In the 90s the Balkan region was the one sending refugees to Europe but in 2015 the refugees came to the Balkans instead, and the film collective 'Future Yugoslavia' was there to document it.
The two sides of the Border.
At the height of the refugee crisis in 2015, a million people crossed the border into Europe. With Dublin regulations trapping refugees and asylum seekers in their first point of entry, the countries of the south quickly became overwhelmed, as mismanagement and deterioration of the camps spread like wildfire. Under these conditions, many of those that originally hoped to be resettled in the northern countries decided to start the journey on their own. Due to airline carrier sanctions, it is impossible to board on a plane and therefore the asylum seekers had to step into the unknown lands that comprise the Balkans.
At the same time, the Balkans have been experiencing some levels of tranquility and slowly recovering from economic collapse, conflict, and isolation. Some states have even initiated the process to become members of the European Union. Traditionally, being emigration countries, sustained on the remittances their emigrants send back, they had a limited experience with populations from faraway regions. Although the Balkan route thus far is purely a transit zone, since the rest of the European borders are closed, asylum seekers have become trapped in border towns where they are subjected to precarious conditions and live under the threat of the authorities. Shameful reports and videos quickly came to light like that of the Hungarian journalist kicking refugees running with their children in their arms or the police tear-gassing them.
Amid these grim images, a Zagreb-based creative duo decided to find out what was going on, and as part of their film collective named ‘Future Yugoslavia’ they started their border-documentary series ‘Running with the Refugees’, wherein a 12 episode Odyssey they travel into different Balkan countries in the quest of documenting first hand their experiences and that of refugees and residents alike. I reached out to the masterminds of ‘Future Yugoslavia', Kaja Šišmanović and Matija Hajdarhodžić to discuss what kind of work went behind the project and what is the state of refugees in the Balkans today.
The Conversation.
What made you start the project Running with the Refugees?
Kaja: We were watching the reports about the crisis in the summer of 2015 and we felt confused with the information available, so we decided to see ourselves what was going on. We wanted to seek the truth that had not been presented in the media.
Matija: I and Kaja were living in two different cities back then, but we were talking about doing a tour in the Balkans and the idea came along.
What do you think about the rise of ‘citizen journalism’ given the increasing avenues creatives have to self-publish? Do you feel that it has given rise to more unbiased, original, and insightful media stories or that it might lead to vanity projects and little oversight over ethical issues concerning power-dynamics between the person with the camera, the interviewer, and the one who is being its subject?
Matija: The person who paints is a painter, and the one who films is a filmmaker, so both professional and amateur filmmakers face the same issues and ethical questions. I don’t think the problem lies there. It is difficult to find exceptional content when so much is being produced, but on the other hand, it is good that people are creating more and doing new things.
Also, for me personally, amateur or low-budget journalism often is more realistic. In my experience, small teams have closer access to people and it's easier to build trust. For example, we only wielded a small camera and by being ‘unofficial’, it was easier to make people relax because they had no reason to believe we had any special interests or that they needed to pretend anything. It was also easier to capture the atmosphere without ‘propping it up’ because in bigger shoots the setting can be very artificial and the crew detached from those being filmed or interviewed. We were actually part of the events happening and we ended up being friends and traveling along with some of the people that were in the series.
Kaja: I think it's good that there are more independent creators filming and reporting because the originality of newer perspectives allows you to see the truth and the truth is always more complicated. You can combine different aspects of reality and you can get more out of it.
In the episodes, you interview an array of people with various opinions and worldviews. The Balkans are a region that is no stranger to war and displacement, so why do you think some people can hold a negative stance towards the new refugees, and do you think that there are opportunities for this to change?
Kaja: Well it's a quite natural thing for humans to be afraid of the ‘other’. They exist in all places, people who are afraid and people who are more open and they always tend to clash a lot. I don’t think people easily change opinions about these kinds of stuff. People who don’t like foreigners will never like them because they do not form their opinions based on their knowledge or experience. For example, the taxi driver we interviewed was against refugees coming to Montenegro, but he drove them around for money anyway. His opinion was one thing, and the things he does another, he doesn’t make a correlation between them and most people don’t.
Matija: Montenegro, where the guy came from, had almost no influx of displaced people from the 90s wars. It is interesting that the places that actually had no experience with refugees were more xenophobic than those who had more experience, like Germany or France. It was also not just random xenophobia, it was mostly directed towards Arabs, like he wouldn’t feel that way for some others, like the Vietnamese. But then, reading about the troubles in France and the help that Montenegro gave to the refugees, in order to gain some leverage in the EU, has had an impact in railing up some anti-refugee sentiments.
