The Weight of Chains (2010)

From the beginning is obvious that this is biased "documentary"... You don't have to wait long to hear blatant lies. In first few minutes author glorifies first Yugoslavia as some great solution in which everyone was so happy and it was so sad it lived only until WWII... In fact it was great deception, and after promises of equality of all nations and constitutional monarchy, it turned out to be Serbian hegemony. On the first day of new state some Croats were killed on main square in Croatian capitol for protesting by Serbian army. 4 Croatian parliamentarians were killed in national parliament by some Serbian representative. After that, Serbian King proclaims dictatorship. After that he changes the name of the state from Kingdom of Serbs Croats and Slovenians to Kingdom of Yugoslavia, with new motto "One nation, one King, one state." What to say, paradise for all... Author forgot to mention how loved was King. So much that he was assassinated...As to reasons for breakup of the second Yugoslavia, I can agree that economic troubles were one factor that contributed, but to say it was the sole reason is ridiculous. Something like that could say only someone that wasn't there, or someone who is crazy... Or just lying.Why doesn't author mention infamous "Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts" from 85/86? Or "organized spontaneity" that Milosevic used to abolish autonomy of Kosovo and Vojvodina? And same "yogurt revolution" approach in Montenegro?And there it is, plain and simple, main reason for breakup... Suddenly, Serbia has 4 automatic votes in Presidency. Other 4 Republics have 1 each. WHO would want to stay in such "equality"??????? Economy?!? Come on... In 89 Markovic even made famous reforms and stabilized Dinar, and situation was much better. And besides that, Yugoslavia was in much better position than rest of communist states of former Soviet block... Did Czech and Slovak's breakup violently?And claim that Serbs just wanted to protect parts of land where they were majority is like fairytale for little kids. We all remember famous cry "Where is one Serb, it is Serbia!". For example, I'm from Dubrovnik and I wonder where is Serbian majority there? Those Serbs in Dubrovnik I know were hiding in basements from "Peoples" army relentless shelling's, just like I did. What was the point of 10 days war in Slovenia? Who was protected there? Sibenik? Zadar? Vukovar? Sarajevo? Tuzla?....Why doesn't author admit what was Serbian story then? That they will stop only when they reach "Virovitica - Karlovac- Karlobag" line... That's all of Bosnia and 90% of Croatia.Author makes note that Croats acquired some weapons illegally, but forgets to mention that weapons of "territorial defense" which belonged to Croatia was illegally confiscated by Yugoslav Peoples Army and given to local Serbs who used it to start armed rebellion on 17. of August 1990. And he forgets to explain how suddenly peoples army which was multinational and had barracks in every corner of Yugoslavia, in just few days become purely Serbian?To be honest I watched first 45 minutes or so, couldn't stand it any more. Just another try to equalize guilt, with the spin this time... It's a world conspiracy, we couldn't do anything to stop it!Well, for sure every side is guilty of something, BUT guilt is not equal, and never will be, we all know it. We all know who started it, who was armed to the teeth and how many shells fell on Serbia until finally world and UN understood who is warmonger in ex Yugoslavia and bombed it silly.BTW, to see that here Izetbegovic is portrayed as the bad boy, the worst one, is simply hilarious. Poor guy didn't know what hit him, Slobo, Karadjic and co. on one side, and Tudjman, Mate Boban and co. on the other. "He wanted all..." Funny!If you look for objective story, look elsewhere...

I truly enjoy a good documentary that is based on objective fact. I even like a mockumentary type films that use irony and satire to express a view. This movie is none of those things.The only thing I liked about this film is that it was made in a style of a modern documentary film that I sometimes like(like Super size me for example). Also it does raise some good questions about EU, monetary policies and the future of countries of ex Yugoslavia in EU. That's about it.I don't like to talk about politics but that is what this film is about. What I dislike most about this film is that it is a Serbian propaganda film disguised as a documentary, based on a very narrow point of view that also pushes a conspiracy theory that the western powers are to blame for the wars in Yugoslavia and the Serbs are just victims, sometimes even heroes for standing up to tyranny in history and now.The director of this movie is a Serbian and he wishes to make his fellow countrymen look better in the eyes of the world by washing away the guilt of crimes and transferring it to another party. Falsifying history, using false facts, diminishing the victims while equating them with their victimizers and shifting blame away from a country(Serbia) whose politics for 2 decades involved oppressing, waging wars, ethnic cleansing and supporting war criminals is wrong and offensive. The part of the film that is closest to the actual truth is the narrative where facts(often inflated) are used but then distorted by putting them into a different context.Imagine a documentary saying that the holocaust happened but it was not the Germans' fault, the Jews share the blame, it was not that bad, the Germans are just as much as victim and it was all thought of, made possible, decided and done by the Americans? This film is similar in that way. Very poor and one sided research was done for this film. The screenwriter should have started with wikipedia and browsing thru old unbiased media.

...How one movie can try to make up for all bad things during the war in former Yugoslavia. This movie is based on some really ridiculous history statements, as well as "facts" about the war that happened almost 20 years ago.I'm a Croat, and I was unfortunate to live during this war. This move has some true facts, like western powers really wanted to break Yugoslavia into smaller republics, but it lacks some other facts like all money in Yugoslavia going to Belgrade. That and some other things made Croats, Bosnians and especially the Slovenians (richest republic in Yugoslavia) really mad.Movie also tells you chetniks were freedom fighters. Chetniks were like ustashe - fascists. Partizans on the other hand were communists, and were lead by Tito, a Croat, one more thing author of this move forgot to mention. He also forgot about communist crimes against Italians, Croats, Muslims and even Serbs that didn't want communist party.But then again, all this movie tries to achieve is to reduce Serbian guilt. He forgot to mention Z4 plan for Serbians in Croatia. Plan was that Serbs had some autonomy, but remain in Croatia. They rejected that. Also, they expelled all Croats from theirs so called republic "Krajina". He also forgot to mention that in Vukovars population over 90% were Croats, and Serbs bombed the hell out of that city. They completely destroyed it.On the other hand, Croats did a lot of bad things to. And any decent man should recognize that and be ashamed coz of it.But one fact remains. Not even one bomb was dropped on Serbia. Serbia invaded first Croatia, then Bosnia. I have friends in Serbia, and friends that are Muslims in Bosnia. And I don't care about their nationality or their religion. Everything today is political, and we can see political propaganda everywhere. This movie could have been great, but instead, it's just one big political propaganda with little to no respect to more than 200 000 casualties during the war 20 years ago. Shame on the author, even tough he probably doesn't care at all.

I will be short and say just this: This is the best documentary I ever watched together with Zeitgeist... This is independent documentary about new age colonization, modern slavery, about former Yugoslavia, about moral, about human rights and much much more...Very objective view and honest to the bone! There is a lot of facts instead of propaganda, and positive view with goal to understand, forgive and make peace with everybody. Be honest to yourself and to others.You MUST watch this movie if you want to be responsible citizen of planet Earth...