Those Shocking Shaking Days

This thought-provoking, radically unconventional documentary looks back at the Bosnian war of the 1990s, one of the most heavily televised in Europe, and uses it as the jumping-off point for bigger philosophical questions. Through onscreen text and calming images of abandoned houses, Those Shocking Shaking Days skips past the typical use of emotionally manipulative footage of war atrocities and strives for a sort of intellectual comprehension. For example, there is no narrator or music to tell you how to feel - not initially. Instead, the movie asks you to consider things such as how overuse of the typical images in war documentaries may deaden their impact. Writer/director Selma Doborac asks a lot of questions, and certainly makes you think. Then, just as you may reach the point of growing tired of her cinematic strategy, she changes it up. Throughout the film, her self-aware and self-questioning text adds a certain lightness to such a dark subject matter. Watching the movie is like being part of a deconstructed TED Talk. Those Shocking Shaking Days is much about war documentaries as it is about war. Be prepared to engage with this film, because it's not one where you can just sit back and passively take it all in. (Seattle International Film Festival)