BEYOND THE BORDER

A film by Ana Otasevic 80’/ HD

BORDERS, REAL AND IMAGINED, THE TRAUMA OF

WA R , A N D T H E S E A R C H F O R U N I T Y

DarMar Films
anaotash@gmail.com
Paris +33 6 26 56 32 97
Belgrade +381 62 859 77 17 Teaser: https://vimeo.com/769517700
 BEYOND THE BORDER

TABLE OF CONTENT
3 SYNOPSIS

4 DIRECTOR’S NOTE

9 TREATMENT
25 PRODUCTION STRATEGY
26 BUDGET & FINANCIAL PLAN
27 CREATIVE TEAM

2
SYNOPSIS
Merdare, the border between Serbia and Kosovo. The big sign says: financed by the
European Union. Sound of birds, prerecorded to calm the tensions between Serbs and
Albanians crossing the border, is making everybody nervous.
The war over the car plates is in the air.
In the south of Kosovo, two communities living on the foothill of the Sharr mountain
share the same land, but not the same destiny. The memory of the war is vivid.
Is reconciliation possible?

3
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
When I went to Kosovo for the first time a few
years ago, the border that was set after the
war was barely visible. I was driving on the old
highway that connects central Serbia with
its southern part. The road was quiet, hardly
anyone would go south, unless they had a
family there or work which will force them to
take the same path as the army had taken
a few years ago. The physical traces of the
war slowly disappeared, but not the memory
of the conflict. I was heading to the south
with mixed feelings - restlessness about
facing the war which profoundly marked my
generation and desire to personally discover
the region that, despite great media attention
over the conflict, remains little known.
Since that time, I’ve returned to Kosovo many
times. The uneasy feeling didin’t disapear: the
place is tough, full of scars. But the passion
to discover it didn’t disapeared either – it has
only grew.
The poorest part of the former country,
Yugoslavia, remained trapped in the cliché
of eternal antagonism between two people
- Serbs and Albanians – who share this land
for more than a hundred years. Today there is
95 percent of Albanians and about 4 percent
of Serbs living in Kosovo. They live in parallel,
often confronted realities. They speak a
different language, pray to a different god -
Albanians are Muslims and Catholics, Serbs
are Orthodox. They learn a different history of
the Balkans and on the role of their people in
a common history. Are there some crecks in
the wall that separates them, or the borders
are still insurmountable? Where are these
spaces of reconciliation, will I find them? Is
reconciliation possible among those who
survived the war or among the younger
generations who only heard about it?
The artist from Kosovo, Goran Stojcetovic,
conveys his experience of the war in his artistic
practice. He goes back to his hometown
he left as a refugee, Urosevac as the Serbs
call it, or Ferizaj, a name used by its current
4
Albanian inhabitants. The city, one of the
largest trading centers in Kosovo, is located
in the south, near the border with Macedonia
and Albania. Some twenty kilometers away,
behind the invisible border that separates the
Albanian and Serbian villages, lays Strpce,
where the remaining Serbs live, many who
found a refuge here after the war. The town
and sourounding villages are an enclave, a
sort of a ghetto for remaining Serbs.
The contrast between these two places is
stunning. They live next to each other, and
there is almost no connection between them.
The arrival of a Serbian artist in Ferizaj is like
a comet - since the war, in fact, no Serbian
artist has set foot in the city, including those
who used to live here. During two days he
works together with young Albanians from
his hometown on a common drawing. If the
words are rare and shy, the search for forms
and symbols in the drawing connects them
in a much deeper way.
The idea of a film is nurrishing from this
experience in both communities, whose
destinies reflect as in a mirror. I am searching
for the space for reconciliation in a place full
of antagonism. Just as Goran’s arrival in his
hometown and the workshop he organizes
with former fellow citizens is an unusual
event here, so is my presence with or without
a camera. No Serb, and even less Serbian
woman, has come here for a long time,
except the families who use to live there.
They come to visit the cemetery once a year,
one of the last traces of their presence in
this city. My appearance in Ferizaj intrigues
its inhabitants. It is still a very patriarchal
society, the place of a woman is clearly
defined, although the younger generations
think very differently about their social
roles. I often spend hours in conversation
with people here; the jovial atmosphere
that is characteristic of Mediterranean
cities prevails on the streets and in cafes.
Construction sites are everywhere – a sign of
a renewal after the war, a symbol of a nation
in construction.
The atmosphere is optimistic. In Strpce, the atmosphere is different. There is a sentiment of
decline, poverty, and despair. Compared to Ferizaj there are far fewer young people, and
those that do live there dream of leaving Kosovo for a new life in Serbia. Most of the time I
am welcomed with curiosity and kindness on both sides. In some places, in mosque or in
the monastery, it takes time to gain the confidence and introduce the camera. People are
weary of the power of the image; the trust is essential in this process. I am aware of the
responsibility for the images we make. As I am curious to discover the life behind the border
which remains beyond the reach for most of the outside world, they are curious to discover
my film. This film should be the opportunity to see their neighbors in a different light, not as
a figure of the other to be feared of. I see it as a contribution to the process of reconciliation.
It also means confronting the assumptions about the place and the people living there.
This transformation from assumption to an appreciation of the reality is in the core of my
approach to documentary. I’m interested in the clash between the reality told by the media
and the reality that I discover in the process of filming.

