The Other Side of Everything

Just paying my respect to the director of the such a human work that today we see a few like this.

We as a Iranian especially aren't stranger to this situations. Our parents tell us about revolution and the war after that.

Hope that after about four years more people see this valuable documentary.

"Your generation need to find their way"

Thanks you mila Greetings from Iran.

War is never something ... at least for me it is something that I do not fully understand. But what does it do with individuals that are really affected by it? You have things to look back to, family members that are lost, things left behind, be it in locked rooms or in your head.

A not really easy watch, but well handled look at the balkan war (I think that is what it's called) - a personalized look into it, with quite the flavor. If you like documentaries about interesting people and their stories, this one is for you. And very well made too.

By the time I checked, there were two reviews of this title: One giving it a 1/10, criticising the use of "fictitious" or "distorted" facts in the film; the other giving it a 10/10 for the "realistic" approach. As a non-expert I will not be commenting the political content of this film, may others do it, scholars or eye witnesses. Yet it is an amazing documentary, weaving personal and historical content together into a strong storyline that is accesible at all times and moving in ways you did not expect. The director manages to tell the meta-story of Serbia while linking it to the micro-story of her mother, a way of story telling which is beautiful to watch but hard to pull of.

The film it's a refreshing look and an insight to the anti-regime movement in the 90s. Although some of the facts were biased, as the movies protagonist was an activist against the regime it still stumbles on some very good points. Srbijanka Trajlic is the protagonist in the movie and she is offered as a very interesting character, a "defeated bourgeois" she calls herself. Let alone the political aspect of the movie, that shows us the other side of the political situation in Yugoslavia, the movie has various topics buried underneath, that are touched in very subtle ways. "The Other Side of Everything" is a refreshing look to anyone interested in the end of the Yugoslavian regime. Especially for youngsters in the Balkans, wanting to see a different approach to this topic.

This documentary gives us a nice overview of Yugoslavia history, mixed with the personal story of a family and its appartment - with a main focus on Srbijanka Turajlic, a human rights and freedom activist that was involved in lot of serbian historical moments.

On top of that - and that is in my opinion the top objective of this movie - it makes you think on how we, you, I would have act - or not. A question that the director of the documentary, Srbijanka's daughter, is forced to face with the come back of nationalism of Serbia. But a question, we all have to face in our times, and answers are not easy ones.