View from the Bridge: Stories from Kosovo (2007)

View from the Bridge: Stories from Kosovo is the first documentary feature about post-war Kosovo. Through a collection of riveting eyewitness accounts, View from the Bridge tells the human story of the Kosovo crisis while revealing important lessons about the worldwide epidemic of ethnic conflict. Centered on the divided city of Mitrovica, View from the Bridge revolves around one of Kosovo's singular landmarks: Mitrovica's bridge over the Ibar River. Once a symbol of unity in a multi-ethnic society, the bridge became a flashpoint of riots and protests and now stands as a quiet symbol of intractable division. Serbians never travel south to the Albanian section of town, and Albanians, if they try to cross the bridge to the North, are greeted by a group of Serbian extremists called "The Bridge Watchers," who will surely deny them passage - or worse. The characters in View from the Bridge each highlight a different aspect of Kosovar ethnic, religious, social and economic life. The people are troubled and imperfect. But instead of force-fitting its characters into an imposed narrative structure, View From the Bridge leaves their rough edges intact and, in them, finds the powerful truth of this beautiful, yet imperfect place. Sometimes hopeful, sometimes tragic, the struggle to make peace in Kosovo opens a profound window into the human cost of the politics of hate, and reminds us that the ultimate responsibility for peace lies within us all.