5
 My approach is observational, I take time to discover the place and people. In these encounters
ideas for the scenes and protagonists emerge. Immersive approach allows me to get to
know my protagonists, to reflect and think before taking out the camera. This process is also
self-transforming, led by a desire to be true to myself and to my characters, to understand
them in their complexity and to unveil unspoken realities which shape Kosovo’s present and
the future.

The search for possible areas of reconciliation is sometimes explicit, as in the case of the
workshop organized by Goran, sometimes it is indirect, as when we show similarities in the
way of life, their customs and habits.

The film is conceived as a mosaic of scenes from life of two communities: a lesson of
contemporary history in a Serbian and Albanian school, a prayer in an Orthodox monastery
and a Friday address of imam in a mosque, a wedding in a Serbian town, a gathering in
an Albanian family… I concentrate on the places where society is revealed: school-church/
mosque-cafés and from there I move to other, more ephemeral places where characters
emerge. Such is the case with Kuja, a Roma musician and a blacksmith from Strpce, and his
wife Samantha. Their warm and loving relationship is reflecting in the work they share in a
small restaurant he runs, where truckdrivers and workers from the around stop for a drink.
There is Tihomir, a mountain ranger during the day and a hairdresser in the evening hours.
The whole town comes to cut hair at his small hairsaloon made from a military container
left over from the war. Sladja is a journalist and a presenter in a small TV station. She goes
to villages around the region to film the events important for the community. The sound of
the TV is heard in many places where we film. It often reflects the gap between the official
narrative of life in Kosovo and life of people living there. On the Albanian side there is Flamur,
a student of philosophy and a member of a mountain rescue team. When a Serbian crew
is lost in the mountain, he comes to help. Habibi is a 20-year-old living in a Gypcy slum
in downtown Ferizaj. Like Kuja in Strpce, he must take many jobs to feed his family. He is a
carpenter, and he also works as a cameraman for local weddings. Quendrim is a shoemaker,
working in a tiny shop which he inherited from his uncle. He was a professional athlete; on the
walls there are articles from the Serbian press, about his victories in competitions where he
competes with Serbian athletes.

6
While there are many similarities in the everyday life of these people who are sharing the
same land for centuries, the situation is different in schools and religious institutions, where
antagonism reveals. Albanian and Serbian schoolchildren learn conflicting versions of the
history of the Balkans and its own nations, as well as of the recent war. A schoolteacher in
the Serbian school in Strpce is telling his pupils about the suffering of the Serbian population
in this province before and after the war in 1999, about lack of their basic rights and hopes
to remain on this land despite living in a hostile environment. A teacher in Albanian school is
talking about the fight for the independence of the Albanians in Yugoslavia, sacrifice of the
people and the heroes of the Albanian guerrilla army which was fighting Serbian police and
army in the recent war. A local imam, considered as a moderate religious leader, is talking
about the social issues in his Friday address to the Muslims who come to pray in his mosque,
but he also mentions Serbians as “the enemy”. In the Serbian monastery on the other side,
a monk is expressing the fear that the Albanians are going to take over the land of Serbian
neighbors who are leaving.

