No. 7 The Reckoning (2009)

Battle for the International Criminal Court

A couple of years ago I saw this documentary at a Human Rights Watch film festival held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London.  The ICA is one of my favourite venues, hosting a number of interesting film festivals throughout the year and also some great art and live music events.  

A number of documentaries have been made about Luis Moreno Ocampo, the former Prosecutor of the ICC. Moreno Ocampo, the Argentine lawyer who first prosecuted the military Junta in 1985 and 1986 in Argentina, became the first prosecutor of the ICC when it was established in 2002 (following the coming into force of the Rome Statute 1998).  

The documentary 'The Reckoning' follows Ocampo on his missions to Uganda, the Congo, Central African Republic and Colombia over the course of three years.  Made by the same team of filmmakers of 'When the Mountains Tremble' and 'How to nail a dictator' the documentary interviews witnesses, survivors and staff members of the ICC and demonstrates the difficulties faced by Moreno Ocampo in prosecuting war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in the Hague.  

According to Pamela Yates:
'The film is about accountability. It's about bringing the perpetrators of the worst crimes happening in the world to justice'. 

As part of this skylight pictures has partnered with Facing History to create a short course on 'Teaching the Reckoning' available here: http://www.pbs.org/pov/reckoning/teaching.php

The documentary thus carries out important outreach work for the ICC teaching people around the world why the ICC is necessary.  

No. 6 As if I am not there (2010)

Gender crimes during the Balkan conflict 

As the posts on Esma's Secret and the Secret Life of Words shows there are a number of movies which deal with the consequences of rape and sexual violence during the conflict in the Former Yugoslavia.  More recently, a number of films have focused on women and their experiences of the conflict.  These include today's movie As if I am not there, Snow and In the Land of Blood and Honey, Angelina Jolie's controversial film. 

As if I am not there (2010), directed by Juanita Wilson, an Irish director, is based on the book by Croatian journalist Slavenka Drakulic.  Drakulic has written many books including an excellent book 'They would never hurt a fly: war criminals on trial at the Hague'. To gather the material for both these books Drakulic spent time at the International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) watching the trials.  In 'They would never hurt a fly' she gives descriptions of those prosecuted by the Tribunal while in 'As if I am not there' she tells the story of 'S' a victim of sexual violence during the Balkan conflict. 

The movie starts a little differently from the book and focuses on a young woman who moves from the city to a village to take her first post as a teacher.  Shortly after her move Serbian soldiers come to the village, separating the men and boys from the women and girls and set fire to the houses in the village.  The protagonist is then transported to a camp where the women are held in sexual slavery.  Girls as young as 12 are brutally and repeatedly gang raped by the soldiers. 'S' is then chosen by an army captain who 'saves her' for himself.  S is expected to dress up, put on make up and have dinner with the captain, as well as sleep with him.  Finally, she is released and escapes to Sweden where she claims asylum.  This is where the book by Drakulic begins.  S is refused an abortion since her pregnancy is too far through and she is forced to give birth. 

The plot of the film is roughly similar to that of In the Land of Blood and Honey,  and there are strong echoes of the Kunarac trial running throughout both films.  The movie is in Bosnian and was filmed in Macedonia.  Worth watching but warning, the sexual violence is extremely graphic. A de-brief may be necessary afterwards.  

No. 5: Turtles can fly ( 2004)

A recommendation 

I decided to watch this movie after it was recommended to me by a fellow intern.  She told me that it had invoked a strong reaction in her.  I asked her if it was good and she replied that she did not know what my criteria was to be able to answer my question. When I review the films, I often do not have a particular criteria in mind.  I am not fixated by the 'legal realism' which dominated much of law and film scholarship beforehand.  I am not really interested in watching In the Name of the Father (1993) and pointing out all the procedural inaccuracies.  Nor am I purely looking at the formal aspects of cinematography.  Being quite new to film studies, I often find myself captivated by the film and drifting off, instead of critically assessing the shots, editing and mise-en-scene so de rigeur for film scholars.  But whatever the criteria Turtles Can Fly is an excellent film.  

According to the director Bahman Ghobadi 'Just as the world TV networks were announcing the end of the war, I began to make a film whose leading stars were neither Bush, nor Saddam, nor any other dictators.  Those people had been the media stars the world over.  Nobody mentioned the Iraqi people.  There hadn't been a single shot of the Iraqis. They were mere extras...' 

The film focuses on the plight of children in refugee camps on the Iraqi/Turkish border.   Shot on location, the film beautifully captures the consequences of war and poverty for children, who are often rendered extremely vulnerable.  Many of the street children in the film have lost their limbs due to the Italian and US landmines.  They receive money for picking them from the fields.  

The film also tells the story of a girl, Agrin, and her brother, Hengov, who has lost his arms after stepping on a landmine.  They have a small, blind child with them.  It transpires that the toddler is the child of the girl.  Through flash backs we see that the girl has been brutally raped by the men who killed their parents.  


Through the course of the film I came to emotionally connect with the characters.  Satellite, a boy in command of the children, the boy with no arms who can tell the future, the young boys collecting mines and hoping to be rescued by the American soldiers, the girl who has given birth to a baby that she does not want...

I have to thank my friend for this recommendation. An excellent and very moving film.  

No. 4 Secret Life of Words (2005)

 La Vida Secreta de las Palabras

I first watched this film a couple of years ago after reading the IMBD description.  Imbd says that this film is about a hearing impaired woman who gives up her first holiday in years to look after a man who sufferes from severe burns (Tim Robbins). The film is set in Northern Ireland (I think in Newry from the scenery but I could be wrong) and an oil rig, where most of the action takes place. 

