Film Number: 14
Film Name: The Vice Guide To The Balkans
Source: Vice.com
Rating:
I have been a fan of Vice for a very long time. You can learn a lot of great information about history and culture from their very hip Guides to Travel. If you go to their site you can watch them for free which is a plus but you have to watch them in installments which is ok with me. Their films usually move pretty fast and are easier to follow than a lot of other cultural documentaries because they speak just like we do and they are just learning too. As far as being balanced and fair, I do one person that finds Vice to be much too modern and liberal for their liking so take that for what it is worth.
Guide To The Balkans, here we go......the summary of the break up of Yugoslavia is explained quickly and the movie is made ten years after war. The crew begins their visit in Serbia to an amusement park called Yugoland. This not like King's Island or Disney so much as a Serbian outdoor park that celebrates the beloved former leader Tito and the former way of life. Old people dance to music and appear to have a great time reminiscing. The founder of Yugoland explains that the USA is plagued by twisters due to the things we have done to the rest of the world and our capitalist ways.
On to Belgrade for part two where the focus is on TurboFolk music that is "made for criminals by criminals." It is a really fast and loud kind of techno that some influences from older folk music. It is fun to listen to put the scene is dangerous because all the money comes from organized crime. The pop stars of Turbo Folk kind of sound vocally similar to Shakira and some of the song titles are "Panties" and "Sexy Businessmen." Some of the funding from this music actually came from war criminals and one of it's biggest hit makers married a warlord. The female singers were tan and tall and silicone infused, but people partied to their music in dangerous clubs for hours and hours.
Kosovo is the focus of part three and the crew visits a bridge that separates Serbs from Albanians and there are bridge watchers on both sides who are ready to intimidate and beat the shit out of each other. There is tension and violence nightly and it is ugly to see, kind of like a wilder and less organized Thirty Eighth Parallel.
Round four is the hardest of the segments to watch. A displaced persons camp in Kosovo for Roma Gypsy, that is built on toxic waste, and oh yeah it was set up by the United Nations....wait, what? Yeah...... This is a sad place where children are born with brain and heart damage due to astronomical amounts of lead in their blood. Paul Polonsky was brought here by the UN to advise them on setting up camps but saw the organization as corrupt and callous and doing a damn good job of their own kind of genocide on the Romas, by setting up their homes on dumps that poison them. Polansky also accuses the UN of bringing in organized crime, brothels and AIDS to Kosova. A very sick little girl lays in her mother's lap while her father explains what their lives are like in this hell hole. It was staggering to see.
Bosnia is the focus of the fifth installment. The focus is mostly on Islam in Bosnia, the only Muslim nation in Europe. It is modern and fairly liberal and secular. Some provocative questions are asked to locals about extremism. There is a tense confrontation in a small town that does not want to explain how their Muslim village works or the core of their beliefs. I think it was mostly fear of Americans and their cameras. Their neighbors defend them as respectful and kind people who are tolerant of others and have never seen any evidence of any training camps or illegal activity of any type. Some footage of some kind of raid is shown and the outcome is revealed that authorities found nothing illegal in the village at all.
I loved this travel guide! It was super entertaining and I learned a ton about the history of the Balkans as well as modern life there. I would recommend this film to anyone interested in the war, or travel. It had a lot of humor and compassion, and moved quickly while presenting a good amount of information.
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