A Key work for the festivals concept...

Creating Peace - Dialog - Recognition

Peace Novel Candidate Steinar Bryn creates the "impossible dialog".

In 1999, Serbian military forces and Albanian guerrillas were fighting in Kosovo. Serbs and Albanians lived separate lives. As their country verged on war, a group of brave students decided to meet their opponents for the first time.

Shortly before NATO bombed Kosovo, young Serbs and Albanians from Pristina met to engage in a dialogue. Ten years later, the maker of the original film brings the participants together once again. Today, the roles are reversed: Serbs who had been driven away encounter the new Albanian elite of Kosovo. A meaningful plea for the utter determination to keep a dialogue alive

A Message from Steinar Bryn just arrived today 18.12.2020:

Although the movie was launched in 2011, the segregation policy is equally strong in Kosovo today. The movie managed to reach both Serbian and Albanian audiences through speaking with two voices. Neither side would be willing to watch a movie with only the opposing view. The movie is still being shown in Kosovo, last in Mitrovica October 22.

We are experiencing a polarization in most European countries. A recent book published in Norway carried the title "The Balkanization of Europe". The title simply means that ethnopolitics are more dominant in Europe in 2020 than in 2000. To develop places where enemies can meet is becoming more and more difficult.

A war broke out in Ukraine in 2014. Since then the movie Reunion has been shown more than 50 times in Ukraine from Lviv to Kharkiv. The reaction is "We are not Balkan, but this movie is very relevant". The movie has been used over and over again as a place enemies can meet, and after som initial questions about the movie the audience start to discuss their own conflict in Ukraine.

Jon Haukeland has made a movie that survives the time. As one of the participants in the movie recently said. "It is like old wine, grows better with time".