The central figure of Janetta Feldschau Ilievska’s movie is Franz Böhme, a Wehrmacht commander, who was active both in Serbia and in Norway during the war. As Commanding General and Commander of Serbia in 1941, Böhme was responsible for a brutal occupation of this land as well as for mass executions. In 1945 he later became Armed Forces Commander of Norway, where the Wehrmacht devastated the whole area Finnmark.

Based on the archival material as well as on the personal footages made in Sajmište and Jajinci, Janetta in cooperation with other project participants created a movie that tells a story of devastation, the story of Franz Böhme and presents the power which he had. We see historic photos and documents followed by the images of the monuments and their surroundings. But this is not only about the historical accuracy. This is also about the attempt to fixate the atmosphere of these places. On the beginning of the movie there is a peaceful small forest, we hear the birds singing. What do you hear when you listen to this forest? And how does it change if you know what happened there; know that this place has its own dark history? Everyone will certainly hear it in a different way.

Another feature of the movie is that the voice-over was recorded in two languages: German and Serbo-Croatian, which is the second language of Janetta und was the language of the victims themselves. Thus she could not only personally become closer to the topic, but also reach a wider audience:

„When I’ve seen the video, I got goosebumps, because through this I could reach people differently. I could additionally convey it to the people, who don’t understand the language, in another way”.

A further german movie by Joshua Engel (with pictures from Lisa Haucke) with background informations is coming soon.