THE INVESTIGATOR

Former investigator of The Hague Tribunal returns to the Balkans, to places where the war crimes were committed nearly 30 years ago. Can justice be brought from the outside?

Vladimír Dzuro is the first Czech investigator to have worked for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. He collected evidence against war criminals and hunted perpetrators of ethnic cleansing. The two biggest cases include the Ovčara massacre related to Vukovar's mayor Slavko Dokmanović, and the ethnic cleansing committed by the warlord Željko Ražnatović Arkan. We join Vladimír Dzuro on his metaphorical and real journey across the places of investigation in the former Yugoslavia and meet some survivors of these cases. What is the landscape of the Balkans, which saw a fratricidal conflict twenty-five years ago, like today? What happened to the people who still live there and to their memory? What is the significance and meaning of justice brought from the outside?

The film is inspired by Vladimir Dzuro's bestselling book The Investigator - Demons of the Balkan War, published in the Czech Republic as Vyšetřovatel - Démoni balkánské války a světská spravedlnost by Grada Publishing (2017) and in the USA by Potomac Books (2019).

script, director: Viktor Portel / DOP: Šimon Dvořáček / sound, music: Dominik Dolejší / editor: Vladimir Gojun / producer: Hana Blaha Šilarová / / original idea: Martina Šantavá / co-producers: Oliver Sertić, Restart, Martina Šantavá, Česká televize, Croatian Radiotelevision, Al Jazeera Balkans  

Czech Republic, Croatia | 2022 | 73 min, 52 min | DCP, MP4

world sales: Christa Auderlitzky, filmdelights / auderlitzky@filmdelights.com

Czech Republic distribution: Hana Blaha Šilarová / +420 602 792 856 / hana@framefilms.cz

Balkans distribution: Oliver Sertić / oliver@restarted.hr