"Kosovo: Can You Imagine?" is a Canadian half-hour documentary from 2009, so this one will have its 10th anniversary soon. This one was written and directed by Boris Malagurski, who was still incredibly young when he worked on this one and yes he is still making films today. A lot in here is not in the English language, so chances are high you will need subtitles. The Kosovo conflict was a subject that was present in the media for quite a while, also way before this film was made, but at some point it just disappeared almost completely and made room for subjects the media deemed more importand and worthy to report on. And all this with the issues here far from solved. It did not just lose attention, but completely vanished from the mainstream media, which is another example of how neutral reports are something you are not gonna find on television, papers etc. today. So even if this is far from a new film, we can be glad that Malagurski brought some attention back here on individual fates, but also the situation as a whole. I will not even deny that here and there the production values looked a bit cheap admittedly, but we also need to keep in mind where this was filmed and under which circumstances and that the filmmaker was quite a rookie at this point. All these facts (not excuses) make it easy to look beyond the flaws here and there and enjoy (not sure that is the right word) and appreciate this little severely underseen movie. I am also surprised that this one received zero awards attention apparently and that is fairly shocking, but can perhaps also be seen as a political decision. In any case, this is certainly among the best 2009 has to offer in short films and documentaries and I highly recommend checking it out. Big thumbs-up here. Go for it.
6 Reviews
Very good documentary, and there's a more recent film from the same director-creator
mkcrbl28 August 2012
Putoestupido, I will say, has a fitting username. Stupido was the "quality" of his comment or so-called review.
Scoottie wrote, "This documentary continues the great works that have documented the tragic genocide against the Serbs for many years. ...".
Look for the more recent documentary by the same creator and director, the film, "The Weight of Chains (2010)", which is a little over two hours long. IMDb has a page for this more recent film, and SerbianYouthLeague uploaded the full video at YouTube. The director and creator of the film also posted an embedded copy at TV.GlobalResearch.ca.
Boris Malagurski has been also working on trying to produce a sequel to the latter 2010 film and there's a trailer for it. The trailer, a little over two minutes long, indicates that it will be a very good documentary, if it can be ever completed. There's a funding issue and donations are needed to be able to complete the creation of the sequel, "The Weight of Chains 2". The trailer can be found at TV.GlobalResearch.ca, or directly at YouTube.
For "The Weight of Chains (2010)", SerbianYouthLeague also uploaded some deleted portions at YouTube. People just need to search for "The Weight Of Chains | Deleted Scene". There're 3 deleted scenes, and they're each about two minutes long.
There're many other videos. There's, f.e., the "TalkingStickTV - Michael Parenti - The U.S. War on Yugoslavia" video at YouTube. It's runtime is 1:17:27 and it was uploaded by the TalkingStickTV channel in 2008. It should be interesting. Michael Parenti is one of the dozen or so contributors for "The Weight of Chains (2010)", for which the official website is www.weightofchains.com. There's a Credits page, there, and I guess the brief biographies are for everyone who contributed as speakers in the film.
And there're plenty of other videos regarding what the West has caused to Serbia and the Balkans.
Scoottie wrote, "This documentary continues the great works that have documented the tragic genocide against the Serbs for many years. ...".
Look for the more recent documentary by the same creator and director, the film, "The Weight of Chains (2010)", which is a little over two hours long. IMDb has a page for this more recent film, and SerbianYouthLeague uploaded the full video at YouTube. The director and creator of the film also posted an embedded copy at TV.GlobalResearch.ca.
Boris Malagurski has been also working on trying to produce a sequel to the latter 2010 film and there's a trailer for it. The trailer, a little over two minutes long, indicates that it will be a very good documentary, if it can be ever completed. There's a funding issue and donations are needed to be able to complete the creation of the sequel, "The Weight of Chains 2". The trailer can be found at TV.GlobalResearch.ca, or directly at YouTube.
For "The Weight of Chains (2010)", SerbianYouthLeague also uploaded some deleted portions at YouTube. People just need to search for "The Weight Of Chains | Deleted Scene". There're 3 deleted scenes, and they're each about two minutes long.
There're many other videos. There's, f.e., the "TalkingStickTV - Michael Parenti - The U.S. War on Yugoslavia" video at YouTube. It's runtime is 1:17:27 and it was uploaded by the TalkingStickTV channel in 2008. It should be interesting. Michael Parenti is one of the dozen or so contributors for "The Weight of Chains (2010)", for which the official website is www.weightofchains.com. There's a Credits page, there, and I guess the brief biographies are for everyone who contributed as speakers in the film.
And there're plenty of other videos regarding what the West has caused to Serbia and the Balkans.
Great Documentary
Scoottie11 December 2009
Warning: Spoilers
This documentary continues the great works that have documented the tragic genocide against the Serbs for many years. From the time of the Ottoman's through WW2 to present day Kosovo the Serbs have stood against evil while those around them have scummed to it. It is just sad that the USA has turned its back on such a great ally because the Albanians promised to let the USA build a military base in Kosovo, even thought the KLA as an arm of Al-Qaeda was at the top of the CIA watch list days before the bombing of Beograd. Kosovo is the Serbs as Mecca is to Muslims. America needs to stand by their ally. While Croats and others in the area sided with the Nazi's during WW2 and killed Serbs and American who were shot down, the Serbs risked everything to free Americans and Jews while fighting to rid the world of Nazi's.
