Re: Serbian Propaganda

I confess I am a Westerner, basically ignorant of the politics of this war.

As a movie viewer, I think it is superb and do not see how it is a propaganda film for any side in the slightest bit! It is an anti-war film, period.

The old couple that helped Joshua and the Serbian woman were Croats, and showed them the most generous hospitality. The film makes its main point when we first are introduced to them when the old man said (in my poor paraphrase): Before the war, we were Croats, Serbs, Muslims, no matter, we were all neighbors, but now.....

And later, the elderly couple "spiritually adopted" these three when they told them goodbye. The old man gave his dead son's clothes to Joshua and the old woman kissed and blessed the girl and the baby with so much love and tears. It was a very beautiful and moving illustration of the universality of man.

To me, an outsider, the film is saying that human life is tremendously important, and war is an insane thing-- and it makes you question why on earth people do this! Value for human life, even in the midst of war, is shown through Joshua's defense of these strangers (this baby and her mother) no matter what risks there are to his own life. We slowly learn that he realizes this war is madness and he is somehow atoning for partaking in it himself.

I think it is a wonderfully pro-life, anti-war movie. Not propaganda at all, in my view.