One of the places where I found a space for reconciliation is with the families of the missing
in the war. They are united in an association which is unique of a kind in Kosovo, as there are
families from both sides of the conflict. Together they hope they will achieve more in finding
out about the faith of their family members, more than 20 years after the conflict has ended.
Jasmina from Strpce, whose father disappeared in the days following the end of the war,
meets there Lebibe from Ferizaj, who also lost her father in the war, together with other 16
members of her family.

Every new trip to Kosovo is a re-encounter with borders, whether physical or mental. The
border is a metaphor for life in Kosovo. I come from the other side of the border. The Kosovo
war had the great impact on my generation and the conflict still goes on today. For me as
an author, it represents a challenge, an invitation to discover the world that opens when we
cross on the other side. But while I cross borders freely, I am aware that my protagonists are
being trapped into this conflicting duality which imposes real and imaginary borders.

7
The physical border between Serbia and Kosovo has grown over time, additional lanes have
been opened, more police officers and customs officers have been appointed. With its gray
containers it is seemingly inconspicuous, but every time I cross it, I discover something new.
Thus, the border gets a special place in the film. Stray dogs that greet the vehicles are the
real guardians of the place; truck drivers coming from far away stop here to rest and share
the news; cows transported in trucks are staring bluntly, unaware that their bodies are soon
be hanging in the large windows of butcher shops in Kosovo. Policemen monitor whether car
drivers hide the national signs on their license plates, according to the rules in place. Drivers
go out of their car to put stickers on the national symbols on their license plates. This gesture
is part of a diplomatic war between Serbia and Kosovo which is going on in Brussels.
A large sign with the European flag and the inscription: “Funded by the European Union” is
dominating the border entrance. The sound of birds gives a special atmosphere to the whole
place, in contrast to the containers in which the policemen are imprisoned. As I record their
chirping, a police officer approaches and explains that the sound is not real but recorded.
A delegation from the European Union that visited the construction of the border came up
with the idea that the sound of birds on the border between Serbia and Kosovo would have a
calming effect and thus ease the tensions that could break out there. Since then, the sound
of birds - which is a sound of preys - can be heard at regular intervals, which makes the
police officers nervous.

The narrative of the film is built on dualism of the two environments, Albanian and Serbian,
but the border appears as a leitmotif, a thread that unites space and time and shapes the
structure of the film.

8
TREATMENT
Merdare, border crossing between Serbia and Kosovo

Early morning. It is quiet – only the sound of birds is cutting the silence. A herd of dogs is
patrolling. Truckdriver is waiting on the parking lot. He answers the phone:

- Habeeb, I’m here in the no man’s land… between Serbia and Kosovo… Three more trucks
ahead of me… Another 100 km… I have talked to the guys in Prizren, they have prepared the
papers.

He turns off the phone and mutters to himself:

- Hm, the Turk is speaking Serbian very well.

In front of him cattle are being transported in trucks. He turns off the phone and mutters to
himself:

- They don’t know what is waiting them there.

The car arrives, the driver gives his passport to a border policeman. The policeman gives
him a white sticker, he walks to the front of his car, hunches on his knees, and puts it over the
country symbols.

9
TV station, Strpce (Serbian enclave)

A small TV studio of TV Herc in the abandoned shopping mall. A presenter, a blond woman
in her 40s, comes out of the room and sits behind the desk. A guy is turning on the lights and
fixing the camera.

TV Presenter:

To a cameraman who is fixing the light:

Everything’s fine, could we start?

She reads:

The first introductory meeting of the working group on the issue of license plates was held in
Brussels today, according to the office for Kosovo.

High School, Strpce

A boiler room in the basement. A man is puting woodchips in the oven. The sound of the TV
in the back.

A voice of the TV presenter (reading weather forecast):

Caution is advised due to unexpected biometeorological conditions. Asthmatics and

cerebrovascular patients may experience problems. Metropathic reactions are possible in
the form of headache, irritability and drowsiness.

10
History class

Teacher: - Do you know what are they discussing in Brussells right now, Mirkovic?

