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Raindance 2012Released: 2012
Director: Lukas Sturm
Starring: Asli Bayram, Senad Basic, Adnan Haskovic
A well researched, shocking but unconvincing thriller
In the past few years I’ve studied the Holocaust and later genocides and I’ve always wondered how those countries which have seen genocide take place on their soil have been able to move on. Not just legally by ensuring that perpetrators are brought to justice or rebuilding communities which have been wiped out or bringing together victims and perpetrators but also in how they face up to what has happened through their cultural life. Of course countries do move on – they have to, but it’s tremendously difficult. One of the stories from this year’s Paralympic Games which most moved me was that of the Rwandan sitting volleyball team which saw men from opposite sides of the Hutu/Tutsi conflict competing side by side for their country. Sport is clearly helping to make a positive impact in Rwanda but I’m unsure if the Austrian/Bosnian-Herzegovinian co-production Body Complete will have the same impact in the countries of the former Yugoslavia.
Nicole, an Austrian journalist, leaves Vienna for Morovci, a small village in the Republic of Sprska to search for Edina Julic a young girl who has gone missing while travelling to her late father’s home town to arrange his funeral more than a decade after his death in the genocide in Sarajevo. Nicole’s investigation is met with hostility, particularly from the Mayor of Morovci who denies the existence of Edina and her family. Nicole discovers that the official end of a conflict does not mean that communities or individuals have moved on or that wounds can easily heal. As Nicole finds out how much there is still to be done before Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Republic of Sprska can recover the danger to her own safety increases.
The multi-national cast is uniformly excellent – former Miss Germany Asil Bayram leads the film well as the determined Nicole and she is ably supported by Senad Basic as quiet cameraman Murat and Miraj Grbic as the vicious Mayor of Morovci. The use of the documentary footage from 1995 showing the immediate aftermath of attacks on Muslim families and communities made the Julic family’s story seem more believable, urgent and horrific. The research done by writer/director Lukas Sturm is exceptionally detailed and delves deeply into the ramifications of genocide and how perpetrators go to extreme lengths to disguise their crimes. The explanation of the title “body complete” causes a shiver throughout the audience.
But for all the positives of Body Complete, I was never fully convinced by it as a top notch political thriller. There is much still to be said about how countries recover from acts of genocide and how individuals struggle for years, decades even to discover the truth about their families and Body Complete does investigate this well but it doesn’t answer any of the questions it raises. What is the motivation of the Mayor of Morovci? Was he involved in genocide or does he just want his town to move on? Why are so many people in Morovci scared to talk to Nicole?
The film’s ending is shocking but also completely unbelievable as it sets off another round of questions which will go unanswered. For all its fine intentions and strong research and fact-finding skills it doesn’t quite meet up to its promise and leaves more questions asked than answered.