Text by:
Aisa Coric & Carin Carlund
Event Committee
event@ufgbg.se
The Event Committee under The Society of International Affairs Gothenburg is always arranging thought provoking and educational film screenings. We are also the ones that plan and organize the trips that are very popular amongst our members. For the rest of the semester, we have chosen the theme ’Peace and Conflict’ to direct our events.
With our film festival that takes place this weekend, from Saturday to Sunday, we want to
emphasize the vulnerability of citizens exposed to state and interstate conflict. The festival will be including films with themes such as refugees of war, current conflicts, post-conflict reconciliation and more.
Our program is listed below. However, we want to highlight the opportunity we have been given to screen the Post-Conflict Research Center´s Ordinary Heroes documentary series. The PCRC is a NGO located in Sarajevo, working for peace and reconciliation in Bosnia-Hercegovina and the greater Balkans region. They use creative multimedia projects that foster tolerance, moral courage, mutual understanding, and positive change. For their innovative ideas and accomplishments in reaching out to civil society, they received the UNAOC:s Intercultural Innovation Award for Ordinary Heroes. The focus of the series is to show acts of great courage and humanity. By choosing to save ”the other” the Bosnian citizens rescued many and became heroes during the darkest time in the country’s history. Through interviews with the rescuers and the saved, as well as conversations with neighbors, friends and family that contribute to their stories, the documentary series shows what an impact rescuer behavior has on the process of reconciliation, peace building, and democratic transition.
We will also be screening a documentary about Georgia after the August war, as well as a short documentary on the role women have played in post-conflict Rwanda. To emphasize the broader consequences that war and conflict has, there will be screenings of I am Dublin, Evaporating Borders and Nowhere Home that presents the struggle of refugees making their way to Europe and the vigorous asylum-process they have to go through.
To get more in-depth knowledge of post-conflict countries and democratic transition, 13 people from the Society of International Affairs Gothenburg will be traveling to Tbilisi, Georgia in the beginning of December. To spread the knowledge they have gained during our study visit, they will be given the chance to present their experiences in lectures, seminars, or by writing articles for Utblick.
If our work sounds interesting to you, feel free to contact us. We are always looking for new active members and would be happy to discuss how you can contribute to our committee.
Program (read as pdf here):
14th of November, Saturday
13.00 PCRC documentary series MINA & FERID. 30 min.
This is the story of Ferid who, during the Bosnian War, was taken against his will into the
mountains of the Romania region in Eastern Bosnia where he was to be executed. Out of 77, he was the only one to escape. In his search from captivity only one woman stepped forward to take the ultimate risk and save his life. That woman was Mina.
ZORAN & AZRA. 30 min.
This episode focuses on the story about Bosnian rescuer Zoran Mandlbaum, a Jewish man from the city of Mostar. During the Bosnian War, Zoran had the choice to leave, but the legacy of the Holocaust motivated him to stay and initiate various humanitarian efforts to help the trapped people within the city and nearby concentration camps.
14.20 I AM DUBLIN. 1h 15 min.
A documentary portraying a fictional story based on a real life event. Ahmed plays a character that mirrors his own life story. Enforced into leaving his fingerprints when arriving to the Italian island Lampedusa he becomes in that exact moment a Dublin-case.
16.30 THE VERDICT OF THE AUGUST WAR. 51 min.
Portraying the August War is an investigating journalistic production containing perspectives and views from the Georgian, Ossetian, and Abkhaz sides, with interviews with foreign experts that give a deeper insight into what happened those days in 2008.
15th of November, Sunday
13.00 PCRC documentary series JAGODA & HAMDIJA. 30 min.
This is the story of a young Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) boy who sought refuge in a time of war and two Catholic Croats who risked their own lives by taking them into their home in order to protect him.
13.40 GOD SLEEPS IN RWANDA. 28 min.
The Rwandan Genocide in 1994 resulted in a nearly 70 percent female population. Leaving Rwanda’s women a substantial burden, and an extraordinary opportunity: the process of rebuilding the country.
14.15 VOLONTOURISM – FOR BETTER AND WORSE. With a presentation from the director Jodie Whife. 30 min.
Volunteer tourism, or volontourism as it is called. is to combine your vacation with work at non-profit organisations. But what effect does this actually have on the society? This movie questions if the will to help actually can do more harm than good.
16.00 EVAPORATING BORDERS. 1h 13 min.
The film highlights the experience of asylum seekers in Cyprus. The different life paths are presented in a series of personal stories, guided by the filmmaker’s poetical reflections.
17.25 NOWHERE HOME (DE ANDRE). 1h 33 min.
They cross boarders with their bare feet, being smuggled by unknown people in trucks, boats, and containers, arriving to Norway without relatives or caregivers. Despite their vulnerable and exposed situation, the asylum seeking children in the film are granted temporary residence permits in Norway. When they reach the age of 18, they are to be deported back to their country of origin.