FESTIVALS: * Sarajevo-sur-Seine Film Festival (Paris, France)
* ZagrebDox (Croatia)
* Sevastopol Documentary Festival - Won Together (Moscow, Russia)
* Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival (Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina)
* DMZ DOCS (Bucheon-si, South Korea)
* European Union Human Rights Film Festival (Ankara, Turkey)
* CPH:DOX (Denmark)
* Sarajevo Film Festival (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
* Input Documentary Festival (Hilversum, The Netherlands)
* PerSo- Perugia Social Film Festival (Italy)
The Unforgiven
Category |
Conflicts, Human Rights, Justice, Politics, Social Issues
Year |
2017
Country |
Finland, Denmark
Running time |
75'
Format |
Production |
Kinocompany Ltd., Film & TV Compagniet
Director |
Lars Feldballe-Petersen
In 1992 Esad was 19 years old Muslim boy when he radicalized and became a part of the Civil War of the former Yugoslavia. He became a guard in the prison camp of Celibici in Bosnia where they kept Serbs imprisoned. Esad became an executioner and he tortured and killed prisoners.b He was arrested in 1996, judged by the International Criminal Court ,and convicted to 15 years of prison. In 2006, he was released. Now he lives in a suburb of Helsinki and works as a cleaning assistant.
In the Autumn of 2015, almost 25 years after the break out of the civil war, Esad will return to his home and the scene of his crime in Bosnia. He needs to seek forgiveness among those he betrayed, those he hurt the most and for himself, because without forgiveness Esad will never be able to find his way back to life. Apart from many other war criminals Esad says he was never forced to do what he did, but he did it anyway – no excuses. Now he understands that he has to confront himself with the pain of the survivors hoping to be able to help them move on. In the film we will meet former camp guards, Esad’s victims, their relatives.
