In 1991, ethnic tensions between the Serbian minority and the Croatian majority in the region of Slavonia in eastern Croatia came to a head. Josip Reihl-Kir, chief of police of the city of Osijek, tirelessly mediated between the parties. On 1 July 1991, he was assassinated on his way to a peace negotiation in broad daylight on the street. Croatian documentarist Ivan Ramljak analyses the circumstances that fostered an atmosphere of fear and the normalisation of open terror. His film makes no attempt to shed light on the unresolved details of the possible instigators of Reihl-Kir’s murder. Instead, he has produced a long-overdue monument to Josip Reihl-Kir as one of the last advocates for peace. The meticulously researched early 1990s material from the Croatian television archive is contrasted with current statements from five carefully selected contemporary witnesses in voice-over, opening up entirely new perspectives on the beginnings of the war in Slavonia. – DOK Leipzig
Ivan Ramljak
HR 2025
Golden Dove, DOK Leipzig
100 min | Croatian
Ivan Ramljak
Born in Croatia in 1974. Filmmaker, film critic and independent curator. Founded the Human Rights Film Festival in Zagreb in 2003. Since 2022, a member of the IFFR’s short film selection committee and a scout for films from the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Lives and works in Croatia.
Films (selection)
Islands of Forgotten Cinemas 2016 (12. UX) | Home of the Resistance 2018 | Once Upon A Youth 2020 | El Shatt – A Blueprint for Utopia 2023 | Peacemaker 2025
R: Ivan Ramljak | B: Drago Hedl, Hrvoje Zovko, Ivan Ramljak | K: Srđan Kovačević | E: Damir Čučić | S: Tihomir Vrbanec | P: Nenad Puhovski | WS: Taskovski Films | Stimmen: Gordana
Ajdukovic, Goran Flaude, Nikola Jaman, Zdravko Pejic