In Damir Markovina’s We Shall Live Together, 30 years after the war in the Balkans, two brothers urge their father – former Bosnian Socialist MP Roko Markovina – to return to the place they were exiled from, their divided hometown, a city made up of hurt, trauma, and precious memories…
In his production statement, Markovina explains the dilemma at the heart of his film. “Thirty-three years ago, I survived a war. It generated trauma that has driven me ever since; trauma caused as much by bombs as by the constant requests of the newly created societies to make choices: identity, nation, flag, political leanings.”
“Coming from a very mixed family that believed strongly in Yugoslav brotherhood and unity, it was hard for the young man I was to process the end of the world I was raised in,” he continues. “I buried the frustration deep and moved on. My family chose exile. I rarely went back home; I didn’t feel it was real. But every time I did, the moment I would open the house door, there was the war again, waiting for me. My father just couldn’t let it go.”
“To face him was to re-live the war at the kitchen table,” Markovina adds. “My mother stayed by his side, unable to change anything. My father’s permanent reality is pictures of life he had before April 1992, and constant meditations about what he did, or allowed to happen—constant agony of reconsidering his actions and decisions. But, somewhere in the middle of those pictures of past life is a better part of me, hiding in the reeds. I want that part of me back. My father is an old man. I’m now the same age he was when the war broke out. Maybe I can finally understand him. I know this film is our last chance to reconcile, and perhaps, to live together at last…”
Producer Tamara Babun Zovko (Wolfgang & Dolly LLC) explains the qualities of director Markovina.
“What I find especially exciting in how Damir delivers material that it is so alive and engaging; it keeps me in constant dialogue and discussion not only with the characters, but with my own emotions and experience,” she says. “I am sure it is the same for others, and is part of the reason the project was selected for two year-long documentary programmes organised by the Balkan Documentary Centre, and why it won three awards at the AJB Doc Industry Days and another at Beldocs Industry Days.”
Babun Zovko expects the film to be ready by Spring 2026, and is looking to close the budget of €180,000 in Sarajevo, as well as attract sales, distribution and broadcast interest.
“[There are] so many wars active right now,” the producer signs off. “Our film is about the reckoning if you survive, which is a whole task those who fire the guns never think about. How can a family reclaim their future? Damir Markovina shares his story without reservations.”
