Screening – Pawel Pawlikowski Presents: Serbian Epics

Screening Monday 16th February, 2009

As part of our successful ‘Presents’ strand, multi award-winning director Pawel Pawlikowski will introduce his 1992 documentary Serbian Epics
and take part in a post screening Q&A. In this documentary, set in
Bosnia during the war, Pawlikowski steers clear of the usual cliches of
war reporting, using a more anthropological perspective relying not on
commentary but on the power of images. He got complete access to
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who was only captured in July
2008 and now stands accused of war crimes.

Pawlikowski
records Karadzic’s personal life, his home, his daughter’s wedding and
his controversial views on ethnic cleansing. Through Pawlikowski’s
interview we come to understand how Serbian tradition and mystique were
distorted into a rallying cry for war.

This enquiry into the
ethnocentric view of the world, is an intimate and shocking study of
myth making and nation-building gone wrong.