Twelve years after its vicious war, Bosnia and Herzegovina has changed to a tremendous extent. It has seen the large-scale return of displaced persons, the restitution of property and a comprehensive process of demilitarisation. Freedom of movement has been restored. Interethnic violence has largely disappeared. Bosnia remains isolated, however, with few of its citizens feeling optimistic about their future.

This film follows a team of young researchers (Bosnians and foreigners) as they try to discover how much Bosnia has changed. Their journey takes them to the former concentration camps, to Central Bosnia, which has seen some of the worst massacres of the war, and to Doboj, a former frontline town (and infamous former hotbed of Serb nationalism) in Republika Srpska. They talk to the captain of the Bosnian national football team, to rappers and musicians, to an Orthodox bishop and a Franciscan brother, to the Slovak diplomat who still has ultimate power in the county, and to people struggling with the trauma of war.

What emerges from these conversations is a gripping and often deeply moving encounter with people who are able to move beyond recent horrors to construct new lives.

If you would like to watch the complete film please go to ESI's Youtube page.

Alida Vracic and Gerald Knaus in a former explosives factory