I was attracted to the film not by the description of the storyline but because of the director, Isabel Coixet.  Coixet is the Spanish (Catalan) director who has made a number of movies including, My Life Without me (about a 23 year old woman dying of cancer) and Elegy (based on a book by Philip Roth and starring Penelope Cruz). 

I was surprised to find that my synopsis of the movie would have been very different from IMBD.  So here goes:  

The Secret Life of Words revolves around a woman, Hanna, who has been subjected to sexual violence and torture in the Former Yugoslavia and is subsequently rendered mute (literally silenced). Hanna informs the man that she cares for (Tim Robbins) that she cannot speak of her experiences because she may never stop crying.

The film has two strong female characters, with Julie Christie playing the role of Inge Genefke, a doctor and one of the founders of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT). Coixet has stated that ‘I wanted to include her in the film because as long as there are women like her, there is hope that the world can become a better place’. 

Women are thus depicted as both victims and key actors following the conflict.  Coixet made the film after hearing about the mass rape of an estimated 20,000 women.  The central theme of silence throughout the film is a stark reminder of the criticisms voiced by many legal scholars about the treatment of witnesses in international legal proceedings and the historical marginalization of gender crimes. 

Worth watching.

No. 3 of 120: Esma's Secret (2006)

 Grbavica: The land of my dreams 

One of the best movies about consequences of the Balkan conflict.  The storyline focuses on the life of a single mother and her teenage daughter in the Grbvica neighbourhood of Sarajevo. As the plot unfolds it becomes apparent that the mother Esma (played by Mirjana Karanovic) was raped by a Serbian soldier and became pregnant as a result. 

According to Mochmann and Larsen in their article “Children Born of War: The Life Course of Children Fathered by German Soldiers in Norway and Denmark During WWII—Some Empirical Results.” Historical Social Research/HistorischeSozialforschung (2008): 347–363, 361. 

 "How important it is to provide information to society concerning children born of sexual exploitation and abuse is clearly seen by the impact of the film “Grbvica”. The film produced in 2006 told the story of a relationship between a Bosnian woman who had been raped by a Serbian soldier during the civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and gave birth to a daughter. This film created a shock in society and raised the awareness of the topic in society. A positive consequence of the movie was that rape victims were acknowledged as victims of war and do now receive a small pension." 

Written and directed by Jasmila Zbanic, the film is definitely worth watching.  It it also an example of how popular culture and film in particular can be used to influence the law. The film is also interesting in its depiction of post-traumatic stress.  Esma suffers from trauma and re-lives the experience of her sexual assault in certain scenes.  Through the film the director speaks of crimes which are both 'unspeakable' and 'undiscussable' to use to terminology of Serbian sociologist, Janja Bec.  However, under pressure from her daughter who wishes to go on a school trip, Esma and the film finally break the silence surrounding her trauma.  

La Historia Oficial

Awaiting the Historic Decision

Today the Tribunal Oral Federal 6 in Buenos Aires, Argentina will hand down a historic judgment in the prosecution of Jorge Rafeal Videla, the former military dictator of Argentina and 10 others on trial for 'el robo de bebés'(the systematic kidnapping of babies). The case would be the first to find that there was a 'systematic plan' thus qualifying it as a crime against humanity. 

 An estimated 500 children were robbed from their parents in Argentina. This crime has become the focus of activism in the country, led by the Madres and now Abuelas de la plaza de mayo. It was also the subject matter of La Historia Oficial (1985) directed by Luis Puenzo. This was the first Latin American movie to win an Oscar. 

In the film, the central character, a married middle class woman, beings a journey in which she is led to question the ‘official story’ of the military Junta and to uncover the origins of her own adopted daughter. As she seeks to discover the ‘truth’ other stories of sexual violence, silenced in the trials of the military Junta in the 1980s, emerge. Her best friend Ana tells her that she was tortured and raped in a clandestine detention centre. The rape as torture, rape as a crime against humanity, sexual violence against men and women implicit in the film, would later be documented in Truth Commission reports and form part of the testimony of women in the ‘truth trials’. It would appear on screen graphically rather than implicitly in films such as the Night of the Pencils (1986) and Garaje Olimpo. The film is definitely worth watching.

You can read more about the Videla case in Spanish here: http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/ultimas/20-197982-2012-07-05.html

Welcome to Sarajevo

I've previously seen some excellent movies about the Balkan conflict so I was apprehensive when I chose this English movie. The movie is directed by Michael Winterbottom and contains some big name actors like Woody Harrelson, Kerry Fox (also in the movie Storm about the ICTY) and Dr Kovac from ER! The film was inspired by the true story of ITV news reporter Michael Nicholson, who after months of reporting on the siege of Sarajevo, smuggled a child out of the city and adopted her. 

In formal cinematic terms its not the best movie you will ever see.  However, it does contain some interesting footage filmed at the time of the conflict.  The first half of the movie is pretty slow, although it does pick up in the second half. 

One of the key messages of the film is that the war does not end when it is declared to be over.  The consequences of conflict remain and rebuilding the rule of law and security remains a hard battle.  Another issue that the film focuses on is the ethnics of journalism.  Watchdog or sensationalists? For recent academic work in this field check out Daniel Joyce and the 'Mediatisation of International Law'.  

Enjoy.