The Trial of Ratko Mladic

Over a period of five years, the film-makers follow the trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia against notorious war criminal Ratko Mladić. The Bosnian-Serbian general was the commanding officer of the forces besieging Sarajevo in the ‘dirty war’ in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, indirectly responsible for the killing of 7,000 Muslim men.

Twenty years after the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War Two, the trial of notorious war criminal Ratko Mladić started in The Hague. Film-makers Rob Miller and Henry Singer follow the trial closely for five years. They document how the defence steadfastly believes in their client’s innocence and will do anything in their power to prove that. But they also show how the public prosecutor prepares for the long-awaited trial of the warlord. Based on interviews with victims, witnesses, Mladić’s supporters – who still regard him as a patriotic hero – and archive material, the film-makers reconstruct this absurd and vicious war that marked a black page in European history not all that long ago. They also wonder what justice this court can possibly hand down if the accused does not acknowledge its decision and the conflict in the Balkan seems far from resolved. An epic tale of justice, accountability, and a country trying desperately to escape its bloody past.