Sonja Blagojevic: Kosma/ 2
The film has a very inviting and informative website that includes all you need to know about the background and motivation for the director to go to Kosovo and find out “What is it like over there”. Here is her personal statement:
While I was shooting my previous film, I eventually ended up in Kosovo. One night I slept on the floor and desks of the KIM Radio station in a small village in central Kosovo. At that point, I still couldn’t have guessed that this exact radio station would become one of the main characters in my new documentary film.
A few years later, I started to research and realized that the KIM Radio is part of a larger radio network called “KOSMA”. Five radio stations are scattered in different parts of Kosovo and it is only their signal that connects secluded Serbian communities.
And that is how my journey started: a journey of three years, guided by the sound, and resulting in over 120 hours of footage. When I came back from Kosovo for the first time, many people asked me the same question: “What is it like over there?” I wasn’t able to give a precise answer since my stay there was quite short. But I myself couldn’t stop wondering: “What is it really like over there?” And moreover: “What is it like for people who live there?”.
I chose the sound of the radio to be my guide in the search for the answer. I went everywhere where there was sound: to its source (the radio stations and places from which it was broadcast), from one to another, over different regions, over plains and mountains, to the houses where people were listening to the radio. I realized that the answer to the question “What is it like over there” is not a simple one. It is for that reason I chose a mosaic structure, with lots of sights and characters, that as a whole can offer a very vivid description of the spirit of a time and its predominant feelings. I hope that the film will at least partially give an answer to this significant question.
