MILOSEVIC ON TRIAL

Nicknamed the Butcher of the Balkans, Slobodan Milosevic died of a heart attack on 11 March 2006, just before the end of a four-year war crimes trial that was the biggest since Nuremberg

With exclusive access to the trial the crew filmed more than 2000 hours from- and behind the court that was named to be the most important court case for decades at a specially-created UN tribunal, located in The Hague.

But the trial took an unusual direction when Milosevic insisted on defending himself turning the courtroom at times into a farce when he in 2004 called in more than 1600 people as witnesses and when Milosevic and his supporters made long speeches about how great he had been, and how the atrocities in the Balkans had not been Milosevic’s responsibility.

The film is built up as a duel between the English prosecutor Geoffrey Nice and his struggle with time to find the smoking gun that can link Milosevic directly to the genocides on Balkan, and between Milosevic still believing in his might and the people working for him in order to clean his name.

As the trial becomes more and more absurd the process keeps getting delayed by Milosevic’s health problems and the longest running War tribunal ends when Milosevic is found dead in his cell only months before the final verdict.

Release year:

2007

Director:

Michael Christoffersen

Producer:

Mette Heide

Co production:

SVT, YLE, NRK, VPRO, RTBF, NFB (Canada), ZDF/ARTE, SBS, TSR & VRT

Running length:

2x60 or 70

Production company:

Team Production for BBC & TV2/DANMARK

Prizes:

-The Danish Academy Award "Robert" 2008 for Best Feature Documentary

-Nominated in the category TV Documentary of PRIX EUROPA 2007

 

Categories:

• Social, Political & History