A pupil 1: - I am not following.

Teacher: - Ok, but do your grandparents tell you anything about the talks? Do you think they
will make any difference to your life? Will you be able to speak your own language in official
institutions, or get a job in the public sphere?

Pupil 1: - They are talking about license plates…

Teacher: - I can still drive with my Serbian license plates here, even though they forced me to
put a tape on it. But what else they are talking about? Have your life conditions gotten better,
do you have more oportunities to meet young people from your generation in other of the
Serbian enclaves here in Kosovo?

Silence.

Teacher: - Petkovic, your parents were forced to flee Urosevac (Ferizaj). What did they tell
you?

Pupil 2: - My parents had a better experience. Their first neigbours were Albanians. My
grandmother and my grandfather tried to stay until the end, they didn’t want to leave
everything they were working for all their lifes to acheive. Their neigbours tried to protect
them, but when Albanian guerilla fighters started to threaten the neighbours, they told my
grandparents that it would be better to leave.

Teacher: - There are always some good Samaritians from the other side.

11
Pupil 3 : I met some Albanian girls in an art workshop in Ferizaj. I really liked it. The topic was
equality. We were drawing our hands and I didn’t feel any inequality.
We can never forget what happened, but those Albanian friends didn’t do anything to me. I
look at them like any other person I would meet. I can’t judge someone based on the past.
But it certainly remains as a trauma, not only based on my own experience, but also based
on the stories of my parents, they lived it and we share it with them.

Teacher: - I agree, but there is a wall that exist, a dam, there is not enough understanding,
probably moreso from their side. They are talking about their victims, but ours don’t exist in
their eyes. We are talking about ours, but maybe we don’t know about theirs.

Pupil 4: - Officially we have freedom of movement, but in practice it is not like that. We feel
uncomfortable because we know that everyone in Kosovo looks at us badly, that’s why we
don’t go to other places that much. The war has had the greatest impact on relations, but
people are also impacted by their upbringing, what they learn in their families.
It would be better to know Albanian language. We are with them, they are the majority. It
would be easier to understand each other and get along.

12
Border crossing, Merdare

A man is standing in front of the border between Serbia and Kosovo. The sound of birds
coming from the metallic roof is overwhelming. At the check point he gives his documents to
a policeman.

The policeman looking at his document:

- Your name sounds familiar…Goran Stojcetovic. What’t the purpose of your visit to Kosovo?

Goran: - I am coming back home. It’s been 23 years since I left.

A policeman looks at him and gives him back his papers.

In a cab

The sound coming from the radio (in English): Broadcasting across the whole of Kosovo,
24 hours a day, this is Radio KFOR (NATO). (Music, an American disco melody) Propaganda
segment: About 3000 KFOR soldiers have been trained and are now ready to act in every
circumstance. The commander of the armed forces, colonel Gábor Farkas: - Cooperation,
work, and dedication are necessary in all life’s aspects. As the commander of the KFOR
Tactical Reserve Battalion, I contribute to KFOR soldiers’ greatest achievements. Together,
we create changes every day. We are here because of you. Jingle: You are listening to radio
KFOR, the power of music.

Goran: - What sort of station is this?

The cab driver shrugs. They pass by a trailer on the side of the road with the sign Barber Cali.

Barber Cali, a hair salon in the trailer on the road to Ferizaj (mostly populated with
Albanians)

A man is entering the saloon. Hairdresser is shaving a client.

- Hi what’s up? Do you have time to take me?

- I have two more clients.
- I came from Ferizaj, Egon Jashari sent me to you.
- Jashari! Come on, when I’m done with him, I’ll see you right away. Don’t worry.
- Is it okay to bring the other one in as well?
- Yes, feel free.
(goes to the car and comes back)
- I’ll wait in the car, if you don’t mind, let me know when you’re done!
- Ok, don’t worry.

13
Ferizaj

Goran meets an old neigbour and walks with him around the city. - Everything changed,
buildings and people, he says. Construction works are everywhere.

A table with drawing paper and dozens of pencils: a joyful crowd of 20 year olds. - I used to
live here before the war, says Goran. - The situation was crazy back then… fights all the time,
alcohol… I became an artist in order to deal with all that… I am happy to be here and draw
with you. You just let yourself be free and we’ll see where it will lead us.

