Page - 82 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/01

82 | Milja Radovic www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/1, 73–89 For the director, the creation of this film was not political work but the reconstruc- tion of a “high moral and human deed”.54 The ripple effect of Srdjan’s deed has been reflected through the director’s own quest and search for answers on goodness, neu- trality, action, and the giving of one’s life for one’s neighbour. Golubovic’s film does not simply describe a scene in which an act happened at a certain point in time; it creates a new scene through which the director investigates the meanings of human acts. According to Golubovic, “The main question is if there is sense in being a human being and a hero. The film is hard but offers catharsis and an affirmative reply: yes, there is sense in being a human being.”55 The question that the director explores is also an answer: acts have a ripple effect, which runs counter to Arendt’s view that “when the actions ceases, the meaning ceases”.56 The figure of the activist citizen has been constituted here in two ways: through a real-life event and through the film. By giving his own life for the Other, Srdjan be- comes an activist citizen and a political figure, non-deliberately perhaps, by disrupting the practices of a conflicted society. His act surpasses the friend-enemy distinction57 typical of the oppressive nationalist-religious ideology of the time, and of identitarian ideologies of the present. Srdjan’s deed that inspired the director is one that shifted the existing practices of political communities divided by ethnicity and religious be- longing. The film functions in a similar way: it shifts the practice of the “feel good” film or mere political-historical reconstruction by putting before the audience the question, What can I do? The director asks, Who is my neighbour? and Does it mean anything to give one’s life for another? Golubovic’s film thus becomes political, even if it is not intended to be. In this way film becomes a medium for carrying out the transformative and vision- ary practices of (re)creation and for testifying what citizenship should be. The direc- tor focuses on the universal right of every human being to live as a free person, and the peacebuilding dimension comes as an effect of the original deed. Peacebuilding as an act is not possible without an act of forgiveness and without responsibility for Oth- ers, who are in this process transformed from alienated Other into a neighbour. The film is itself a personal exploration of existential questions by the director, a creative act that was an effect of Srdjan Aleksic’s real-life heroic deed. Both are authentic acts that break normative boundaries and established divisions, and both are visionary, for they surpass the immediate socio-political context. 54 “Golubovic’s ‘Krugovi’ Scoops Sundance Award”, Balkan Insight, 29 January 2013, http://www. balkaninsight.com/en/article/golubovic-wins-special-sundance-award [accessed 28 April 2016]. 55 “Golubovic’s ‘Krugovi’ Scoops Sundance Award”, Balkan Insight, 29 January 2013, http://www. balkaninsight.com/en/article/golubovic-wins-special-sundance-award [accessed 28 April 2016]. 56 Isin 2012, 117. 57 Bretherton 2011.