is the director of the school where an “army” of kids, from 8 up to 18 years old, respect him as a father. “I teach them what I learned here when I was a kid: Don’t care if someone is Serb, Croat or Muslim!”. Today the balls will be locked in the closet. The last match was a catastrophe and Nenad knows why. “You are not united! And when it happens it is pure defeat. Do I have to remember you the terrible past we all had?!”, he shouts. His son Hasan and the other “war children” listen to Nenad standing silently around him. Stefilm via Berthollet 44 - 10125 Torino (Italy) - tel +39 011 6680017 - fax +39 011 6680003 - www.stefilm.it - info@stefilm.it 5
  • 6. “Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006 Nenad and his son Hasan There is a special relationship in between Nenad and his son. While Nenad was in the war, Hasan was in Germany with his mother, but Nenad swears that if he is still alive it is thanks to him. He remembers that once that it was shelling like hell, he was sitting in what was left of his son’s room, crying like a baby, thinking of his small kid clinging on his leg because he didn’t want to leave his father. He found a small toy and kept it in the pocket of the uniform as an amulet. Not even the grenade that divided his head in two could kill him. Every year, for the main Muslim celebration, Nenad takes Hasan to several cemeteries to visit the 45 relatives who died in the war. The “war children” are not united Looking at Hasan and Nenad you cannot but notice how alike they are. On the right arm they both have the same tattoo, the Old Bridge and a dragon, which means eternal love and engagement for Mostar. But what makes the big difference is that Hasan is exposed everyday to the “new” mentality. Nenad teaches his son the importance of 6 Stefilm via Berthollet 44 - 10125 Torino (Italy) - tel +39 011 6680017 - fax +39 011 6680003 - www.stefilm.it - info@stefilm.it
  • 7. “Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006 “brotherhood and unity”, but what Hasan learns from the environment is separation. For instance, Hasan attends the Gymnasium. “We study here with our Croatian peers. We have the same lessons but different programs, teachers and classrooms” he says, before entering the left wing of the butted Austro-Hungarian pink building. The “Others” are in the right wing. The first institution of “re-found unity” is actually a school of “apartheid”. On the way back home, Hasan sits under the Bridge to attend the anti-fascist celebration for the victims of IIWW. “While we celebrate the day of antifascism, our “neighbours” celebrate the day of fascism(…)”, says the speaker. Hasan claps and says: “This is why we cannot go to the same classrooms. We have completely different point of view on history. I cannot blame my peers to be Nationalists, I think this is Democracy!”. When the city soccer derby of Hasan generation is close, the atmosphere in the gymnasium is tough for him. The students of the Croat program support the team of West Mostar, Zrinjski, and Hasan is a target, because he’s the Stefilm via Berthollet 44 - 10125 Torino (Italy) - tel +39 011 6680017 - fax +39 011 6680003 - www.stefilm.it - info@stefilm.it 7
  • 8. “Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006 star of Velez team. To protect the kids, Nenad drives the players to Zrinjski stadium with a bus. Only 300 mts separates it from the Velez headquarter, but you never know what can happen to these boys after they cross the Boulevard. When both teams are ready to enter the pitch, Nenad keeps his players inside the dressing room until the police are not there to patrol the match. Is Europe a way out? For Hasan life in Mostar is too hard. His great talent is his passport for Europe. The Balkans have great expectations on Europe to find a way out, but is Europe ready for the Balkans? Last time that Nenad’s team was in Italy without him for a friendly tournament I assisted to a shameful interview: “You are Muslims, you are Croatians….what would you do if a Serb would kill you?”, asked the journalist to Nenad’s 13 years old “war children”. Looking at the footage of the interview he got crazy. “My kids are not zoo animals! An interview like this can destroy years of work on their post-war traumas!”. When Hasan gets the invitation for a try training from one of the most important Italian teams, Nenad organises a barbecue for friends and relatives to celebrate Hasan. Everybody makes a comparison in between father and son and it is not clear who is the main character of the event. The past melts with the presents, joyful and sad memories mix and one thing is clear: before the war there was no reason to leave Mostar, but “It is better to be a good Mostarian abroad that being turned into a bad one at home”, says Nenad. I ask myself what it will be of this town if all the good Mostarians will go abroad. Nenad and his wife drive Hasan to Split, to the ferry. The boy doesn’t leave the deck of the ship until he cannot see his parents anymore. Europe is stingy when it come to visas, they are not allowed. Hasan, in the small berth, listens to melodic Balkanian music. He’s sad and excited. “If I will go to play in Italy, I will send part of my salary to 8 Stefilm via Berthollet 44 - 10125 Torino (Italy) - tel +39 011 6680017 - fax +39 011 6680003 - www.stefilm.it - info@stefilm.it
