Jey047 I tried to be fair to this "documentary", knowing from reviews I had read that the filmmaker had a blatant bias. The problem isn't just the bias which without any irony interprets and misinterprets historical facts to fit the agenda of the filmmaker, but the fact that the film total jumps over entire years of history of the country it's claiming to support and historical events that totally contradict the filmmaker's self-stated goal of presenting the Serbian people as the sole defenders of the Yugoslav state.That the film presents the "history of Yugoslavia" solely from the perspective of the Serbs is unapologetically and unabashedly demonstrated from the the first 5 minutes and throughout the entire movie, but this is easily forgiven if the filmmaker was honest about this being the purpose of the film. The filmmaker does not even interview a single non-Serb about the experiences, perceptions and history of Yugoslavia from a non-Serb perspective. In fact, the only non-Serb citizen of the former Yugoslavia or person of an ethnic group/background found in Yugoslavia was Slovene politician Jože Mencinger, who's sole purpose is to share his perspective of the effects of EU membership on Slovenia, never to share his perspective of Slovenia's experiences in a Serb dominated Yugoslavia.Serbian anti-Yugoslav & anti-egalitarian policies and actions, such as the murder of non-Serb politicians and activists by Serb officials (even in the Yugoslav parliament by Serb politicians), the violent suppression of civil rights for non-Serbs in both the (Serbian) Kingdom of Yugoslavia and SFR Yugoslavia are all totally ignored because they're totally irrelevant to the story of Serbian victimization and martyrdom being told by the filmmaker.In the end, this isn't really a film about Yugoslavia at all, let alone it's falling apart and the forces the lead to it's demise. This film is entirely about enforcing the Serbian sense of victimization and martyrdom that has been a cultural staple of Serbian identity since their defeat at Kosovo Polje more than 600 years ago and the justification of Serbian crimes against their neighbours during the past hundred years, just as the filmmaker unintentionally outlined in the first 5 minutes of his movie.This could have been an open and honest examination of the Serbian perspective and experience during the Yugoslav years and the Balkan war years. It should have been. But it's not. A wasted effort.

dimitrovboris This documentary is bare truth about wars on our lands (Balkan - Yugoslavia). This documentary shows the way that America keeps on ,,peace,, in world. It describes how democracy and freedom of American people work. They conquered every country that they came starting from west to east. And then they came here... They though that everyone is the same and weak...They thought that they can just come here and command us like its their own territory... And guess what? They were wrong. We showed them how much life is worth when we stand for something much greater than ourselves. I speak as proud Serbian. I am proud of our ancestors that throughout history defended and stood for what is right. Our ancestors knew that they would all die in Kosovo battle 1389. and still went there and died with honor. Because they died for much greater cause. They all died so that their children have something to look up to, to show us that its not hard to give your life for your country. We stood against the tyranny of much larger forces at that time (1389. Turkish army, I W.W 1914. Austro-Hungarian army, II W.W. 1941. Germany) because we knew if we fall, evil will rule the world of course our brothers by blood and by nature Russians helped us in II W.W. to banish fascism from our lands. We will always stand together with our bigger brother Russia. I just don't understand America. Why did they came here? They knew if we are standing together that America will have power only in its borders. They want to maintain the world to work for them. The democracy that America represents doesn't free people. It enslaves them even more... Together we are strong, divided we fall... That's what happened to Yugoslavia. It fell apart because people living inside were separated. Everyone wanted a piece of cake and America saw that and used it to enslave piece by piece. Imagine Yugoslavia like a cake that America wants to eat. America cant eat whole Yugoslavia at once but can chop it down and eat piece by piece. The knife was NATO and European Union, the knife that chopped Yugoslavia was NATO. In 1999. When Yugoslavia was chopped enough NATO bombarded it and as an excuse it stated some violation of civil rights on KOSOVO... There was no violation of civil rights there. It was a pure battle between Liberation Army of Kosovo (UČK or OVK) and Yugoslavian army... they set a scene in which some OVK soldiers without uniforms were lying dead and later on that picture was a proof that we did some aggression on them. Same in Croatia, same in Bosnia. Same scenario everywhere. We were described to the world as aggressors... How can some country attack itself, i'm speaking of Yugoslavia. Because Yugoslavia was made up of,now already independent countries, Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia. Every country that wanted to separate cant blame country that already had power on that land. Croatia cant blame Yugoslavia because Croatia wants to separate. If they want to separate than they have to accept responsibility of that actions. If there were referendum to separate there would be no war. the fact is if there was a referendum it would show that more people would stay in Yugoslavia than those who wanted to separate. Same everywhere. So they started killing Serbs on their territories. Croat extremists (Ustaše) started killing Serbs in Croatian territory. Bosnian extremists (Balije) started killing Serbs in Bosnian territory and there were our extremists (Četnici) that started killing all other extremists and civilians as a way of payback on that territories. Remember. Killings didn't start from our side. It all started 1992. when Bosnian extremists started killing innocent civilians in small and distanced villages. Anyway. Today is 8.26.2015. and world thinks that we were aggressors in 1990's. You need to see this movie to know the truth. I know that the second part came out called The Weight of Chains II long time ago. Watched him too and cant agree more. This is one of the best documentaries i have seen in a long time. Long live Serbia. Serbia and Russia brothers together.

