Exodus, displacement and brutal ethnic segregation in the middle of Europe as the 20^th century comes to a close? At the start of the 90s, it was unimaginable. And then the shock. A nation falls apart. War in Yugoslavia. Hundreds of thousands of people are no longer safe in the place where they lived for generations, must leave their homes, are expelled and in many cases killed because of their ethnic and religious status. Tolerance is scarce and acceptance of the supposedly foreign is thin on the ground. Ethnic hate, merciless uprooting and desperate homelessness have been brought back into the public eye by the war in Yugoslavia, but their precursors and causes reach far back into Europe’s past.

The early 20^th century: nationalism is spreading across eastern and southeastern Europe; the colorful multi-ethnic empires – the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, Tsarist Russia – are nearing their doom. The new postulate of homogeneity decrees: “Every ethnic and national group shall have its own nation! No states with minorities!” Political and ethnic boundaries are recklessly redrawn. The first two Balkan Wars in 1912-1913: Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia on one side, the Ottoman Empire on the other fight over Macedonia. The winners – Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia – are unable to agree on how to divide up the spoils. War again – and the start of a history of ethnic cleansing. The trail of blood and violence continues through the Greek-Turkish population exchange following the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, the deportations and mass murders of the Second World War up to the events in the former Yugoslavia in the 90s.

Three regions, three time periods, thrice the dream of a homeland. That is what this film wants to show. Quietly, but speaking with many voices, using a calm camera and moving memories. The forcibly evicted, the uprooted, the eradicated, the homeless, strangers in a familiar land – victims of nationalistic, racist violence have always existed and continue to exist today. Forced migration is a both constant and recurring element of European history.

Director: John Burgan
Writer: John Burgan
Cinematographer: Rainer M. Schulz
Sound: Klaus Peter Schmitt
Commissioning editor: Beate Schönefeldt
Assistant: Nina Vocilka
Producer: Andrea Ufer
Co-producer: MDR
Channel: MDR
Sponsors: Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Bundeskulturstiftung, Stiftung Mercator