  • 9. “Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006 Velez, like all other Mostarians playing in Europe!”. I came to Mostar to find the reasons for my friend’s homecoming and finally I understood why Svjetlana will never come back: it is better to be a good Mostarian abroad than to turn into a bad one at home. I look at Nenad in North Camp, training the 8 years old team, the “teletubbies” generation. It is amazing to watch at them kissed by the late afternoon sunrays and by the wind, running in the wide wild field in the middle of nowhere. Around the pitch, there are sheep, too. It is so peaceful and beautiful here. But the gutted wall behind me doesn’t allow forgetting the past.I look at the kids and ask myself: will they stay to rebuild or will they leave to feel free? DIRECTOR’S NOTE MOSTAR UNITED starts where I put the word end to my previous film, dated 2004, “Private fragments of Bosnia”. “Private fragments of Bosnia” first originated because I wanted to convince my best friend Svjetlana to return to Mostar after she had fled it in 1992 because of the war. Stefilm via Berthollet 44 - 10125 Torino (Italy) - tel +39 011 6680017 - fax +39 011 6680003 - www.stefilm.it - info@stefilm.it 9
  • 10. “Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006 I succeeded in my aim, but her reaction forced me to undertake a new research. She said her pure and naïve Mostar had died and what was left were its killers with their minarets and churches. The “Montmartre of the Balkans” was not there anymore and there was no reason to come back. She was wrong. I found the last survivors of that civilization based on unity and brotherhood and they need help because they are close to extinction. They are where they were all their life, around the soccer team that made them feel united and brothers after the II World War, in the Velez Football Club. They fight to make Mostar once again the “town of Croats, Serbs and Muslims”, to erase the divisions. Nenad is “the hero” who has the strength to put himself against those who want to vanquish his people from the face of the earth and kick out of Mostar the unwelcome ethnical memberships. Yielding to anger, vendetta and pain would paralyse Nenad and make him the same as his tormentors. As Simone Weil says, the exercise of force turns man into stone, incapable of seeing himself equal to others and belonging to the same humankind, be they victim or bloody executor. I feel caught up in Nenad’s battle. I am fascinated by people who work day in day out, in their own small way, for social justice. I believe it is the only possible way to improve the world. Regardless of the outcome of the 10 Stefilm via Berthollet 44 - 10125 Torino (Italy) - tel +39 011 6680017 - fax +39 011 6680003 - www.stefilm.it - info@stefilm.it
  • 11. “Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006 battle, this approach is a revolution in itself. Nenad teaches me that we do not have to be rich or powerful to make a mark on society and that we can do it using what we are best at. In his case, football. Mostar is not so very different from the rest of the world: an elite made up of potentates tries to neutralize its adversaries. The only way out is to infect as many young people as possible with the germ “of equality”. There is no alternative in this global world, unless we want to turn the planet into a time bomb. DRAMATIC STRUCTURE MOSTAR UNITED opens with a comment by Svjetlana who condemns Mostar to a future filled with hate. The film is driven by the search for a different path. The issue between Svjetlana and myself fades into the background while Nenad comes up to the foreground and comes back, now and then, to lead the narration. Nenad leads us through the war, after-war, present and future with his personal life. He experienced pure happiness when Mostar was the Montmartre of the Balkans, then he felt the grief of war and the despair of the post-war. History is told to us through his feelings and memories, the present through his actions, his everyday life and his relationship with the environnement. His son Hasan is an important second character, because he is the result of the dived mentality. He attends a “divided” gymnasium, he doesn’t cross the Boulevard which divides Mostar in two, he was left by his croatian girlfriend because of her parents’ pressure. Nenad is trying to erase what this divided society is building and the “war children” are the battle field where past and present are fighting. Future is uncertain: will they stay to rebuild something new thinking of the past, will they accept the status quo or will they leave to feel free? The film follows the pursuing of Nenad’s goals and his battles with the environnement. The archives (personal, old super 8, footage from Sarajevo film library...) will provide the visual background of Nenad’s feelings and memories. Stefilm via Berthollet 44 - 10125 Torino (Italy) - tel +39 011 6680017 - fax +39 011 6680003 - www.stefilm.it - info@stefilm.it 11
