Two Summers in Kosovo
Before Iraq, before Afghanistan, the United States bombed Kosovo. 10 years later, the former Serbian province remains impoverished, ethnically fractured, and dependent on the international community. Two Summers in Kosovo is about what it means to live in a perpetual frozen conflict, a purgatory forgotten by the rest of the world. The film documents the lives of Kosovo Serbs and Albanians six months before and six months after last year's declaration of independence. In 2007, the film introduces us to six Kosovo Albanians and five Kosovo Serbs. Through the lives of these 11 subjects, the film explores Kosovo's segregated education system and entrenched political corruption, its refugee centers and ethnic enclaves, and finally, the international 'nation building' projects and folly at the center of it all. The second part of the film takes place in the summer of 2008, where we rejoin our subjects six months after Kosovo's Albanians unilaterally declare independence from Serbia. Through the fog of transition, the film's characters emerge, deeply shaken by the terror of their actuality. Their plights have worsened. So little has changed, so few promises have been delivered. Now each character, regardless of their ethnicity, is faced with a dire question: can they survive in Kosovo without hope?
