The Death of Yugoslavia

If you are interested in the Balkan wars, then this documentary is a must. I still cannot believe that they actually managed to talk to the people who were the lead characters of these events. It is absolutely unique to hear every one of them speak about it, share their story and be filmed while doing it. Not many a documentary has managed this kind of scope and well spent effort.

Clearly, there will be truths hidden that the interviewees did not want to speak about, but one should not expect miracles. Even so, this is a genuinely fascinating documentary that anyone, who is interested in this region's history, should see.

A word of caution though, there appear to be a number of people on this board, disagreeing, denying and generally dissatisfied about any film that shows the conflict as it really was and, hence, shows Serbs in a less than a positive light.

Pay no attention, even to this day, there are people in Austria and Germany who deny the atrocities of WWII; most of these people can hardly be helped by a documentary.

I found this series very helpful for understanding the events that led up to the wars in the 1990s. At times the analysis isn't very critical in the sense that events are shown as they happened without reflection about why they happened. It's strong suit is interviewing the principals and their comments and perceptions. One big weakness is the quality of the subtitles which were at times incomplete and even wrong. One example that comes to mind is in the first episode when they are discussing what kind of leader Stambolic is, and the subtitles say what kind of dictator. I'm shocked that the BBC paid so little attention to the subtitles which reflect a persistent bias.

Dear gentlemen,

I don't won't to waste my life by talking about politics, so my comment will be quite short and precise. The thing is that this movie is made by one side in the conflict. Which one? Of course, UK and USA. Therefor it cannot be objective in any way. In every country of Former Yugoslavia there is a opinion that there is at least 50 % of guilt for wars in Yugoslavia that could be blamed on foreign countries and their secret services, Germany and USA in particular. Also, Death and sufferings of civilians were used so many times in propaganda purposes by USA gov. The most flagrant use of media in those purposes is demonstrated in the movie that deals with making up the war in Albania ( I think that Al Pacino has a role of American president, but I'm not sure). Anyways, I am trying to be objective and pretty liberal, so, I am not putting myself in either side of the conflicts, although I come from Serbia. Nice greets to everyone!

As I am very interested in the wars in the former Yugoslavia I watched this quite famous series and expected an unbiased series which would deliver a lot of facts. However in this regard the series is very disappointing as it does not deliver facts but instead speculations and assumptions are shown as undeniable facts.

The series consists mainly of interviews with the main leaders of the warring factions and the UN representatives. This is the best part about this series as it shows us the different opinions on the events that happened. In between this interviews a narrator tells the viewer what happened and here this series fails on many occasions as it quite often presents assumptions as facts or tells us about the intentions behind certain events but completely lacks evidence for this. The most obvious assumption is the alleged deal between Milosevic and Tudjman about the division of Bosnia. The series tells us that this deal was the main reason for the war in Bosnia. What it does not tell us is that there is no evidence for such a deal. Mesic and Karadzic are interviewed about this deal however they both were not present during the Milosevic/Tudjman meeting. Moreover the director of this series, probably to support his thesis shows us the meeting right before the war in Bosnia, however the meeting took place before the war in Croatia. Also Tudjman's comment about Bosnia was intensified by the not very exact translation. When he said that "another" option was the division of Bosnia, it was translated by the narrator as "the only option" was the division. I realized the same thing several times while watching this series, that certain statements were intensified by a slightly inaccurate translation (I watched the German version, maybe the others are more accurate).

On other occasions the series is very one sided and superficial, for instance when it tells that the Serbs were afraid of Croatia because the Croat Coat of arms (the red and white checkerboard) was used during WWII. The series does not loose a single word on the fact that the checkerboard was used for hundreds of years, even in Yugoslavia, which renders the narrator's thesis that the checkerboard was the equivalent to the swastika completely wrong (Actually the U was the equivalent to the swastika).

In the end this series is interesting because of the interviews and some interesting footage, which is the reason why i gave it 3 out of 10. I do not agree with the previous reviewer that the documentary is flawed because of this. There is no ultimate truth about Yugoslavia, so by interviewing people from each side you get as close as possible. Another way would be to deliver facts like documents or audio/video footage to support the comments by the narrator on certain events and here this series fails almost completely.

Whoever translated the Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian portions of this program into English ought to be ashamed of themselves. There are so many instances where the meaning of the speakers' words is obscured or distorted. Here are just a few examples:

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Speaker: "They simply could not believe their eyes, how it could all have been filmed in the offices in which they were conferring…not conferring, in which they were talking about the heinous crimes that they want to commit."

Subtitles: "They could not believe their eyes! They had been filmed planning murder and treason."

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Speaker: "They have an ethnically pure republic, they have no territorial disputes."

Subtitles: "It was an ethnically pure republic - no Serbs."

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Speaker: "I asked him if they are aware that they chose war."

Subtitles: "I said: 'This means war'."

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Speaker: "Until then, I never in my life saw a man who was as scared as him. I think that in a period of 30 minutes, he went to the toilet 10 times. Most likely he got, uh, diarrhea or something similar."

Subtitles: "I have never seen a man so scared. He went to the toilet ten times. Perhaps it was something he had for lunch."

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Such shoddy translation might be acceptable for a Hollywood action film, but it completely ruined what could have been an excellent war documentary.