  • 12. “Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006 VISUAL APPROACH The camera of MOSTAR UNITED identifies with the reality. Aware of situations in which there is conflict between the protagonists, and the surrounding environment, it waits for events to happen, provoking without conditioning them, listening to the central characters when they feel the need to explain the present or show the past through what they have conserved. Archives are used like fragments of the past, lyrical excerpts which can visualize what’s going on in Nenad’s mind. They are more emotional than narrative. The director of photography is Brand Ferro, one of the leading Macedonian cinematographers. Brand is a good friend of mine and of Nenad. I like his light shots, the natural way he compose the scene via sequence planes that never lose the focus of action. We are part of the lives of the people whose story we are telling and we want to bear this in mind. CV DIRECTOR CLAUDIA TOSI 1970, Modena, Italy Major filmography - Private fragments of Bosnia, 52': Best Documentary Genova film Festival 2004, Best documentary Mediterraneo Video Festival, Paestum,2005, Selected IDFA 2004, Reflecting Images, Selected “Festival dei Popoli”, Firenze 2004, One World Human Rights International Documentary, Prague, 2004, and broadcasted TSI (Suisse) and YLE (Finland). - Building the Winter Games, 3x46' Stefilm International for Discovery Europe, 2006 CV PRODUCTION COMPANY Stefilm is one of the leading Italian documentary production company's. It specialises on historical, social and cultural documentaries. It is committed to creating documentary 12 Stefilm via Berthollet 44 - 10125 Torino (Italy) - tel +39 011 6680017 - fax +39 011 6680003 - www.stefilm.it - info@stefilm.it
  • 13. “Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006 programming which brings Italian themes and talent to the rest of the world and to re-establishing a thriving documentary culture in Italy. Stefilm's founders, Stefano Tealdi, Elena Filippini and Edoardo Fracchia, have been working since 1985 with broadcasters and filmmakers to build a strong core of documentary professionals, developing stories and characters that reflect the complexity of today’s society and the best of the world’s culture and art. The three partners are active industry leaders both at home and abroad: Stefano Tealdi was chairperson of the European Documentary Network (EDN), and is currently national co-ordinator of INPUT – Television in the Public Interest. Stefilm is also a member of the steering committee of the Discovery Campus. Today the company has a thorough understanding of the creative and production approach to the international market. The most recent co-productions, developed with the support of the MEDIA Programme of the European Union, have been financed by international broadcasters going from National Geographic Channels International to Arte. The Italian richness, diversity and contradictions are an endless source of inspiration for documentaries. Stefilm has produced films on its conflicts (“Citizen Berlusconi”, "Porto Marghera – The story of a lethal deception" and "Don Cesare – Priest on the Frontline"), on its cinema ("Rice Girls"), on its music ("Fred"), on its food and wine (“Ice Cream: an endless passion”,"Uncorked in Italy!"), on its social transformations ("Crumbling Houses" and "Like Fossils"), on its roots (“ My Three Peaks”, “Mirabella – Sindelfingen"), on its mysteries (“Leonardo, the man behind the shroud?”), on it's know-how ("Building the Winter Games") and on it's culture ("Piemonte Stories"). Stefilm via Berthollet 44 - 10125 Torino (Italy) - tel +39 011 6680017 - fax +39 011 6680003 - www.stefilm.it - info@stefilm.it 13
  • 14. “Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006 APPENDIX THE CITY OF MOSTAR Prior to the Bosnia-Herzegovina War, Mostar was considered the Montmartre of the Balkans. A beautiful town at the foot of the hills in the East of ex-Jugoslavia, 100 kms from the sea. The city was a stranger to ethnic, religious and national divisions; it was the city in Yugoslavia with the most mixed marriages. Indeed Mostar was the symbol of East-meets-West. But during the war, the Old City was nearly razed to the ground; 90% of the Old City’s population was either massacred or deported; the famed Ottoman bridge, the Stari Most, was destroyed by a Croatian tank after a two-day siege. In one fell swoop, one of the world’s most secular and cosmopolitan civilizations was almost completely wiped out. 14 Stefilm via Berthollet 44 - 10125 Torino (Italy) - tel +39 011 6680017 - fax +39 011 6680003 - www.stefilm.it - info@stefilm.it
