'Videoletters : Vlada & Ivica.', openDemocracy

Thu, 24 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Still from Vlada & Ivica © Videoletters
Vlada (left) and Ivica

When they were boys, Vlada Tanasijevic, a Serb, and Ivica Krilèiæ, a Croat, were friends. Their fathers worked for the same company and their families got to know each other. In the winter Ivica would visit Vlada’s family to go sledging. In the summer, Vlada would stay with the Krilèiæ’s when they holidayed on Croatia’s coast.

When the war broke out they did not hear from each other for ten years. Mr Tanasijevic felt that as Serbs “they have every reason to hate us”. He preferred to imagine that they were still friends, for “if you pick up the phone you run the risk of having to admit : I don’t have friends in Zagreb anymore.” Through the Videoletters project the Tanasijevic family finally summoned the courage to contact their friends.

Videoletters was set up by Dutch filmmakers Katarina Rejger and Eric van den Broek as an attempt to re-establish friendships that have been ruptured by the Balkan conflict. Friends are given a video camera with which they can make initial contact, and relationships, feuds, and misunderstandings are repaired.

A series of exchanges has been shown in film festivals worldwide and episodes have been broadcast on a weekly basis and at the same time on national television in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Kosovo. The project has now been extended to feature a website which, through the use of blogs and emails, provides further means of communication.

To view Vlada and Ivica’s videoletter click here

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'Videoletters : Vlada & Ivica.', openDemocracy