Three books that people need to read are "The Serbs", "The holocaust in the " Independent State of Croatia " : An account based on German, Italian and other sources" and "The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All For the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II"
Three books that people need to read are "The Serbs", "The holocaust in the " Independent State of Croatia " : An account based on German, Italian and other sources" and "The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All For the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II"
A story, untold
jankoradovanovic1 January 2010
Warning: Spoilers
I watched this movie with my friends who knew little of what has happened in Kosovo since 1999, and I suggest you to do the same. The true story of Kosovo must come to the surface.
In March 2004, I went to a local newspaper store as usual. None of the papers wrote about burning of the churches, ethnic cleaning and new Serbian refugees, like it never happened! The war in Kosovo was not only between Albanians and Serbs. Americans and Russians had their fights few miles from our house. Both were trying to overtake the airport. Many foreign countries had and still have their interest in Kosovo.
There are so many other facts that this movie didn't covered, and I hope that the director Boris Malagurski, or somebody else will continue this work and tell the story of some of the top politicians in Kosovo today and their allies.
"The Winners Write The History", but that doesn't mean that the victims should keep quite. This is a great documentary, but it doesn't have any power unless many people have seen it. Especially people outside Balkan.
Love, peace & faith refugee from Pristina '99
In March 2004, I went to a local newspaper store as usual. None of the papers wrote about burning of the churches, ethnic cleaning and new Serbian refugees, like it never happened! The war in Kosovo was not only between Albanians and Serbs. Americans and Russians had their fights few miles from our house. Both were trying to overtake the airport. Many foreign countries had and still have their interest in Kosovo.
There are so many other facts that this movie didn't covered, and I hope that the director Boris Malagurski, or somebody else will continue this work and tell the story of some of the top politicians in Kosovo today and their allies.
"The Winners Write The History", but that doesn't mean that the victims should keep quite. This is a great documentary, but it doesn't have any power unless many people have seen it. Especially people outside Balkan.
Love, peace & faith refugee from Pristina '99
Sadly one-sided account
paulincrete2 June 2014
Malagurski is something of a hero among Serbians and the Serbian diaspora. He has made himself a hero by making wholly one-sided accounts of both ancient and recent history, often based on 'factual sources' that have been totally discredited in both the mainstream media and often also in International Courts.
Whether his account in this film is exaggerated I don't know, however he throws away any plausible claim to objectivity by simply ignoring the attempted expulsion of virtually the entire Albanian population of Kosovo, which was the catalyst for NATO action there. This attempted expulsion (complete with well-documented evidence of rape, brutal violence, and systematic looting), was attempted by Serbian para-militaries acting under direct instruction from Milosevic making a last-ditch attempt to hang onto power.
I feel sorry for Serbians if they are being badly treated in Kosovo, if this is happening it does not bode well for long-term peace there, but who is really to blame for that happening? Milosevic was given multiple explicit warnings as to what would happen if he chose to continue impeding UN observers and encouraging inter-ethnic abuses.
Whether his account in this film is exaggerated I don't know, however he throws away any plausible claim to objectivity by simply ignoring the attempted expulsion of virtually the entire Albanian population of Kosovo, which was the catalyst for NATO action there. This attempted expulsion (complete with well-documented evidence of rape, brutal violence, and systematic looting), was attempted by Serbian para-militaries acting under direct instruction from Milosevic making a last-ditch attempt to hang onto power.
I feel sorry for Serbians if they are being badly treated in Kosovo, if this is happening it does not bode well for long-term peace there, but who is really to blame for that happening? Milosevic was given multiple explicit warnings as to what would happen if he chose to continue impeding UN observers and encouraging inter-ethnic abuses.
Very biased film... very weird reviews.
Putoestupido20 March 2012
I tried watching this film an hour ago and have to say it's probably one of the most biased films I have ever seen. I say "tried" because I didn't bother watching it through... I just left it.
The film portrays the situation in modern-day Kosovo from a Serbian perspective. Granted it talks about a situation which is a reality, with the little Serbs remaining in the country left to deal with abuse on their own whilst being governed by a prime-minister known for its criminal ties, but very conveniently hides facts which led to the end of the former Republic of Jugoslavia.
If you ended up wanting to watch this after having watched the BBC documentary "The Death of Jugoslavia", look elsewhere - there are a lot of good books out there about this topic which are a lot less biased.
That's exactly why I thought the last reviews were strange and why I decided to lookup their authors - who, surprise surprise, wrote nothing else on IMDb. Weird, no?
The film portrays the situation in modern-day Kosovo from a Serbian perspective. Granted it talks about a situation which is a reality, with the little Serbs remaining in the country left to deal with abuse on their own whilst being governed by a prime-minister known for its criminal ties, but very conveniently hides facts which led to the end of the former Republic of Jugoslavia.
If you ended up wanting to watch this after having watched the BBC documentary "The Death of Jugoslavia", look elsewhere - there are a lot of good books out there about this topic which are a lot less biased.
That's exactly why I thought the last reviews were strange and why I decided to lookup their authors - who, surprise surprise, wrote nothing else on IMDb. Weird, no?
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