RETURN TO EUROPE
MACEDONIA – MACEDONIAN WEDDING

DOCUMENTARY / A 2008 / HD CAM / 52 & 45 MINUTES
directed by Peter Beringer

Synopsis

The documentary focuses on the north-west region of Macedonia inhabited by the Albanian minority. In 2001 this was the scene of armed conflict between ethnic Macedonians and Albanians. It was only through the firm intervention of the international community and the Ohrid Framework Agreement, which established guidelines for the co-existence of ethnic groups, was it possible to prevent a bloody civil war.
The film describes the background to the conflict and uses the stories of individual people to highlight the current situation of the country. Ali Ahmeti, the Albanian resistance leader ostracised by many as a terrorist, or Javier Solana, the EU’s chief negotiator in Ohrid, have their say together with affected people from the ethnic groups, who give us an insight into their everyday lives. In this way the viewer witnesses an Albanian wedding, meets students, farmers, soldiers and learns about the problems of workers in the crisis-ridden former socialist factories. Ohrid, one of the oldest centres of Slav culture, and Tetovo, Macedonia’s second city and predominantly inhabited by Muslim Albanians, show the impressive diversity of the multi-ethnic state, which stems from the centuries-old co-existence of the orthodox and Islamic religions.

FILMSTILLS

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