Lukic the film-maker: “Pretty Village, Pretty Flame” and the Visegrad Genocide
Last week, an article in Croatian daily Jutarnji list, claiming that Milan Lukic helped in filming “Lepa sela, Lepo gore” (“Pretty Village, Pretty Flame“) stirred reactions in Serbia and Bosnia&Herzegovina. The film’s Director Srdjan Dragojevic and Producer Dragan Bjelogrlic both quickly reacted and threatened to sue Jutarnji list. The author of the article, Dragan Jurak, claims that the information was given to him by Emir Hadzihafizbegovic, a popular Bosnian actor.
In March this year, we wrote about Lukic’s favorite book and film. Namely, Lukic’s favorite film is “Pretty village, Pretty flame“; filmed in 1995 in Republika Srpska, mostly in Visegrad Municipality. It is a biased Serb film about the Bosnian war, where Serb crimes are shown in an ironic image. For the purposes of filming this movie, a Bosniak village near Visegrad called Medjedja was burnt down. Also, in the credits, the film’s crew thanks the Army of Republika Srpska and the Secretariat of Internal Affairs (SUP) in Visegrad.
Interestingly, Serb actor Dragan Bjelogrlic, confesses that he met Milan Lukic during filming the movie, but that he “only later found out who he was” adding that Lukic was “not an important figure”. Dragojevic on the other hand, admits that the crew got help from the Visegrad Municipality and Army of Republika Srpska but that Lukic’s para-military formation did not exist at that time saying: “We never would have filmed a movie under the control of a para-military formation”.
Bjelogrlic’s and Dragojevic’s statements are at most, insulting to Visegrad Bosniaks. Here are a few facts, which Bjelogrlic, Dragojevic and everyone else with an average IQ must have known or at least noticed about Visegrad in ’95: (1) the missing Bosniak population; (2) looted, abandoned and destroyed Bosniak houses (3) Milan Lukic was a member of the Army of Republika Srpska, officially registered and wearing Republika Srpska Army insigna (4) Visegrad was under the control of the SDS-led Visegrad Municipality and Visegrad Brigade, Lukic’s military unit was tolerated and supported by them.
Lastly, Lukic was not the only problem in Visegrad. The SDS Crisis Committee within the Visegrad Municipality, the media, the Church: planned, supported and financed the genocide against Bosniaks in Visegrad. What makes Milan Lukic different from the rest is that is himself murdered a large number of Bosniaks, using the most brutal tactics.
P.S. Not a single member of the Crisis Committee has been tried for his role in the crimes committed in Visegrad. A majority of them today live in Serbia.
Visegrad Genocide Memories 
September 9, 2009 at 11:44 pm
Well, surely it must be interesting…like a film about the Holocaust made by old Nazis or Neonazis. It seems to be a well-made film- but biased, to whitewash the serb side of its guilt. I haven’t seen it but from what I have read about it the message seems to be: “All right, we did all these horrible things and more, but it is all your fault!” Well, what else can you expect from the Serbs? So I will definitely NOT add it to my collection. I will however, add “Resolution 819” and “Storm” whenever they come out (already having “Hunting Party”, “Welcome to Sarajevo”, “Ljeto u zlatnoj dolini”; “Grbavica”, “No Man’s Land” and “Snijeg”). Too bad some Western fillmakers also have seemed to folow the Serb view on the war in Bosnia, and to belittle the genocide or put the blame on the victim. And as for Emir Kusturica, don’t even mention him to me. I do have to admit that some of his early films are really quite good, but about his character…well, it’s better not to go into this further…