Drawing session, youngsters are exchanging in Albanian, Macedonian… With Goran they
speak broken English, he uses a few Albanian words that he knows… They laugh trying to
find the right words. They sing Albanian alternative rock songs which they chose from their
phones.

A Serbian cemetery, Ferizaj

A Serbian graveyard in the city (the names on the tombs are written using Cyrillic script),
surrounded by construction sites.

14
Gotovusa, central village square

On one of the walls it says: The waiting room of death. Goran is with local children, carrying
small buckets of paint in his hands. He stops in front of the wall, they shyly approach him. He
scans the wall and encourages them to draw together with him.

A boy with glasses: - What are we going to draw?

Goran: - Whatever you want, as long as we are transforming these existing lines into something
new.

The children draw lines with brushes, soon enough the wall is covered in colorful drawings.
A car stops and from it a middle-aged man comes out, drunk and staggering. He mutters
something, he wants to draw as well. Goran points to the paint, the man picks red. He pours it
over his hands and begins drawing a cross on the wall. Taken aback, the children watch him.
He steps back, looks at the cross while swaying back and forth, and crosses himself.

Adriana Theater, Ferizaj

Actors are on the stage, they are rehearsing. It’s a piece about a prison and political prisoners
in Kosovo and Albania. They are reading stories of survivors from prisons of the last war in
Kosovo and the communist era in Albania.

Theater, Strpce

A stage play is in the process of setting up. Goran works on the set. Then comes a power
outage, actors react by chearing ironicly „Kosovo is a heart of Serbia“ and clapping hands.
The rehearsal continues by candle light. The play deals with the return of Serb refugees to
Kosovo, where they are well received by old neighbours but mistreated by Albanians who
settled there after the war.
Outside, the dark is pierced by car headlights.

15
Border crossing, Merdare

The police are checking cars, to see if everyone has white stickers over national symbols on
their license plates. Drivers get out of the car, they lean on the ground to cover the flag and
the country name with stickers.

The sound of birds is mixing with the murmur of cars and people on the ground. - It’s the
EU who put this border here, now you have it…, a policeman says to a man who is putting a
sticker on his license plates. - It’s a hideout for sparrowhawks, they live here. They attack the
pigeons, you know.

16
TV Herc, Strpce

A women dressed in a pink suit is presenting the news:

The ninth round of talks between delegations from Belgrade and Pristina is going to take
place in Brussels on the 20 and 21 April. Working groups are trying to resolve the issue of
license plates.

The Embassy of the UK in Belgrade denied the allegations of certain media about the export
of weapons from that country to Kosovo, stating they are completely fabricated.

The UN Security Council will consider tomorrow the regular six-month report of Secretary
General António Guterres on the situation in Kosovo.

Blacksmit shop, Strpce

A man (Kuja) makes a horseshoe. He puts it in the oven first, then hits it hard with a hammer.
Sparks fly everywhere. His face is tense, concentrated. His fingers are black from the oil and
dirt, they follow the rythm of impeccable routine.

Kuja’s bar, Strpce

Kuja prepares coffee from the machine; he is not sure how to do it. His wife (Samantha) is
cleaning the place. The TV is hanging on the wall, there is a live broadcast from the Serbian
Parlament, the sound is muted. They sit on the table to drink cofee, they talk about daily
duties.

Samantha (looking at the TV): - What are they talking about?

Kuja: - It’s the Parliament, they are talking about Kosovo…
(silence, they are looking in their glasses)
Samantha: - I stayed until midnight yesterday peeling the roasted pepper. Where were you?
Kuja (with a smile): - I was also peeling the pepper ….
Samantha: - I bet you were… here in the bar.

17
(She is looking at her hands and addresses Kuja in the Roma language.)

- Look at how I got a blister from peeling off the papper.

(Kuja is not looking, he is answering the phone.)

Kuja: - I’am in the bar in Strpce… A Compressor? You’ll find a new one in Urosevac (Ferizaj),
from 100 eu on… You know where to go, there are cheap onces in the shop accross the main
square… I can give you the number of a guy who sells them, but he doesn’t speak Serbian… I’ll
ask him and let you know…

(He finishes and turns to Samantha).

