’DEPTH TWO’
Written and directed by: Ognjen Glavonić
Production: Non-Aligned Films and Humanitarian Law Center
2016
SYNOPSIS:
“Depth 2” is a low-budget documentary about a mass grave discovered in Batajnica in 2001, in which the bodies of Kosovo Albanian civilians killed during the war in Kosovo were found. The film is a combination of live testimonies and photographs taken at the scene of the crimes, which were committed 17 years ago. In an attempt to discover, clarify and give voice to these stories, deliberately covered by a veil of silence, the film directly awakens the perceptions, imagination and emotions of the viewers.
The film was premiered at the Berlin Film Festival on February 13th, 2016, as part of the Forum Programme.
DIRECTOR'S COMMENT:
A memorial is an object that serves to focus our memory on something – a person, an event. It can also be a visual mark, a visual entity that can be created to signify a troubling chapter in history. In 2001, a mass grave containing more than 700 bodies was found on the outskirts of Belgrade. Despite the disturbing proximity of the site of the mass grave to the center of the capital city of Serbia, today, 15 years later, this place remains unmarked. There’s no memorial of any kind, and almost nobody in present-day Serbia even knows about the case or the story behind it. It is still a public secret.
By using light and sound, a combination of spoken testimonies and images of the places where the terrible crimes happened, I wanted to make a film that speaks directly to the sensations, imagination and emotions of the viewer. This film is an attempt to uncover, shed a light on and give a voice to this story, intentionally buried in silence. DEPTH TWO, a thriller documentary and a kind of film-memorial, is also a rebellion against the ongoing oblivion.
