Excellent TV production, harsh, moving, real. To watch it hurt me almost at a physical level, I have lived in Sarajevo, I know the city, it's people, and I understand their plight. Take it from somebody who has been there; this is a movie well made, the situations, feelings and emotions it depicts are very real, almost exactly as it was. There is no overt dramatization here, no going over the top; I almost felt as if I was there... Unbelievably good for a TV movie.If there is one weak point in the film, it is that they should have utilized local actors, they should have filmed it in the original language with subtitles. That would have made the movie even more powerful. Well done!

This is an actual story about two friends. one Albanian Muslim , the other Christian Serb. They both were born and grew up in Yugoslavia(Bosnia Herzegovina now). They were friends since childhood. When they become young men, both gained perfection in 5the art of shooting as a sport. both had common dream , to represent their country into Olympics. vlado saleemovic had wife and daughter while slavko stanovic had a fiancée only. then events began to unfold.a civil war commenced.Yugoslavia began to disintegrate.New states Slovenia and Croatia emerged as independent nations.Bosnia decided to join ranks with them. This wasn't acceptable for the Serb community coz it would separate their national heritage with original Serbia but the Croats and Muslims wanted it. slavko being a Serb entered into the military service for his Serb army. He became a sniper, he began to hunt down the Croats and Muslim civilians, coz he believed they had done a great betrayal to the motherland which was liberated with great sacrifice from the clutches of Nazi Germany. slavko s own family was shattered and devastated in the ww 2. vlado s nation now is extreme desperate situation. They are being slaughtered and butchered like cockroaches, they are placed in Serb concentration camps with far more than any pathetic conditions and they are besieged in their own capital city Sarajevo by Serb snipers and gunners. now vlado holds his gun to defend his own community. Both friends are now war adversaries but one fear lurks in both their hearts , nobody wants to square off against each other, because of their old time sake , they both offered each other 1st ticket out of that war zone. One night in the middle of that brutal war they finally met each other after a long time.When vlado was coming to his home slavko fired at him but missed intentionally and deliberately. Then he embraced vlado and made him entered inside his house, it looked to me there is no any rivalry of war among them but instead they are like blood brothers regardless of what s going on in their surroundings. That was also the night of Barcelona Olympics closing ceremony. Slavko here said , so we finally made it to the Olympics. Vlado asked why didn't slavko shot him , slavko replied why didn't u shot me at that day , (vlado also had an encounter with slavko but he spared his life and slavko knew it). Slavko told his buddy why he is doing it , its not good to kill his own people but what they had done can also not be accepted and forgiven. Both men embraced each other , said good bye perhaps for the last time as friends. Next morning comes the most toughest moment of the movie ,the real event. Slavko put his military uniform and went outside on his sniper rampage. there he saw valdo aiming at him with a distance. Both men looked at each other. Now its there eyes only which are speaking to each other. Watching into each other s eyes they are now communicating to each other. Vlado was saying ,infact pleading,,' plz don't go , stop it , for god sake, for old times, otherwise i will have no choice but to kill u'. slavko replied', u want to kill me , go ahead do it, u do what u think is right , u entitled to it, but i ll also do what i believe in. I cant stop u from doing your job but u cant also stop me from doing my duty. Then vlado pulled the trigger and shot slavko to death. After killing him he broke down into tears this was the most painful agonizing moment in his life, killing the man who was most dearest to him outside his kith and kin. In my opinion this war did so much damage to a land but inspite of it wasn't capable of devastating the love friendship and affection of two friends who later become enemies but their regard and care each other still triumphed over hate and prejudice , when u see the final parts of the movie. This movie is based on a shattering true events (what i learned), i think most people should see it , it can teach you good meanings of this life. both actors made a very good job and worked together by sinking deep into their characters to make this story heart touching.

I have to say that of all the docudramas i have watched this one impacted me the most. As the movie starts,you can see people going about their daily business of shop keeping or industrial jobs for the common folk. Streets lined with walkers shopping,school children playing and elderly watching it all on park benches. This is the world that Sarajevo knew before the government collapsed. Muslim,croates,and various other religions living together in one city and village,working together to make their worlds just that much more happy. Until the new appointed dictatorship stole it all away. This film was excellent in showing the lives of a select few who survived to tell their story of this horrible genocide that took place in 1992. People that used to live and breathe the same air together becoming enemies in the vast war that followed. Separating the Muslims,croates and others,killing each other in cold blood,snipers firing on children for the sheer pleasure of watching them die. And the most horrible tales of women and very young girls being violated in the most evil ways a human can imagine. Today there are still some remnants of those years but not as conflictive,but still in some small way could explode again. Sarajevo and all of its history of neighbors living together has been lost for all time,with children laughing during or after school,people shopping for their families,businesses helping to expand their way of life,and the elderly watching on park benches smiling no more. The cast of this movie was impeccable,i was moved seeing the despair rise out of newly formed ashes and the cast,Linus Roache was fantastic in his role. Along with his Serb character Vincent Perez,two lifelong friends separated by the conflict. I would recommend this movie even for the universities who study the human mind and why they can change at any given time out of fear.

First, in the movie, the bad guys (the serbs) are really dark complicated, and the good guys are (muslims) lite complected. Serbs are dark, thats because of muslim blood, in them, from the turkish conquest of the balkans for 500 yrs. It doesn't tell the t.v. audience, thats one of the serbs major distrust of the muslim population.