Turkish director plans film on Srebrenica genocide

Turkish director Veysel Atasever announced Friday that he will make the first movie on the Srebrenica genocide titled "Son Devir" (The Last Epoch), shootings for which will began in August this year.

Addressing a press conference in the capital Sarajevo, Atasever said he decided to shoot the movie about the genocide two years ago after watching a commemoration ceremony on television.

"I actually did not know much about the genocide in Srebrenica in the first place. After I made some research and got to meet people living in Bosnia, I realized that shooting this movie is a human duty," he said.

Movie producer Funda Ayan said the film will be shot in Srebrenica, Germany and Netherlands, and it will be in both Bosnian and English languages.

Mothers of Srebrenica Association President Hatidza Mehmedovic said the movie, based on a true story, will describe the horrors of war as close to reality as possible.

"This will be an important legacy, especially for the young generation of Bosnia to learn what happened in their own country," Mehmedovic said.

The movie plans to depict the current state of Srebrenica as well as how it was back in 1995 through two stories.

The first story will be about a young girl, who was forced to migrate from Bosnia during the war; 20 years later, this girl will learn that her family died during the war.

The second story will be about Mehmedovic, who witnessed the war and lost close family members herself.

Srebrenica was besieged by Serb forces between 1992 and 1995 during the Bosnian War. Back then, Serb militias were trying to wrest territory from Bosnian Muslims and Croats to form their own state.

The UN Security Council had declared Srebrenica a "safe area" in the spring of 1993. However, Serb troops led by General Ratko Mladic – who now faces genocide charges at The Hague – overran the UN zone despite the presence of around 450 Dutch soldiers tasked with protecting innocent civilians as UN peacekeepers.

The Dutch troops failed to act as Serb forces occupied the area, killing about 2,000 men and boys on July 11 alone. Some 15,000 Srebrenica men fled into the surrounding mountains but Serb troops hunted down and slaughtered 6,000 of them in the forests.

A total of 6,166 victims have been buried at a memorial center; another 230 victims were laid to rest outside of the village of Potocari in July last year.