Milosevic on Trial, a potent mix of courtroom footage, talking heads interviews, and video asides, runs slightly over an hour (reportedly cut down from a two-hour television version), though the brief running time actually works in this engrossing documentary’s favor. The four-years-long war crimes trial of Serbian and Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic thus goes by in the relative blink of an eye, the bogged down legal process (reams of paperwork, myriad witnesses, an overall clinical presentation and examination of the most unspeakable kinds of evidence) suddenly collapsed into a fleet-footed and deeply moving space.
If anything, Milosevic on Trial moves a bit too quickly, neglecting some crucial connective tissue that would better illustrate how the various participants’ immersion in this labyrinth of “justice” threatens to – and, in some cases, actually does – warp their very souls. To this end, the film’s most fascinating characters tend to be the ones directly in Milosevic’s sphere. The president himself acts as his own defender, in part to show his absolute contempt for the proceedings. He wastes time with frivolous cross-examination tangents and has a continual tendency to plead sickness (whether true or not) to hold up the tribunal’s progress. It’s not hard to see that he’s playing for time, though, as the film goes on, it’s clear that his health is indeed deteriorating. (His death comes 40 hours before the defense is to rest its case – what did him in, one gathers by implication, was the end being finally in sight.)
As revealed by the surrogate sibling-like affection of his legal advisor, Dragoslav Ogjnanovic, Milosevic is a literal living poison, though this doesn’t preclude him his shadings of humanity. Aural/visual evidence, field research, and witness testimony prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Milosevic was directly involved in genocide (the film’s most disturbing segment features an evidentiary video of the Scorpion paramilitary unit – whom the prosecution links to Milosevic – nonchalantly executing various undesirables), but how does one reconcile this neverending string of horror with the family photos of Milosevic, beaming with all too recognizable pride over his young grandchild? That’s the contradiction that must be acknowledged, but not succumbed to, when dealing with mortal horror, and if there’s a dispassionate heart to Milosevic on Trial it comes in the form of principal prosecutor Geoffrey Nice, who evinces the sanest point-of-view time and again, even in the face of the inscrutable. But sanity is hardly ever a prevailing ideology: red tape, pomp and circumstance – these are what rule the day in the present courts of law. All must be heard (and all should be), but it can make for an effective muddle of morality. As proven by the trial’s abrupt end, with no concrete verdict rendered, death remains the only certainty.
Background Buzz
A round up of related content from across the web including fan blogs, podcasts, analysis, news, magazines, and more. Updated often, so check back!
-Text interview from indieWIRE with Milosevic on Trial director Michael Christofersen
-Read the review from Time Out New York
-Read up on the trial at the Milosevic Trial Public Archive
