Helge Cramer

The Amateurs and the General

Director	Helge Cramer
Country of production:	Germany
Year of production:	2005
Duration:	99 min
Director of Photography:	Stefan Urlass
Camera:	Mladen Pehar, Eldin Palata, Jurgen Staiger, Zanin Zuljević
Sound:	Stefan Urlass
Editing:	Helge Cramer
Music:	Anouar Brahem, Mostar Sevdah Reunion
Production:	Helge Cramer

Film plot

Before the war, the Catholics and Bosnian Moslems in Mostar lived a peaceful life. Ten years later, a known Old Bridge, which was the most striking victim of Christian-Moslem war in Herzegovina, was reconstructed. This film is an interesting dialogue between the oldest Moslem merchant on the bridge, the coach of Mostar bridge divers, and their former mate and school friend, who, at the beginning of the war returned as Croatian General. His tank destroyed the Old Bridge.

Helge Cramer is a journalist who has, since 1975, worked as freelance TV writer and director. He is the author of numerous reports, documentaries, and feature films for ARD, Arte, and Deutsche Welle.

Filmography

1982/83: Ende der Freiheit
1986: Waahnsinn - Der Wackersdorf-Film
1986/87: Waahnrock
1987/88: Bonnland
1989/92: Kein Denkmal fur die Deserteure
2000/05: Die Amateure und der General

Director's statement

"The Amateurs and the General" was made by filmmakers who earn their money with TV-stories, without any budged and without any participation of TV-Broadcasters, only to create a documentary about that story behind the story which never finds a place in the daily TV programme. It was filmed between November 2000 and September 2004 in Bosnia, attending the reconstruction of the famous Old Bridge of Mostar, a World Heritage which was destroyed during the Muslim-Catholic civil war in the Herzegovina-County of Bosnia, and focussed on the question, if that ambitious UNESCO / World Bank-project ever could reach its goal to create a new bridge between the Muslims in the east- and the Catholics in the west-part of town who are enemies since that first Muslim-Christian war in modern-day Europe. For that the filmmakers didn’t ask any officials; they asked men who where friends before, fighters and victims during, and enemies after the war. Entangling their war- and after-war-fates with the reconstruction of the Old Bridge the project found many friends and support among the people around the bridge as well as among the workers at the reconstruction site, but experienced only obstruction from the town officials and the local representatives of UNESCO and World Bank: It seemed as if they wouldn’t like any independent documentary about their doing. Nevertheless the film shows the most exiting pictures of this unique reconstruction of a World Heritage – and, much more important, the stories of those who defended and who destroyed their Old Bridge.