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A
"bracing half-hour documentary" that "reconfigures simplistic
definitions of victim-hood…without pushing for transcendence,
the film finds a balance between reportage and expressionism." "There
are those who believe that history repeats itself and those who
believe that economic forces and balance of power determine the
course of history. I have always questioned the very concept of
history and I have always been confronted with the power of biographies.
At the end of the day as the document proves, history does not
exist only biographies do, more than that history does not kill
and institutions do not destroy buildings, the only entity on
this earth that can do that is the individual. To me your documentary
makes this point." "A
terrific documentary…truly wonderful work." "This
moving and compelling documentary focuses on what is perhaps the
foremost challenge facing humanity in the 21st Century - the deeply
entrenched roots of violence stemming from ethnic, national and
ideological identity. This touching person to person relationship
between Natasa and Tahija across these borders is a timely reminder
of the power of the human spirit to triumph over the destructive
forces of ego identities. This important film should be shown
in all schools, in fact it should be seen by all who seek to be
global "Picture Me an Enemy offers a unique snapshot into the lives of two women affected by the war in the former Yugoslavia. This film is a human interest portrait with a universal message and is especially good for those with little or no knowledge about Bosnia or the events that led to war in the former Yugoslavia region. Escpecially good for high schools.." Nancy Snow, Ph.D., Author of Propaganda, Inc. and Information War "Provocative and insightful, it presented perspectives of two young women, both of whom defied stereotypical images of victims of war in the former Yugoslavia. I felt the documentary made the war more "alive" and real for its audience. War happens every day and to everyone - and yet it is also in our power to confront and face it head on. In fact, the documentary made it clear that we all have the responsibility to rethink how we view war and its victims if we want to promote peace." Sue Nahm, Program Administrator, Columbia University Undergraduate Human Rights Program "This is a realistic portrayal of two different young women confronting their own suffering of war, the nostalgia and guilt for being in exile, the fear for their families, and the difficulties of adapting to a new environment that hardly understands what they are going through. Through processes that we still know very little about, they move forward with their lives incorporating such experiences. What makes this documentary so unique to the professionals that work with survivors of violence, is the way it shows how resiliency ends up nurturing their will to live their daily lives in the best possible way. It is the progress from suffering to resiliency that is reflected through the courageous vulnerability they both show is what resonates out of this great work." Arancha Garcia del Soto, Director of Refugee Initiatives at the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict "Unlike most of the movies that try to explain war, ethnic conflict, identity transformation, gender dynamic and suffering, Picture Me an Enemy does not provide any answers but forces its audience to engage with continuous dialectic of pain and freedom, ugliness and beauty, Muslim and Serb. Here we find no answers, but new paths that led to discovering of complex relationships between violence and subjectivity, past and future, war and peace." One of the greatest successes of this film is the fact that one who watches it immediately identifies, both mentally and emotionally, with the stories, the voices, the faces on the screen and recognizes that war and suffering are not attributes of some distant, backwards people out there; this film shows that war can happen to anyone, and that we are all involved." Azra Hromadzic, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Pennsylvania "Moving and artfully constructed...provided fodder for writing and discussion in class while serving as a metaphor for how nations are currently fanning the flames of war through demonizing 'the other'." Educator Jeffrey Benton, Ph.D., Springfield High School, Pennsylvania |
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