Would you then suggest there is a historical backlash with Islam in the region or that singling out Arabs has to do with the fact that they’re non-whites?
Matija: I think not, for example, there is a completely different sentiment regarding the Turks or the Vietnamese, but when it comes to people from Arab countries is the fact that we don’t really know them other than what we see in the news, and what is presented there is nothing good. Turks on the other hand have left a lot of culture in the Balkans and there is a certain respect for them as we have already built cultural bridges and connections with them, whereas the Arab world is completely unknown to us.
Do you think albeit most of the ex-Yugoslavian countries are used as a transit zone for people trying to reach Europe, some of them will want to remain, do they have a place in the future of the region?
Kaja: Even those who right now try to set up here will eventually realize that it is not going to work out because of the situation and atmosphere, which will take a lot of time to allow them to become incorporated into the society. There is a lot of prejudice that even if they try to blend in they will still have a tough time. Our countries are not really organized for these purposes. Even people from here have a lot of trouble finding their place in the society and for someone who came from far away, it will not be easy to become a member of the society, not only because the system is dysfunctional and corrupt, but also because even though some groups are helping them to blend in, their approach is patronizing, and there are the others who are categorically refusing to mix with them and live in peace with them. I think anyone that decides to stay will eventually leave and try to find a better place and I believe they also think the same, as they know that there is a lack of future for them here, so the countries in the region are likely to just remain transit zones.
Matija: I think in a way it is the opposite to what Kaja said. In the beginning, no refugees or migrants would like to stay in the Balkans. Obviously, it is very hard to get social support even for Croats here in Croatia. But after a couple of years, I think if they decide to stay because for some reason they prefer these lands to Germany, they will stay here forever. People will like them, it is a bit typical for Balkanians to be a bit distant in the beginning, but if the refugees decide to stay here or in Serbia or Bosnia, after a few years they will become part of the scene. Everyone we met and who stayed and got asylum in these parts seemed to be content with it. In the end, xenophobia and racism are not the same. Xenophobia is about fearing 'the other’ and racism about thinking of someone as inferior, and I think people around this region are more of the former than the latter. I also believe that people will appreciate the fact that some of the refugees will actually want to stay in their country because it is very uncommon for migrants to want to do so and actually be flattered by it.
Your collective is called ‘Future Yugoslavia’, so how are the younger generations envisaging the future in the Balkans? And what do you think the ‘Future’ will look or should look like for you?
Matija: The future is very bright. I think that young people feel this way, probably not as bright as they think it is going to be, but still great. This part of the world, unlike western Europe, I think is going to get better. Western Europe is getting more nervous, losing its optimism, and becoming more closed. Surprisingly here is exactly the opposite, we are not used to optimism. I grew up in the 90s and optimism was a thing unknown to us, but the people now who are in their 20s and younger are more positive about the future, because a lot of things are getting better, and unlike Western Europe, we are not ‘overwhelmed’. I think Western Europe is feeling pressure and we are still in a vacuum and we want more and we are going to get more. We are more dynamic than before and our options are open.
Kaja: Things are getting better and better and the younger generations will be less burdened with the legacy of the past, the wars, and poverty. I can speak mostly for Croatia, I think that still most of Croatia is wounded by the war. Most people living in the country-side and the villages ten years ago were dead, but kids today have things like tik tok and other socials and they started mixing with the rest of the world. I think this will help to speed up the progress, build optimism and make it easier to think outside the box of the ‘troubled’ Balkan region, kids don’t think any more about their identity on these terms.
Any new projects we should know about and look forward to from your collective?
Kaja: We are working on our next series. It’s called ‘Matika Diaries’. Matika is one of the oldest squats in Zagreb and we document 10 days of the life inside it mixed with some older footage. Now it's less of a squat and more of a cultural center. Matija is the main character that lives in the squat and the series paints a picture of Zagreb youth.
Matija: Everything in the new project is awkward. Everything in this place is falling apart, it is an old factory, dirty and almost collapsing and all the people living there are quite f..cked up, including myself. But still, they have these small everyday activities from everyday life, like making coffee. We don’t really talk about the squat but about living a ‘normal life’ as it is under these ‘exotic’ conditions where simple day-to-day activities continue even though everything is falling apart.
An allegory about the society I guess?
Kaja: Yeah, could be.
Matija: *Skeptically nodding.
You can find the Youtube channel of Future Yugoslavia here and their Instagram account here. The photos are courtesy of their wordpress blog.
Comments