April, 1992. War descends upon Bosnia, pounded and martyred by extremist Serbian troops manipulated by Slobodan Milosevic. Killing, raping and looting, soldiers and paramilitary become the instruments of an insane project: carving up Bosnia – where Serbs, Croatians and Muslims have lived in peace for a thousand years – into ethnically pure regions. The citizens of Sarajevo are caught in a vice and shelled for 1,263 days – longer than the siege of Leningrad! Jovan Divjak, an ethnic Serb, stayed in Sarajevo to defend his city. He chose to stick with those who were attached to the idea of a united Bosnia: Muslims, as well as Serbs and Croatians.
Interviewed by journalist Florence La Bruyère, Jovan Divjak reflects upon his childhood in Tito’s Yougoslavia. He paints the portrait of the city he fell in love with in 1966, the melting pot of Yugoslavian, and later Bosnian, identity. He brings to life the incredible resistance of its ordinary citizens, burying their dead under sniper fire, and its artists, determined to maintain the city’s theatrical life. He also describes the extreme poverty of Bosnian troops. Tito’s army, created to serve the entire nation, betrayed its mission by espousing a criminal cause. An indignant Divjak can not find it in his heart to pardon this.  Nor does he hide his doubts and disappointment: over the politicians’ powerlessness and incompetence, the demise of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s multi-ethnic army – now Muslim-only by decree – and the uncertain future of a country transformed into a semi-protectorate. The peace that has settled over the land is not the one he dreamed of.