Through the dilemmas of two young people, the short film “Encounter” raises the question of what the significance of dealing with the past is for young generations. Should wars and their victims be left in the past, as an unknown to young generations which should only think about the future? Besides this, the film attempts to present the basic premiess of international criminal law and its significance. The pre-premiere showing of the film was on 27th January 2012 in the Media Centre in Niš, and students of the law faculty were able to talk with Morgiana Brading from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia office in Belgrade. Novak Vučo, a researcher at the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor of the Republic of Serbia, and Nevena Dičić Kostić, a researcher of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights. Photographs from the debate are available here.
On 22nd February 2012 the premiere of the film was in Vuk Karadžić in Belgrade and the event was opened by Michael Davenport, the ambassador of Great Britain and Vojin Dimitrijević, the director of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights. Following the film and the presentation of the team that participated in its production, students of the Faculty of Political Science and the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade debated on the following subject: “This house would support trying suspects of war crimes and crimes against humanity before international courts”. The topic of the debate sought to stir interest among students to consider arguments for and against trying such suspects before international or national courts in a tolerant and critical fashion. Vesna Pešić, an independent Member of the National Assembly; Novak Vučo, a researcher at the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor of the Republic of Serbia; Zvezdana Crnogorac, a political officer at the British embassy in Serbia; Morgiana Brading from the ICTY office in Serbia and Filip Čolović, the film director addressed the students on this topic.
The film “Encounter” was shown on the 6th of March in the Cultural Centre in Novi Pazar. Following the projection, a debate took place between members of the public and the panelists: Morgiana Brading, from the ICTY office in Belgrade; Jelena Stevančević, political advisor for war crimes to the OSCE in Serbia; Aida Ćorović, from the Urban In organization in Novi Pazar and researchers from the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights.
Many interesting issues arose during this discussion, relating to the reaction of the international community to the massive human rights violations, the violation of international humanitarian law as well as the judgements that have been brought. Besides this, there was also discussion of the possible ways of overcoming the past and of the role of younger generations in this process.
