ENFF On Tour: Peacemaker

In 1991, Josip Reihl Kir, the Osijek police chief who fought tirelessly to prevent the Yugoslav war through dialogue and negotiation, was assassinated. The film pieces together his story through archival footage and the voices of those who witnessed his struggle for peace.
Peacemaker is a story about the last few months of Josip Reihl Kir’s life, in the dawn of the bloodthirsty Croatian-Serbian war, which Kir had been trying hard to prevent. Still today, after over 30 years, many elements of that assassination remain unclear and the possible contractors – still unknown. Filmmaker Ivan Ramljak is one of the most significant Croatian documentarians, renowned for his distinctive approach to historical issues.
After the film, we will discuss the role of pacifists, peace advocates and people in positions of leadership when a society becomes deeply polarized and tensions escalate.
About the speakers
Dion van den Berg has been active in the peace movement throughout his working life, including for PAX, a Dutch peace organisation working on conflict prevention, human rights and peacebuilding. He was closely involved in supporting survivors and the Srebrenica Memorial Centre, and recently co-edited a book bringing together letters from Srebrenica survivors to their murdered loved ones, published 30 years after the genocide. Among other, he also developed and supported many projects in the region of Osijek.