Norwegians Discover Serbian–Greek Solidarity and Friendship During the 1999 Bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in a Greek Documentary

               As part of the Nordic/Docs Short Documentary Film Festival in Fredrikstad, Ambassador Jasmina Mitrović Marić attended a screening of A Match of Solidarity: AEK–Partizan 1999, directed by Ismini Sakellaropoulou, at the invitation of the Greek Ambassador to Norway, Efthymios Harlafitis.

                The programme of the festival’s 14th edition, held this year as a Greek–Norwegian co-production, placed a short film about Greece’s solidarity with the Serbian people during NATO’s 1999 bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia at its heart. The film tells the story of the AEK–Partizan solidarity football match played in Belgrade under bombardment.

               During the post-screening discussion, Norwegian audience members admitted that they had known too little about this episode. They said that, after seeing this documentary’s artistic testimony to solidarity, love and friendship between countries and peoples, they now viewed - and understood differently - what they had previously referred to simply as “the terrible war.”

               In a conversation with the Festival Director and organisers, Ambassador Jasmina Mitrović Marić proposed that future editions of Nordic/Docs showcase Serbian documentary filmmaking, regarded as among the most prestigious in Europe. She also took the opportunity to introduce them to the many international documentary film festivals held in Serbia, including the renowned March Festival and Belgrade Festival.