By Dragan Bursac, CdM columnist
“So you can’t at the same time support Tomo Buzov and the team from Croatia that’s making a film about this hero, and on the other hand the Church of Serbia, which backed the promotion of Milan Lukic’s book, celebrating Tomo’s murderer. It looks like the Montenegro Film Centre chose its side, that is, the side of the monster Lukic. And whose side are you on, Montenegro?”
Dragan Bursac/ Photo: Screenprint Gradska RTV
The news about the Croatian short film ‘The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent’ by Nebojsa Slijepcevic receiving Palme d’Or in the 77th Cannes Film Festival has gone viral.
Soon after, it was revealed that the production team asked for the support of the Montenegrin Film Centre back in 2022, in the competition for minority co-production support but was refused.
Epic fail or targeted disinterest
It looks like the Film Centre of Montenegro had some more important things to do. Maybe they were burning incense sticks, or went to a church service, or attended the Chetnik-inspired gatherings. You know what I want to say – maybe they were doing what any regular person who attended religious processions would do whenever Croatia would be mentioned, and particularly the film about some former Yugoslav army member who had opposed the Chetnik war criminal Milan Lukic, who, together with his paramilitary unit ‘Avengers’, had kidnapped and killed passengers from the Belgrade-Bar train on 27 February 1993, just because they had different names. A total of 18 Bosniaks and one Croat – Tomo Buzov – were killed back then.
The fact that the Montenegrin Film Centre made an epic fail is best proved by the fact that, ahead of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, nearly 4.200 short films applied for the competition, of which 1o were short-listed, while Slijecevic’s ‘The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent’ received the award.
But maybe this isn’t about an ‘epic fail’, but a targeted disinterest demonstrated by the Montenegro Film Centre and its management.
And why is that so?
Having in mind that Aleksandra Bozovic, the former candidate of the right-wing Dveri, is running the centre, it’s good that they were merely rejected without stones being thrown at them.
Because, do not forget it – Bozovic was and still is the protégé of Vesna Bratic, a Chetnik woman as she called herself, and before her engagement in the Film Centre, she worked as advisor to the head of the Novi Sad Culture Centre, Andrej Fajgelj, an ultra-nationalist whose views are almost neo-fascist. And she was his advisor!
Dear God, what a wonderful recommendation!
Luckily, there hasn’t been a film portraying Milan Lukic as a hero. Yet.
Considering the Film Centre’s management, it’s good that we don’t have a film portraying Milan Lukic, the monster who killed the kidnapped at the Strpci train station, including Tomo Buzov, as a hero.
And I don’t think that it’s unlikely. Don’t think that it’s impossible, because, in July 2011, the priests of the Church of Serbia, i.e. the spiritual guides of both Bratic and Bozovic, organized the promotion of a book published by that same Milan Lukic, the monster, war criminal and mass killer at the premisses of the St. Sava temple in Vracar, Belgrade. Yeah, that’s true.
For those who don’t know, the monster Milan Lukic is known not only for the kidnapping and murder of innocent civilians from the Strpci station, but also for burning people alive in Pionirska Street in Visegrad. Milan Lukic was found guilty of murdering 59 Muslim women, children and the elderly. On June 14, 1992, the victims were locked in a room in the house, which was then set on fire. It was found that Milan Lukic placed an explosive device in that room, which set the house on fire. Then he shot at people who tried to escape the burning house.
He was also found guilty of murdering at least 60 Muslim civilians in a house in the Visegrad neighborhood of Bikavac on June 27, 1992. The Trial Chamber of the Hague Tribunal established that Milan Lukic and another armed group forced civilians into the house, after which they blocked all the exits, and threw several explosive devices and gasoline into the house and set it on fire.
This is only a small part of the archipelago of horrors created by the inhuman Lukic, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Isn’t that something!
And Tomo Buzov demonstrated resistance, he stood up and said:
“Stop, people, what are you doing, are there any laws in this country?!” He was shot as well, as a punishment.
And then, when you are presented with a scenario like this, a story about a hero, a story about a man who surpasses all of us, you say to the production team – no way, we are not interested in it, it’s not for us. Or, it has no artistic value. And there were paratroopers at the Film Center for whom Slijepcevic’s story did not have the “necessary artistic value”. Well, in Cannes it has that value, but in the refreshed Podgorica – no.
So you tell me how I should interpret such a position of the Montenegrin Film centre, run by the (former) Zavetnica? It’s hardly an “accidental, procedural mistake”.
It’s more like – everything is just like it’s supposed to be in a defeated country, in a country where clero-nationalists have come to power, while non-Chetniks, by glorifying the criminals, blackmail the few normal people who show up.
So, you can’t at the same time support Tomo Buzov and the team from Croatia that’s making a movie about this hero, and on the other hand the Church of Serbia, backing the promotion of Milan Lukic’s book, celebrating Tomo’s murderer. It looks like the Montenegro Film Centre chose its side, that is, the side of the monster Lukic. And whose side are you on, Montenegro?”
(The opinions and views of our columnists aren’t necessarily those of the CdM news team)
