Rivers divide the land, often dividing cultures. The bridge is a two-way communication, transiting commerce and populace between shores, and facilitating an exchange of ways of living and mentalities.
They are also strategic targets in war-time. On bridges in Mitrovica in newly independent Kosovo, the “bridge-watchers” are thugs who beat up both outsiders (including the press) and fellow Serbs who work on the other side (whom they consider traitors) as they cross.
The centuries old history of the Balkans is marked by rivalries and revenge that sometimes played themselves out on bridges; including Archduke Ferdinand’s assassination on Princip Bridge in Sarajevo, which sparked WWI; and the destruction of the Stari Most in Mostar BiH that symbolized the violent inter-ethnic Balkan wars at the end of the 20th Century.
Balkan Bridges tells the history of the region using bridges as a metaphor.
Entertaining and informative sequences will showcase contemporary ethnic and multi ethnic cultural events on bridges:
- Bridge divers on Stari Most in Mostar BiH;
- Struga (Macedonia) Poetry Evenings on the bridge over the Crm Drim River;
- Traditional Bela Krajina dancing on the Cobblers’ Bridge, Ljubljana, Slovenia;
- Car-free Day in Sarajevo, BiH;
- Backstage at “The Bridge” by acclaimed playwright Kosovan Jeton Naziraj.
Other sequences will include
- interviews with notable reconciliation advocates (such as Valdete Idrizi, Director of Community Building – Mitrovica, Kosovo and Bujar Luma, Director Center for Balkan Reconciliation - Tetova, MK),
- as well as coverage of NGOs and other reconciliation projects, especially programs for youth (such as Prishtina PostPessimists, Peace Building Project, Center for Creative Multiculture and the Abrasevic Center).
|
