Customer Reviews

Vukovar [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It has been a decade since the November 1991 fall of Vukovar. It is good to remember that this was the first atrocity in the wars that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia, coming long before the shelling of Dubrovnik, the rape camps of Prijedor, the seige of Sarajevo, and the massacre at Srebrenica. The ferocity of the violence levelled against civilians in Vukovar established a pattern that was to be repeated too often over the next four years and led to at least four indictments by the UN war crimes tribunal. This film is not without flaws, but it is pretty good nonetheless. We see street fighting, and we know that the protagonist is a soldier in the Yugoslav Army, but the broader political question of why the Yugoslav army is utterly destroying a city it claims is within Yugoslavia is left unexplained. Viewers fluent in Serbo-Croatian or familiar with the political landscape of Yugoslavia will immediately understand that the boy is a Serb and the girl a Croat, and the unfolding of the rest of the plot will be a simple formulaic exercise. However, for newcomers, some introductory text would have been useful to clarify who is who. The love story itself is fairly predictable and the cast is competent. But the real star of the film is Vukovar itself. Once a lively river town of mixed ethnicity now reduced to rubble by a few months of intensive artillery shelling and ultimately street-to-street fighting. The scenes are unforgettable, the citizens huddled in basements scarcely believing how their lives descended into chaos in such a short time, tanks plowing down city streets firing artillery into attractive houses, bodies floating down the Danube, insane women stirring their cauldrons like Macbeth's witches, and the inevitable "dogs of war" thriving on the lawlessness accompanying the misery. Watching the destruction of a city is a wrenching experience, but perhaps an important lesson. We shouldn't forget Vukovar.

What this film does very effectively is show how imaginary boundaries (in this case ethnic boundaries) are constructed very quickly by even the most civilized populations once fear grips a city and how those imaginary boundaries take on a reality even in the minds of those who never had such prejudices before during times of war. Boundaries which are difficult to dismantle once the war is over as so much violence has been done under the banners flown by each side. The propaganda may seem ridiculous to thinking people, the idea of ethnic purity utterly absurd, but the violence has an undeniable reality. The phenomena that makes people surrender their individuality to a mass movement is perhaps incomprehensible and unexplainable. All a film can do is show how particular individuals deal with such a circumstance.

What is interesting about this film is that there are no extremists in it. Every character in this film is a victim whether he be a Serb or a Croat. The only people that benefit from the war are thieves. The main characters are a couple who are married on the day Ethnic Nationalism begin to flair up. One of them is a Serb and one a Croat. As the war escalates those imaginary boundaries which divide the country will divide this couple as well. Perhaps permanently. Because even though neither believes in the ethnic propaganda they both experience too much violence between their respective races to ever see each other in the same light again. Such is the tragedy of this couple and the tragedy of Yugoslavia.

When I first saw the film "Vukovar" I was a Serbian / Croatian language student at the Defense Language Institute. I saw it over a year ago and the film still sticks with me. This film proves that war is hell. It proves that the situation in the war zone is a world away from the situation reported by CNN. This film made me deeply contemplate the nature of the profession of arms and ask some very important introspective questions. On a lighter side this film also proves that the Balkan peoples are some of the world's best film-makers and the beauty of the Serbian / Croatian language.

Largely, I agree with the review given above. I saw "Vukovar" with a Serbian friend while a student at NC State University, and it is a film which is impossible to forget. The story is very moving, and the talented cast portrays each role with an emotional depth which surpasses most reknowned actors. The scenery, distressingly showing the natural beauty of the Balkans in ruin of war, is filmed with remarkable insight into the resonance of its symbolism in the human plot. The score, featuring selections from Mozart's Requiem mass, is exquisite and heart-wrenching. I recommend this film to every man, woman, and child who has ever believed in the glorified myths of war we inherit from our media. "Vukovar" is the truth of war. I have never seen another film that brought tears to everyone who witnessed it. You will never forget "Vukovar."

I saw this film around '95 and was blown away by it. Not being a speaker of Serbo/Croat, I didn't perceive the subtle propaganda mentioned by another reviewer. However, I would say that the film didn't concentrate much on the political aspects of the war. The film focuses on the human tragedy and does a wonderful job of making you feel how devastating war really is. The film may not help to clarify who was really at fault for the atrocities that occurred, but helps you to understand a little more how awful atrocities are. In this country, most people did not care about the war in Bosnia while it was going on, and as a result we did nothing to stop it. Anyone who saw this movie would feel sorry that our country did nothing to help until it was too late, because the movie illustrates the extent of what we ignored, the utter destruction of an incredibly beautiful country.

This video is really a reality rappresentation of the war situation in Vukovar...
I saw the video before going to Vukovar this summer,and it really gave me an idea of what caused all those distructions that all the houses still have on their faces...
I recommand to visit Vukovar, and to don't forget what's happened in Yugoslavia in those days and how hard it is to restart a life in these years..
I really hope to go back to Vukovar someday next year...it has been a wonderfull experience!
ByE DANIEL from ITALY

This was a good video that showed how the war in Yugoslavia tore up a family, a city and a nation. It is one of the best movies available and doesn't focus on who was right or wrong, or on the inaccuracies of the media coverage. It just showed how a couple, one serb and one croat who were married before the war, were divided and conquered by war.

Note that the film was made during the wartime period in Bosnia famous for snipers shooting civilians in Sarajevo; the character is a sniper, but shoots hands, objects, and so forth; the killer he serves with in the JNA is a muslim, of course; all the Nationalists that interrupt up the wedding party with a parade are Croats, and no mention is made of Serbian nationalism; the film is an insidious attempt to make all parties equally guilty of human rights violations; a review of who has been indicted at the Hague seems to be in order. "Welcome to Sarajevo" is better, and less biaised. I'd put this in the category with "Pretty Village, Pretty Flame" - a trap for the unwary. (The author lived and worked in Bosnia and Croatia for two years).