Other titles:UNITED NATIONS TELEVISION (UNTV) ZAGREB COLLECTION, YUGOSLAVIA [Allocated Series Title]
Summary: UNTV updates its December 1994 film COMING HOME [UNT 562] on the decision of Abdullah Zelić, a Bosnian refugee in Copenhagen, to return home. Where is he now? What is his life like?
Description: Shots of Copenhagen. Footage from December 1994: Abdullah says that everything is fine in Denmark and he is grateful to the Danes for housing him. Despite this, he says ‘I just want to go home’. Footage of Abdullah at Copenhagen Airport. In 1992, he was imprisoned and forced to dig trenches on the frontline where he was injured. It was in Denmark that he received treatment for these wounds.
He returned to Bosnia last December. Ten months later UNTV update his story. Shot of Sofia, his wife, hanging the washing. She recalls his homecoming. She says that she was afraid that he would not come home because his brother had already promised his return three times without any result. Abdullah joins her in the garden to tell the story. He describes his confusion because no one knew him and he did not even recognise his children.
Shots of the surrounding countryside near Zenica. Abdullah says that this is the most beautiful place for him. Shots of the family harvesting corn outside their house. He says that he likes this rural existence but he has had to adapt to it again after his recent life. His wife Mira says that although they have had to start over again, she and Abdullah are happy, they live, she says ‘as if we were newlyweds’.
Shots of Abdullah collecting hay bales. He works for a construction company in other Bosnian cities and has to spend time away from home. He says that he has worked in Mostar for two months but this earns him money so he is happy to do it.
Shots of his two daughters making daisy chains. Abdullah says that he wishes all Bosnians would return to Bosnia. ‘Life is the most beautiful in Bosnia’. For him, ‘there is room in Bosnia for Croats, Serbs and Muslims and Bosniaks’. He says that he does not know about those who have done wrong but can speak only for himself. For him, life in Bosnia is good. Abdullah, sitting in a field, smokes a cigarette, the evening light on his face.
Alternative Title:UNITED NATIONS TELEVISION (UNTV) ZAGREB COLLECTION, YUGOSLAVIA [Allocated Series Title]
Colour:English (Tape Code A)
Digitised:
Object_Number:UNT 795
Sound:Bosnian (Tape Code B)
Access Conditions:
Featured Period:1990-2000
Production Date:1995-10 1995-11-01
Production Country: UN
Production Details: Foster, Leigh (Production individual)
Personalities, Units and Organisations:
Keywords: Bosnia-Herzegovina & Zenica (geography)
Physical Characteristics: Colour format: English (Tape Code A)
Sound format: Bosnian (Tape Code B)
Soundtrack language: Serbian (Tape D)
Technical Details: Format: Beta-SP
Number of items/reels/tapes: 1
Running time: 11 mins 56 secs
