Archive:The Weight of Chains: Difference between revisions

{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2014}}

{{Infobox film

'''''The Weight of Chains''''' is a 2010 Canadian [[documentary film]] directed by [[Boris Malagurski]].<ref name="politika">[http://www.politika.rs/rubrike/Kultura/Dobri-ljudi-u-zlim-vremenima.sr.html Culture: "Good people in evil times"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924125935/http://www.politika.rs/rubrike/Kultura/Dobri-ljudi-u-zlim-vremenima.sr.html |date=September 24, 2015 }} Politika Newspaper | August 28, 2010</ref> The film argues that the [[breakup of Yugoslavia]] was "orchestrated by Western powers in furtherance of imperial ambitions".<ref name="Miller review">{{cite web | url=http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2014/no-1313-january-2014/nationalism-and-destruction-balkans | title=Nationalism and Destruction in the Balkans | publisher=[[Socialist Standard]]. | date=January 2014 | accessdate=3 October 2014 | author=Miller, Tristan. | archive-date=October 6, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006065811/http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2014/no-1313-january-2014/nationalism-and-destruction-balkans | url-status=live }}</ref> According to the filmmaker, it also presents stories of "good people in evil times".<ref>[http://www.pressonline.rs/zabava/dzet-set/160324/novi-dokumentarac-srpskog-majkla-mura.html Novi dokumentarac srpskog Majkla Mura] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129203648/http://www.pressonline.rs/zabava/dzet-set/160324/novi-dokumentarac-srpskog-majkla-mura.html |date=November 29, 2014 }} PressOnline.rs</ref> It was released on December 17, 2010.

==Production==

The film was sponsored by [[Serbian diaspora]] community organizations, the [[Centre for Research on Globalization]], and private individuals amongst others.<ref name="politika"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Weight of Chains – Sponsors|url=http://www.weightofchains.ca/1/#sponsors|publisher=Malagurski Cinema|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130102211341/http://www.weightofchains.com/sponsors.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 2, 2013}}</ref><ref name="Okovi raspada bivše Jugoslavije">[http://www.vesti-online.com/Dijaspora/drzava/Kanada/Vesti/127741/Okovi-raspada-bivse-Jugoslavije Okovi raspada bivše Jugoslavije] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141106004305/http://www.vesti-online.com/Dijaspora/drzava/Kanada/Vesti/127741/Okovi-raspada-bivse-Jugoslavije |date=November 6, 2014 }} Vesti, April 1, 2011</ref>

==Synopsis==

==Critical response==

[[Toni Ti]], writing in ''[[Brightest Young Things]]'', a [[Washington DC]] and [[New York City|New York]]-based web magazine, noted that the film "brings up a lot of issues the public may not be aware of". However, she describes the "often-gratingly blatant bias of the film maker". Malagurski, she says "employs a quippy sarcastic tone that sounds incredibly petulant and at times, too amateur for the gravitas subject matter". She goes on, "overall, spending 30 minutes on Kosovo and barely mentioning what really happened in Srebrenica leaves me questioning the director’s choice in taking this approach". Concluding, "what is he trying to show? It can be quite baffling at times".<ref name="Brightest Young Things">{{cite web | url=http://brightestyoungthings.com/articles/movie-review-weight-of-chains-opens-in-dc.htm | title=Weight Of Chains Opens In DC | publisher=Tony Ti - Brightest Young Things | date=May 23, 2011 | accessdate=26 September 2014 | archive-date=October 28, 2014 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141028063037/http://brightestyoungthings.com/articles/movie-review-weight-of-chains-opens-in-dc.htm | url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Vladislav Panov]] of ''[[Pečat]]'', a weekly political magazine in Serbia, wrote that the film is "very convincing" and that "Malagurski covered the facts and scenes in the film just as [[Michael Moore]] does in his documentaries. And just like that film maker, obviously Boris' main role model, Malagurski located the source of evil in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] and big American corporations which had come to buy us out after instructing and preparing 'irrational slaughters of primitive Balkan peoples' ", but added that "Boris bravely detected the main domestic culprits in [[G17 Plus]] in skimming the cream on behalf of foreigners".<ref>[http://www.pecat.co.rs/2011/09/film-o-demokratskom-ropstvu/ Film o demokratskom ropstvu] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140916173514/http://www.pecat.co.rs/2011/09/film-o-demokratskom-ropstvu/ |date=September 16, 2014 }} Pecat Magazine online</ref>

[[Tristan Miller]], writing in the U.K.'s ''[[Socialist Standard]]'', wrote "the film’s flimsier claims and arguments can be explained as the work of a naïve but well-meaning patriot, but others cannot be so innocently excused" ... "for all the effort he spends decrying the dishonest propagandising which fuelled the Yugoslavian implosion, he certainly has no qualms employing many of the same tricks when it suits his own agenda". Concluding, "he has a very low estimation of the intelligence of his audience".<ref name="Miller review"/>

Both Miller and Kilibarda were sympathetic to the film's claim that Western economic policies contributed to social instability in the buildup to the [[Yugoslav Wars]].<ref name="Miller review"/> Kilibarda also stated that "Western media often engaged in collective blame of the Serbs" in the mid-1990s.<ref name="Kilibarda"/>

Serbian film critic [[Vladan Petković]] described the film as "pro-Serbian conspiracy theorist propaganda". According to Petković, "the film is promoted as having been made in [[Michael Moore]]'s style, but it totally lacks Moore’s characteristic qualities. Instead Malagurski interviews journalists, politicians, ex-ambassadors and historians, who all promote the same one-sided story of Serbia as a victim of Western capitalist imperialism".<ref name="nytid">{{cite news |last=Gjerstad |first=Nils |date=20 May 2011 |title=Med skulderen til veggen |work=[[Ny Tid]] | pages= 48–49 }}</ref>

* {{Official website|https://weightofchains.ca/one/}}

* {{YouTube|waEYQ46gH08|The Weight of Chains}}

{{Boris Malagurski}}

[[Category:Documentary films about Yugoslavia]]

[[Category:Yugoslav Wars films]]

[[Category:English-language documentary films]]