Srebrenica, from night to night, 2015
On 11 July 1995, the Bosnian Serb army attacked the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica. More than 8 000 men were massacred in 3 days. Twenty years later, the city seems frozen in the darkness of its history. A new generation is wandering in its vestiges. They are as old as the genocide. (…)
To live in Srebrenica is to experience the indefinable time that is the post-war period. If everyone knows when this “after” begins, who can tell when it ends? Walking through this space where testimonies of times of horror and peace cohabit, a question emerges: “Is there an end to the war?”. As we talk with the local youth, we can guess that the night of the story never really dawned. If the trauma is still very present among the survivors, the scars are also visible on the facades (…) The war is in the background, it is also in the raging and desperate temperament of the post-genocide generation. War must be fought on a daily basis in this “after” that sticks to you. When you’re 20 years old, how do you grow up in remnants, how do you get out of this endless night? Impossible, according to them. (…) The youth here asks for nothing, thank you. To be born in Srebrenica is an injustice for those who are 20 years old and just want to drink and make love. And no aid programs can can change that. Ademir, Milica, Merka, Miroslav are the age of genocide. In the night of history, the city belongs to them.
The series « Srebrenica, From Night to Night » won the 2015 Prix des Nouvelles Ecritures given by La SAIF, category Freelance.
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