PRETTY VILLAGE, PRETTY FLAME

It's been called an anti-war triumph to match “M*A*S*H” and “Full Metal Jacket”; it's been denounced for not taking sides or pandering simple solutions. PRETTY VILLAGE, PRETTY FLAME tells a twisted true story from the Bosnian battleground. The mouth of the “Unity and Brotherhood Tunnel” was unveiled in the 1960s with Titoist pride to link Zagreb and Belgrade thorugh the mountains, but the effort was soon forgotten; only a few hundred feet of it were ever dug. Two boys whisper that an ogre sleeps within, and if awakened the monster will burn the village and kill all the people. Spring 1992: villages are indeed burning, and people are dying. One of those kids is now a Serbian soldier whose squad comes under attack from Muslim militiamen – among them his childhood friend. Serbs flee into the tunnel; Muslims take positions outside to party and pick their countrymen off when they emerge, a ghastly stalemate that encapsulates the horrific absuridty of the whole conflict. This was shot on location where the siege actually happened, while fires still blazed and at one point UN forces nearly had “an incident” with Dragojevic's crew. (In Serbian with English subtitles) – Charles Cassady