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Crime that Changed Serbia
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Wikipedia article
'See You in the Obituary' ( / 'Vidimo se u itulji') is a 1995 television documentary directed by Janko Baljak, and scripted by Aleksandar Kneevi and Vojislav Tufegdi. It is based on the book 'The Crime that Changed Serbia' ( / 'Kriminal koji je izmenio Srbiju') by Kneevi and Tufegdi and was produced by the Belgrade-based independent news broadcaster B92.
The unprecedented contacts and subsequent interviews with the criminals would have not been possible had not KneeviDue to the series of exclusive text about the Serbian underworld published mainly in the daily Politika, Kneevi was included in the book "The Hundred Persons Who Marked the Year 1993 in Belgrade". and Tufegdi been covering the post of organised crime in their respective magazines, gaining the trust of the depicted characters. In more than 90 percent of cases Kneevi and Tugedi, due to the dangerous circumstances that required extreme caution and as small film crew as possible, were accompanied only by a camera operator.
Made in the form of an extended news report and narrated by journalist Dina oli-Anelkovi, the film presents a snapshot of the chaotic Belgrade criminal underworld in the early 1990s which sprung up against the backdrop of Yugoslav wars. The film is composed of fragments from interviews with individuals directly involved with criminal activities either through perpetrating them or through trying to stop them.
Over the years the film developed a cult following, mainly due to its raw authenticity, characters interviewed, and the portrayal of the politically, economically and socially turbulent period of the early and mid 1990s in Serbia.
Synopsis
As the opening credits roll the film begins with shots of the infamous Milorad Ulemek (then commander of the Serbian police Special Operations Unit who was later convicted for his role in the 2003 assassination of Prime Minister Zoran ini) inspecting troops. Ulemek is not mentioned by name as he was still very much unknown to the Serbian general public at the time.
The narrator Dina oli-Anelkovi sets the tone by informing the audience that although Serbia was not directly and officially involved in the Yugoslav Wars, the country still very much felt its effects: country is under the United Nations trade embargo, the inflation rate is skyrocketing, streets of Serbian cities are flooded with weapons, and the brain drain is in full swing with young professionals leaving abroad. At the same time many local career criminals plying their trade in Western Europe have returned home to take advantage of the chaotic situation.
To further its point, the narration refers to the heinous crime that occurred on 1 December 1993 in the Belgrade municipality of Novi Beograd. Two returnees from the frontlines, Ilija Vuji and Darko Lonari, broke during early afternoon into the apartment at Pohorska Street inhabited by Verica idi and her 13-year-old son Davor. Vuji shot the mother in the liver, a technique he learned in the war that apparently allows the victim to live a little longer before succumbing, in order to have enough time to question her about her savings they were after. He then proceeded to kill her son as well. Belgrade police inspector Ljuba Milanovi is then interviewed about the gruesome double murder. He says that during questioning, Vuji's response to their question as to why he killed the son was: "Fuck the kid, he was supposed to be in school at that time of day, anyway." Narrator then says that before being apprehended by police, Vuji and Lonari had recounted their crime in detail in a packed Belgrade cafe. None of the cafe guests who had heard the story found it necessary to call the police. In the end, Vuji received the death penalty.However, while waiting on the death row, he was pardoned by Serbian president Milan Milutinovi because the death penalty had been abolished in Serbia in the meantime. Vuji's punishment was modified to 40 years in prison, the toughest penalty in the Serbian criminal code, which he has been serving since late 1993 in the Zabela high-security prison near Poarevac.
The movie then shifts to interviews with various Belgrade gangsters. While some of them act through close-knit criminal clans, others seem to be freelancers. Many of them have also done work for the Serbian state security agencies.
The movie ends with showing funerals of three actors that were killed during the production of the movie.
Kristijan Golubovi is one of best known actors of very few still alive today.
Curiosities
Author and screenplay writer Aleksandar Kneevi became an Eastern Orthodox monk and as Fr Romilo lives in the Monastery of Hilandar on Mount Athos, Greece.[http://www.blic.rs/Vesti/Drustvo/433475/Poznati-u-svetu-crkve Poznati u svetu crkve] Kneevi is also the author of the book 'Time and Cognition;Theological Reading of Marcel Proust' (Orthodox Theological Faculty of Belgrade, 2011 - the work is Kneevi's MPhil thesis defended in 2010 at the Department for the Theory of Literature, Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade). At the moment, Kneevi is doing his doctorate in theology at Balliol College, University of Oxford.[https://oxford.academia.edu/romylosknezevits/ Romilo (Romylos) Kneevi (Knezevits)]
See also
*Serbian mafia
*Crime in Serbia
*Dizelai, youth sub-culture
Sources
* [http://blip.tv/play/hKYmgY%2BMYAI/ Crime that Changed Serbia] full movie
* [http://www.ce-review.org/99/18/kinoeye18_vidali.html "Another Truth: Recent Serbian documentaries at the Raindance Film Festival"], by Maria Vidali, 'Central Europe Review', Vol 1, No 18, 25 October 1999
References
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