Kuja: - Let’s go to finish some work today, it’s already 11am.

Samantha: - I’m just going to the market to buy some things… I’ll be right back.
Kuja: - Go ahead.

People are slowly coming in, they sit on the tables, Kuja is turning to greet them.

18
Families of the missing from the war, meeting with local autorities in Ferizaj

An old man with a beret: - Another 30th August has passed without us knowing anything
about our loved ones. More than 1620 people are still missing. 23 years have passed and the
investigation is stuck. The working group has not met for 15 months. They call it a political
issue. We, families, we don’t sleep much, and when we do, we hear them calling us, crying,
hugging us. We loved them as you love your children. Our rights are violated every day. As
long as we are alive, we ask for nothing more than to reveal the fate of the missing.

A woman wearing a hijab: - The suffering of orphaned children didn’t begin in 1999, but a year
before. Men were beaten and kidnapped in the fields, police didn’t ask if they are guilty or not.

A woman in black: - Mothers are crying, sisters are crying, they are looking for their father,
son, brother. No family which went through this experience wants any more trouble. We are
all lost, this is not life. Separated forever, we can’t go anywhere.

A pregnant woman: - I was young, I was eight years old. I remember people with black masks
who came into our house. They took sixteen family members, including my father and uncle.
We found some body parts and some were missing, they were transferred somewhere, a leg
here, an arm there.
We had an old man in our family who was paralyzed, they didn’t know what to do with him,
so they tied him to a dog, a big Sarr dog who was quite wild, thinking he would eat him. But
the dog didn’t touch him, he was faithful. I want to find the remains of my sixteen family
members. My uncles were students, one of them was married; he left a five-month-old girl.

A woman across the table: - When they told us to leave, I left immediately, the stove was on…
and dog was tied up. I came back from hiding, to unleash the dog and turn off the stove.

19
Ferizaj

A construction site of a new shopping mall. In the back there are flashy signs of KFC and
Burger King.

Ferizaj, old shoemaker’s shop

A shoemaker is reparing a shoe, his apprentice is busy helping. Customers are passing by,
some ask him to make an extra hole in their belt, others stop to chat.

Gotovusa, a grocery store

A tiny, modestly-stocked grocery store. Boxes of biscuits, toilet paper, and cleaning prod-
ucts on the shelves. Behind the wooden counter sits a cashier, an older man in worn out
clothes. He is leaning on his arm and watching the TV, live from the Serbian National As-
sembly. They are discussing Kosovo, the Serbian president is responding to questions.

A woman comes in to buy something. They look at the TV without saying anything.

20
TV sound:

MP: This discussion here, as you have conceived it, will not help either Serbia or the Serbs from
Kosovo. You have had only two sessions on Kosovo since 2012, and the previous government
had six.

Serbian president: You would think from listening to these people that they are interested in
Kosovo, that they know anything about it. You would think that it is they who fought for Kosovo
and did a lot for our people there. You don’t care about Kosovo, you didn’t fight day and night
for Kosovo, at negotiations and elsewhere. The only thing you care about is how to get hold
of power. Are things ideal for Serbs in Kosovo? Were there any errors? Of course there were,
people live in the most difficult conditions. Is our leadership the best or ideal? Of course not,
no, but are you ideal? It is because of the concessions you made that the Serbian people in
Kosovo don’t have Serbian passports and can’t travel anywhere else in Europe.

Gotovusa, main square

Children are running, a motorcycle arrives and parks in front of a metal box which used to be
a military container.
TV sound from the back: We will not vote for the report on Kosovo proposed by this Government….
A man is opening a door of a small container. People starts to get in. Inside it is a barber
shop and he is preparing to cut the hair of his customer. A small TV up on the wall is on, the
parliamentary session on Kosovo is still going on.
TV sound: …but we cannot conduct a dialogue on the issue of Kosovo’s independence. Why?
Because that would violate the constitution and we would no longer be a sovereign country.
We will be destroyed as a nation

21
Hairdresser: - Did you hear that Jovan had troubles in the woods today, he says an Albanian
came and took from him the wood he chopped.

