Stolen Kosovo

Stolen Kosovo
180px Stolen Kosovo poster
Directed by	Václav Dvořák
Produced by	Alesz Bednarz
Written by	Václav Dvořák
Release dates	2008 (2008)
Running time	57 minutes
Country	Czech Republic
Language	Czech Serbian Albanian

Stolen Kosovo (Czech: Uloupené Kosovo, Serbian: Украдено Косово, Ukradeno Kosovo) is a 2008 Czech language documentary by director Václav Dvořák (b. 1948), about events during and following the Kosovo War.

Plot

The documentary describes the situation in Kosovo, first in a short overview of the history of the area, followed by the 1990s conflicts and bombing of Serbia by NATO forces in 1999 and ending with the situation after the Kosovo War. The documentary focuses on 1990s in the time of Slobodan Milošević's rule as well as on numerous interviews of Serbian civilians and Albanian rebels.

Broadcasting

Although the Czech Television (Česká televize) had been one of the sponsors of the documentary, it delayed broadcasting it several times, claiming the documentary was "unbalanced" and marked with "pro-Serbian bias", and so "the tone of the documentary could cause negative emotions" Václav Dvořák, the director, responded that the same could be said for "Holocaust documentaries, where the Nazi Germany 'side' and 'views' were also appropriately ignored".

The documentary producer, Aleš Bednář, additionally stated that it wasn't ruled out that some viewers could feel it was "unbalanced", but only because they had been "lopsidedly informed about Balkan conflicts through years, above all by television, but by other media as well."

Its first broadcasting, scheduled for 17 March 2008, on the 4th anniversary of the ethnic clashes in Kosovo in 2004, was postponed until April, and it was eventually broadcast with a follow-up show analyzing the Kosovo conflict from the point of view of the Kosovo Albanians. The creators of the documentary published it on YouTube, where it is still available (as of June 2015).

On 17 February 2009, the 1st anniversary since the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence, Radio Television of Serbia aired Stolen Kosovo at 21:00 CET on its RTS1 channel, preceded by an interview with the director.

Notes and references

Notes:

^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia. The Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence on 17 February 2008, but Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. The two governments began to normalise relations in 2013, as part of the Brussels Agreement. Kosovo has been recognised as an independent state by 108 out of 193 United Nations member states. Mainly those countries which are under US influence as USA were involved deeply in all what was happening in Kosovo.

References:

External links

• Stolen Kosovo (online with English subtitles)
• Stolen Kosovo at IMDb