Twenty years after Kosovo Liberation Army commander Adem Jashari was killed in a gun battle, a feature film is to be made about his life – and it has already caused controversy in Serbia.
Kosovo Albanian director Luan Kryeziu has begun work on a feature film about the Kosovo Liberation Army commander Adem Jashari who was killed, along with 58 of his relatives, while fighting a three-day battle with Serbian forces in March 1998.
Jashari, one of the KLA’s founders, is a major figure in recent history for Kosovo Albanians and seen as a hero of their struggle for independence, and Kryeziu said it was a “national and professional responsibility” to make the film – and his biggest project yet.
“Given that we are dealing with a great national figure, the care and commitment increases and is as obligatory as the responsibility for the quality of the work,” Kryeziu told BIRN.
Kryeziu said that the screenplay is now being finished, with particular care being paid to historical accuracy.
“We were oriented on the basis of information from the family because that information is more stable and more trustworthy,” Kryziu said, adding that information has also been provided by people who worked with the family and by historians.
No actor has yet been selected to play the main role in the film, that of Adem Jashari, who was 42 when he was killed in his home village of Prekaz.
But the issue caused controversy in Kosovo and Serbian media after a statement by Kryeziu that the Serb actor Rade Serbedzija, a major star in the Yugoslav era who has also appeared in Hollywood films like ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ and ‘Mission: Impossible 2’, was interested in playing the KLA commander.
Serbedzija denied this, saying that Serbian media were right when they referred to Jashari as “a criminal”.
“It is totally pointless to ask me to play that role, just as it is pointless to believe that I would accept such an offer,” Serbedzija told N1 TV on Thursday.
Kryeziu said however that he did not actually want Serbedzija to play Jashari.
“It is totally normal that he feels bad about my rejection… but I do not understand how an artist on such a level can call Adem Jashari and his family terrorists,” he said.
He argued that it would be a privilege for any actor in the world to play such a role, and that in the future, Jashari will be seen as “a symbol of peace and love for freedom”.
The Belgrade authorities under Slobodan Milosevic’s rule regarded the KLA as a terrorist group and targeted Jashari as one of its leaders.
Recalling the March 1998 gun battle, in which women and children were shot dead as well as KLA fighters, Yugoslav General Nebojsa Pavkovic said that it was “a normal policing action against a well-known criminal”.
But the killing caused a surge of support for the KLA and encouraged many other young Kosovo Albanians to join the guerrilla force, the BBC reported.
No date has yet been set for the completion of the film, but director Kryeziu hopes that technical preparations will be finished this year.
He said that the project is getting support from Kosovo state institutions – but also from the public.
“I trust very much in everyone’s support, as the movie is considered to be of national interest,” he said.
For more read the full f article at The Balkainsight