A client: - I saw the guy today, he came here to explain himself. He says that he didn’t take his
wood and that Jovan was disrespectful.

Hairdresser: - Hm, good that he came here. Otherwise the boys would be chasing him around.

TV sound: In our history, we used to solve problems with our fists... I mean figuratively and you
know that’s not good. Recognition of Kosovo is done by government act, everything else is
not a recognition of independence.

Mosque in Kacanik (a village next to Ferizaj)

An imam is addressing his followers:

Today, the least read book is the Qur’an. And the Qur’an is a light, not only for Muslims but
also for non-Muslims, not only for religious people living in Islamic societies, but also for non-
religious and non-Muslims living in different societies, and a light if we want to know the
reality of this world and the next one. That’s why I really like Alija Izetbegović, late Bosnian
leader. He is a Muslim, we are Muslims, he had a Serb as his enemy, and we had a Serb as an
enemy, he loved his country, his homeland and the Balkans, and we love our homeland and
the Balkans. We don’t belong neither to Saudi Arabia nor to Turkey. We are from Kosovo and
we are proud of it.

22
At night they gather for iftar, the twilight meal to break the day’s fast during the Islamic holy
month of Ramadan.

The Orthodox monastary Draganac

A small monastery on the road from Ferizaj, hidden in woods on a hill. The church bells and
morning prayers are interupting the silence. The breakfast in the kitchen is modest, it is Easter
and monks are fasting. They are receiving a few visitors from other parts of Kosovo and Serbia.

A monk to a woman: - An Albanian is offering to buy the land behind the Monastery. If he buys
it and builds a house there, the others will come. Could you say to the people back home to
raise some money so we could buy this land and keep it for us?
…
A monk is preparing food for the Easter meal, after the final religious ceremony. A ten year old
girl is watching, intrigued, she is talking and laughing with a monk. The head of the monastery,
Ilarion, is in his cell, preparing for the ceremony. He takes a guitar and plays a few cords of
Leonard’s Cohen song.
…
In the early morning they get together over long wooden tables in a spaceous dining room,
to break the fast during the Easter period.

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Bar Insomnia, Strpce

Kuja and his band are preparing to play in a bar. On a wall above the front door it’s written
Staro mesto (The old place) and Insomnia. They are chatting, trying instruments, sound. He
is listening to a guitar player playing Santana. His face is radiant. He is trying out his drums.
…
The bar is full, everyone is dancing to the rhythm of the songs played by the band. Two guys
are lifting their glasses in a gesture of fraternal complicity. A group of girls in bright dresses is
celebrating a friend’s bachelorette party.

Border, Merdare

The end of the day…. Sound of birds, sparrowhawks.

TV sound from a police cabin: Two boys, cousins Stefan Stojanovic, 11 years old and Milos
Stojanovic, 21 years old, had been wounded today in Gotovusa near Strpce when a man
had shot at them from a moving vehicle. One boy was shot in the hand and the other in the
shoulder and they are being transported to the Clinical Hospital Center…

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PRODUCTION STRATEGY
With its topic of borders and divisions created by the war, Beyond the border is a film with a
European and international scope. With this film, we hope to raise awareness on one of the
least known and understood conflicts on the European soil which is taking place in Koso-
vo, and peoples who live in this disputed land. Our intention is to contribute to a dialogue
between two nations which is going on for more than ten years under the auspices of the
European union. This dialogue has been unsuccessful so far and both sides live in a frozen
conflict. The reason for this is, in our view, that both communities continue to live with a fear
of each other, nourishing preconceived ideas and concepts of a nation, enemy and territo-
ry. This situation prevents them to reach towards each other and share the land which they
have been inhabiting for centuries. We see this tension in the film in the contrast between the
older generation who lived through the war and the younger generation, eager to pass these
boundaries and not live in the past anymore. This confrontation, between the war and the
peace generation is one of the strings that we pull in this film.

Although unintentionally, the subject of the film became a hot topic as the tensions are awak-
en in this region in the shadow of the war in Ukraine. The conflict over the car plates between
Belgrade and Pristina, capital of Kosovo, is just an apparent sign of a deeper fissure.

