A young Bernese filmmaker accompanied forensic experts in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the identification of bones from mass graves. “The DNA of Dignity” is the only Swiss film selected for Critics’ Week in Locarno: to be seen on Sunday.
Jan Baumgartner had already looked at the consequences of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the short film “Talking Soil”, first presented at the Sarajevo Film Festival in 2018, then in Swiss festivals. He painted the portrait of former soldiers in search of mines buried by the thousands in the ground.
Already at the time, he was aware “that there is still something else that has disappeared underground and that must be dealt with”, says the 35-year-old filmmaker in an interview with Keystone-ATS. Jan Baumgartner endeavored to obtain filming authorization from the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICPD).
This commission supports governments, judicial authorities and civil society in the search for and identification of missing persons. In the former Yugoslavia, more than 40,000 people were reported missing following the war which devastated the country between 1991 and 1999. So far, only 70% of the victims have been identified.
Still 11,000 people missing
Jan Baumgartner and his film crew were able to accompany the CIPD forensic experts on their mission in Bosnia – from the careful excavation of recently discovered mass graves to the computer-assisted DNA comparison in the laboratory and the assembly of bone remains.
“We wanted to give a platform to these people who are doing important work in silence”, underlines the filmmaker. In the region, 11,000 people are still considered missing.
While Jan Baumgartner’s project met with good response from forensic experts, his circle of friends in Sarajevo initially reacted with skepticism. He was told that people no longer wanted to see images of mass graves. Many wanted to close this topic and forget regarding the war.
He tried to take this criticism into account, “and to connect the story of these bones to something promising”, explains the director. Because for the families concerned, the identification of their missing relatives can be a great relief.
The film crew, however, deliberately refrained from staging the families present during the excavations – in particular to protect them. The story of a mother whose two sons have disappeared since the war is told in the film by a fictional character. Nor was it for him to “ask the question of guilt”.
A job in home care
Jan Baumgartner first visited Sarajevo 20 years ago – when he was still a teenager for an exchange between his Steiner school and the local high school: “I fell in love with this country”. He then traveled there several times, learned the language and spent a total of six years in Bosnia for his last two film projects.
“When I had no more money, I came to Switzerland to work”. Here, the trained nurse works for Spitex in Bern and takes care of 12 to 14 patients every day. Caregiver work is difficult and demanding, but also rewarding: “each patient has their own story”.
His very first film, “Alafia” (2016), documented daily life in a hospital in African Benin. People usually have to travel long distances – by bicycle or on foot – to receive medical treatment. Not everyone gets there in time.
Autodidact and team player
Jan Baumgartner came to cinema as an autodidact. Initially, he wanted to become a war photographer, he says. But the more he became interested in war journalism, the more he became aware of the difficulties of this profession in the midst of violence and war: “I didn’t want it to change me as a human being”.
His works are produced in collaboration with cameraman Lukas Nicolaus and filmmaker Daniel Asadi Faezi, whom he met during his travels. Both graduated from the Munich film school and have already made their own film projects. The support of these two talents is for him a “huge chance”.
Jan Baumgartner also produced “The DNA of Dignity” himself and financed it largely by his own means, with the exception of a sum of 20,000 francs which he received from foundations.
This article has been published automatically. Source: ats
