Leah ErnstEditor society
The wall clock ticks quietly. A woman sits in her kitchen, white hair, dressing gown. “The guns and grenades were booming back then,” she recalls, taking a sip of coffee. «Now the war has become silent. But he’s no less horrific.” For a mother who hasn’t buried her children, the war is never over.
In his film “The DNA of Dignity” (2022), Jan Baumgartner (35) from Bern tells the story of the woman who is still waiting for her son’s human remains to be found. She is representative of the countless bereaved families of the Balkan wars (1991-1999). Back then, when Yugoslavia fell apart in a cruel and bloody way, when neighbors became enemies.
The bereaved often do not know for years what happened to their loved ones.
The documentary “The DNA of Dignity” has now been nominated for the Prix de Soleure at the Solothurn Film Festival from January 18th – one of the most important film prizes in Switzerland.
11,000 people are missing
Today it is Baumgartner who takes a sip of coffee. He is sitting in a restaurant right next to the main train station. He grew up here in Bern, and at the age of 16 he came to the Balkans for the first time through an exchange program at his school. Two weeks Croatia, one week Bosnia. Today the region is his second home.
When Yugoslavia disintegrated in 1992, a series of bloody wars shook the Balkans.
The Balkan countries are still too often burdened with negative prejudices. “It’s a beautiful region with incredibly kind people,” says Baumgartner. He was welcomed with open arms and made many friends. He was struck by how the people of the time had managed to carry on amidst the destruction and poverty. “To this day, bullet holes in most houses are a reminder of the war.”
Self-taught filmmaking: Jan Baumgartner.
He spends a large part of his life “down there”, as he says. In the meantime, Baumgartner has learned Bosnian. Many of the conversations with his friends eventually revolve around the conflict that continues to affect life on a daily basis. “Many people in the Balkans have their own tale of woe, having lost their father, children, aunt or grandparents to the war,” says Baumgartner.
Bone by bone, the nameless skeletons are given back an identity, a story.
30 years after the start of the war, around 11,000 people are still missing. Four years ago, Baumgartner therefore went to the office of the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) in Sarajevo. The Commission supports more than 40 countries in the search for missing persons. His written requests for a filming permit had gone unanswered. But his goal was: to accompany the team in Bosnia for his film.
It continues to simmer in the Balkans
The forensic scientist pulls bone by bone out of the plastic bag. Turn it back and forth and examine it very carefully. The person whose remains she is holding in her hands fell in the war. She puts him back together like a jigsaw puzzle. The ICMP team consists of bone specialists, forensic archaeologists, the public prosecutor’s office and the police are also involved. Informants and relatives often provide crucial information when searching for anonymous mass graves.
At first you could still compare satellite images from before and after the war, but the wild nature is growing around more and more graves and is blurring the traces. It’s a race against time. The forensic scientist uses a kind of circular saw to mill a finger-sized piece out of the skeleton. For DNA analysis. It doesn’t matter whether Bosniaks, Serbs or Croats. Ideally, bone by bone, a person is given a name, an identity.
The search for anonymous graves is complex and takes a long time. Forensic scientists, archaeologists and the police work closely together.
Again and again it seethes in the Balkans. The conflict between Serbia and Kosovo has flared up in recent weeks, threatening to reopen old war wounds across the Balkans. Baumgartner says: “I have never felt such great tension in the Balkans as last year.”
Politics block each other, as in Bosnia, where Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats should govern together. A situation that burdens the young generation in particular. They are too dependent on the right relationships or party to get jobs. Often they were not given fair opportunities. Many are therefore looking for work abroad, away from their families. “A little more security and political stability – and I think many of them would stay,” says Baumgartner.
In over 40 countries, the ICMP helps governments search for missing people.
The film wasn’t about asking the question of guilt. That’s why he doesn’t name any crime scenes, religions or perpetrators. He dispenses with quick cuts and shocking images, instead relying on sensitivity. “I want to show that there is hope: every identified person shows the bereaved that there is still something like justice and reappraisal, that the fate of their loved ones is appreciated.”
Baumgartner did not lose any relatives to the war. He wants to use this external position as carefully and dignified as possible to stimulate discussion. A discussion, among other things, about the fact that war remains cruel far beyond armistices or peace treaties – for a lifetime. For everyone involved.
He is touched by people’s stories
Baumgartner looks over Bern. In the meantime we walked through the city. Behind him the Parliament building, below him the Aare. He suggested the beginning of the week for this meeting, because then he is “not quite finished with work”. He points to the roofs. Among twelve of them, he will support people with psychiatric disorders, cancer patients or people with addiction problems in their everyday lives. Between his film projects, he works as a nursing specialist for Spitex.
With his training, he could also work in the hospital, where personal responsibility would be less and the hierarchy clearer. But it is the lives and stories of the people that touch Baumgartner. From the lonely villa to the welfare recipient in the high-rise: “You can hardly imagine how different the lives are that you look into every day,” he says. Being able to stay in their usual environment, their home, means a lot to people. “It’s about humanity, about dignity. Despite time pressure and stress in care.»
A dream becomes true
Baumgartner is delighted that his film has now been nominated for the Prix de Soleure. His father used to take him to the Solothurn Film Festival. This time his own film is included. The autodidact taught himself how to make films.
The objects used to bury the fallen can help with identification.
When he told his friends from the Balkans about the film idea, the first reaction was: “We already know everything about that.” But then Baumgartner reported on the scientific progress of the ICMP. The surprise was great, his friends wanted to know more. The war is still a highly emotional topic. Baumgartner hopes that his film will be shown in many other places after Solothurn. Above all, of course, in the Balkans, his second home.