A lot of research material has already been shot and we will continue to develop and shoot
research material with finances already in place.

The project is supported by the Film Center Serbia. At this stage we are looking for the Eu-
ropean coproducer(s), to accompany the project and enhance its international potential.
Once a co-production in place, we intend to propose the project to ARTE and to solicit the
usual partners in France (CNC, Region, Procirep). We are interested to produce with Italy as
well, and apply to RE-ACT regional fund, as well as to the Co-development franco-italian
fund, and to a regional fund open to minority co-productions.

Once the financing will be settled in the three co-production countries, we will request Euro-
image for the co-production development and the postproduction. We also intend to con-
tact Doha Film Institute Grants Programme, which is open for the post-production funding
for feature-length films by the first and the second-time non-MENA directors, as well as Al
Jazeera Balkans, which has been very active in recent years in financing documentaries from
the region.

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BUDGET & FINANCIAL PLAN

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CREATIVE TEAM

DIRECTOR/PRODUCER

Ana Otasevic is a documentary filmmaker, producer and journalist living between

Paris and Belgrade. She holds a MA in directing, scriptwriting and producing of docu-
mentaries at Paris 1 Sorbonne and MA in Geopolitics at Paris 8. She was a correspon-
dent for Serbian and International media in Paris between 2008 and 2016. She worked
for the BBC World Service and collaborated on TV documentaries for the French and
Germain TV channels TF1 Sept à Huit and Spiegel TV. Her short documentary, LE PAIN
VOYOU (2014), was broadcasted on the French TF 2. Her first feature documentary,
NEDJO’S HOUSE (2016), was shown in festivals in Serbia, France and Greece and was
broadcasted on French TV Public Sénat and Serbian RTS.

In 2018, she founded a production company DARMAR FILMS in order to produce films
with a strong personal voice. She writes for the French monthly Le Monde Diploma-
tique.
BEYOND THE BORDER is her second feature documentary. The project was developed
in EURODOC21 workshop in Croatia.

NEDJO’S HOUSE
https://vimeo.com/219199223
Password: NATO

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DAR MAR FILMS is an independent production company from Serbia, dedicated to
developing and producing high-quality creative documentaries. DAR MAR FILMS is
run by its president, director and producer Ana Otasevic. She founded the produc-
tion company in 2018, with a goal to dedicate herself to making documentaries with
strong personal voice echoing our contemporary world. As a director and produc-
er, she is interested in exploring cinematic languages and playing with non-defined
borders between fiction and documentary. The company is working on developing
international potential and expanding its network.

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Pablo Ferro Zivanovic is a Serbian-Cuban director of photography based in Belgrade.

He was raised in a family of filmmakers, surrounded with cameras. After graduating
from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, Serbia, he has shot many films and
documentaries. His work has been presented at festivals around the globe and re-
ceived international recognition.
His sensitivity, his love of light and the play of shadows, his connection with nature
as well as with organic materials and colors led him to develop his own artistic style
which combines all these ingredients while leaving things occur naturally.

He has received Best Cinematographer awards for the following films:

WALL OF DEATH, AND ALL THAT, 2016 on BELDOX - International documentary film fes-
tival
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2351700/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1
UNPLUGGED, 2014 on Paklenica Film Festival
FREEDOM OR NOTHING, 2008 on Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival

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SOUND DESIGNER

Bojan Palikuca is a sound engineer based in Belgrade. He graduated from the School
of Applied Studies of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in Belgrade. He
has been working on production and post-production of feature, animated and doc-
umentary films in Belgrade, Kazakhstan, Great Britain, Spain and Ukraine. He is work-
ing as a sound designer and composer for dance and theatre performances.

Films:
LIGHTS FALLS VERTICAL, Efthymia Zymvragaki, 2022, IDFA
GLORIOUS REVOLUTION, Masha Novikova, 2021, third prize, La Cinéfondation, Cannes
ROOTS, Tea Lukac, 2021, Karlovy Vary Film festival
MAMONGA, Stefan Malešević, 2019, Karlovy Vary Film festival

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 SARR MOUNTAIN, 2022

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