Serb Film Fest DC: The Witness

The Witness was produced by Radio Television of Republika Srpska. The screenplay and direction are signed by the award-winning documentary filmmaker Denis Bojić.

The film was originally conceived and based on the documentation and testimonies of a forensic medicine specialist from Belgrade, Prof. Dr. Zoran Stanković, relating to the suffering of the Serbian people during the wars of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia.

Unfortunately, Prof. Dr. Zoran Stanković passed away shortly before the start of filming. According to the director, the film represents a collective confession by the Serbian people about their suffering. Having worked on more than 50 mass graves across the former Yugoslavia and performed autopsies on over 7,500 victims, Prof. Dr. Stanković was the only person who bore witness to the extent of Serbian suffering in this way.

At the same time, this work offers a historical overview that, through cinematic expression, largely unifies the map of the Serbian people’s suffering. In Bosnia and Herzegovina alone, Prof. Dr. Stanković conducted exhumations and autopsies in more than thirty mass and individual graves in Sarajevo, Tuzla, Sokolac, Pale, Mostar, Bileća, Trebinje, Nevesinje, Kamenica, Zvornik, Skelani, Šekovići, Kravica, Srebrenica, Bratunac, Sandići, Rogatica, Milići, Brčko, Brod, Ugljevik, Priboj near Lopare, Kupres, Bihać, and Mrkonjić Grad.

Alongside archival material and testimonies of Prof. Dr. Stanković, the film also includes accounts of surviving family members of the victims, as well as members of his closest family, his autopsy team, journalists, cameramen, and lawyers. Many members of the Serbian people testify about the tragic fates of their family members and the personal horrors they went through during the processes of identification.

The film’s production was supported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska, organizations and associations of veterans from the Defensive-Patriotic War, municipal and city mayors, administrations, and public enterprises from Mrkonjić Grad, Brod, Zvornik, Šekovići, Skelani, Bratunac, Srebrenica, Čelinac, Vlasenica, Milići, East Sarajevo, Banja Luka, Trebinje, Bijeljina, Višegrad, Nevesinje, Jelačići, Gacko, Ljubinje, Bileća, Berkovići, Prnjavor, Pale, Sokolac, and Trnovo. Additional support came from the Border Police Administrations of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, Customs Administrations of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, the Representative Office of Republika Srpska in Serbia, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia, the Ministry of Defence of Serbia, the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Serbia, the Ministry of Finance of Serbia, “Roads of Serbia” Public Company, the City of Belgrade with all its institutions, the Belgrade Public Transport Company, and the Public Utility Funeral Services.

The film crew included: screenplay and direction by Denis Bojić; director of photography Dejan Račić; editor Ognjen Bogdanović; chief cameraman Ljubomir Tešinić; cameramen Saša Vrućinić, Aleksandar Zorić, Siniša Stojić; assistant cameraman Milorad Rajlić; drone operators Ljubomir Tešinić, Dejan Račić, Branislav Plavšić, Goran Lazić, Danilo Cimbaljević, Dragan Glišević, Srboljub Stojanović; sound recordists Željko Kalamanda, Srđan Radaković, Aleksandar Vlajić, Duško Jovanović; sound designer Vladimir Vladetić; graphic designers Boris Bilić and Ognjen Bogdanović; drivers Miro Marković and Saša Popović; composer David Mastikosa; promotion by Margareta Zlatunić; line producer Filip Mlađenović.

The Witness has so far been screened in numerous cities across Republika Srpska and Serbia, as well as in Vienna, Paris, and Stuttgart.