  • 15. “Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006 War broke out in 1992. The Serbs surrounded the city, but were quickly ousted. Months later, in 1993, the second wave of conflict began, the bloody fratricide between Croats and Muslims. According to native Mostarians, the tragedy was sparked by the thousands of farmers who converged upon Mostar in the 1980s in search of work. By refusing to give up their traditions of national and religious identity, they changed the face of the city almost overnight. The war was bitter and fierce with thousands killed in a door to door battle. Snipers along the streets and tank shellings destroyed the town phisycally and the survivors spiritually. Muslims were murdered or deported to concentration camps in the name of ethnic cleansing. The city was split in half. Native Mostarians dug into the Old City to defend it. And while the Old City was being destroyed, people on the “Croatian” side of town flocked to cafés and bars to sip coffee or celebrate on-target mortar shots. A peace treaty was signed in Dayton (U.S.A.) on November 21, 1995, which stipulated the reunification of Mostar. While the more recent Mostar inhabitants still tend to harbor a strong sense of division, the “old Mostarians” refuse to adopt such an outlook, completely foreign to their way of thinking, and continue to pass onto their children a vision of life without barriers. But growing up in such a divided context does not help young people to avoid the vortex of hatred generated by the macabre intimacy foisted upon the city, where today victims and perpetrators walk the same streets, and the ubiquitous graffiti message “never forget” is a double-edged sword. Mostar’s population has since been cut in half, with approximately 60,000 inhabitants remaining. Many who were not killed in the war sought refuge abroad, especially in the Scandinavian countries (at least 35,000), Canada and the United States. Today there are more native Mostarians living in Oslo than in Mostar itself. For these Stefilm via Berthollet 44 - 10125 Torino (Italy) - tel +39 011 6680017 - fax +39 011 6680003 - www.stefilm.it - info@stefilm.it 15
  • 16. “Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006 exiles the return home, even if only for a visit, is always a shock. The recent proliferation of crosses, minarets, mosques and churches is making the city unrecognizable. The streets have new names, based on “political” logic touted on both the East and West sides. Levels of unemployment are disastrously high, corruption runs rampant, and the general state of precariousness makes optimism an impossible luxury. This scenario of economical disaster is terribly similar to the one that served to fuel ethnic and national hatred, which gave start to the war in 1992. In addition to this, unfair distribution of areas of influence and power raise tension between Croats and Moslems in Herzegovina; Moslems and Serbs in central Bosnia; while in northern Bosnia, it’s everybody against everybody else. Seventy-five per cent of economic aid to Bosnia-Herzegovina is spent on maintaining the country’s palaeolithic bureaucracy afloat, while the remaining 25% ends up financing the construction of places of worship rather than the restoration of factories. In this context, it’s easy to see how organized crime has been able to step in with its control of drug traffic and the arms business, two driving forces of the local economy. It is thought that an enormous quantity of arms still circulates in Bosnia-Herzegovina, ready to re-ignite the conflict at any time. In recent years 16 million bullets, 180,000 hand grenades, 43,000 rifles and pistols, 3,500 mines and 40,000 kilograms of explosives have been confiscated. Beginning in 2005 European EUFOR replaced NATO forces here, with the delicate task of keeping an utterly tenuous, fragile peace. Seven thousand new troops arrived, with headquarters at Sarajevo; a field division is located in Mostar. Despite the “no-war” situation declared a decade ago at Dayton, a truly peaceful solution to the seething conflict remains a far reach. 16 Stefilm via Berthollet 44 - 10125 Torino (Italy) - tel +39 011 6680017 - fax +39 011 6680003 - www.stefilm.it - info@stefilm.it
  • 17. “Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006 Stefilm via Berthollet 44 - 10125 Torino (Italy) - tel +39 011 6680017 - fax +39 011 6680003 - www.stefilm.it - info@stefilm.it 17
  • 18. “Mostar united” by Claudia Tosi, all rights reserved Stefilm © 2006 18 Stefilm via Berthollet 444410125 Torino (Italy) - teltel +39 011 6680017fax +39 011 6680003 - www.stefilm.it - info@stefilm.it Stefilm via Berthollet - - 10125 Torino (Italy) - +39 011 6680017 - - fax +39 011 6680003 - www.stefilm.it - info@stefilm.it