feri-naf If you judge this film as a rhetorical piece it's a 10 but if you judge it as a documentary it's a complete failure. It deliberately leaves out some facts and after i spotted a few of those i couldn't bring myself to watch the movie with any kind of trust left. As most conspiracy theories the "documentary" oversimplifies the events. For example ... When "explaining" the disintegration of Yugoslavia it fails to mention the power struggle in country's executive council with the Serbs trying to takeover with the help from Kosovo and Vojvodina votes. It never mentions people's wish for democracy after it became evident that the eastern bloc (and its one party rule) is falling apart. It doesn't state how the army (mainly controlled by Serbs) started to violate civil rights. And above all it doesn't take into account people's wish for independence after being governed by a corrupt central government. All of those factors had a significant influence in the whole process. It also fails at geography miserably when it states that the US wanted to "colonize" Serbia to get right on the Russia's border. Well how about Romania, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland etc. that are all closer to Russia. Another piece of manipulation were the interviews from the Slovenian capital Ljubljana where people in the streets were asked if they feel they are better off being a part of the European Union. All of the locals shown say that it's worse now. In reality there are polls that show that at least half of the people in Slovenia still want to be a part of EU even as the crisis started to deepen in the last few years. And i could go on and on ... Indeed i'm focusing more on the failures of the film here but still i'm not saying don't watch it. Just if you do watch it, don't base your image of the events only on this movie. Take it as another point of view and judge for yourself. This BBC documentary series http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283181/ i can recommend as a much more balanced attempt.

rodiena This 'documentary' is simply a rehash of long debunked and discredited Serbian nationalist myths.Even anyone unfamiliar with the background of the majority of the film's interviewees - well-known/notorious Serb apologists like Srdja Trifkovic (which is equivalent to interviewing Joseph Goebbels in a documentary about Nazi Germany and taking his opinion seriously), Canadian supporters of the Belgrade interpretation of recent history like James Bissett, Michel Chossudovsky, and a collection of American fellow travellers like Lituchy, Parenti, etc. - would get a fairly clear indication of where the film was coming from if you looked at the list of its backers and read the media coverage quoted at the film's website. There are also pictures of the film's director standing in front of the Clinton statue in Prishtina giving the Serb nationalist three finger salute, which makes one slightly suspicious of his intentions and ability to be impartial.The 'documentry's' nature is clearly signalled by the treatment of Srebrenica. There is a brief acknowledgement that thousands of Bosniaks were killed and ethnically cleansed (the exact number is not specified, despite it being known), but it then goes on to practice the old denialist trick in relation to the Srebrenica massacre, of describing (and exaggerating) the military actions of the Bosnian military commander in the Srebrenica region, Naser Oric – involving attacks on Serb villages around Srebrenica and atrocities against Serb civilians – while neglecting to mention the incomparably larger-scale Serbian offensives that preceded Oric's actions, and to which the latter were a response. It also emphasises the disproven claims of James Corwin that the number of the prisoners executed in the week following the fall of Srebrenica was no more than the number of Serbs killed in the villages surrounding Srebrenica during the entire course of the siege. Corwin's former UN credentials are highlighted without any mention of the content of the findings contained in the report of the UN's own official inquiry into the fall of Srebrenica and its rebuttal of claims concerning Serb deaths, eg at Kravica. Srdja Trifkovic, who was the spokesperson for the Bosnian Serb Presidency, is allowed to make highly contentious assertions unchallenged.The author, the narrator in the film, does not forget to include a few sentences about the supposed 'anti-fascist' struggle of the Chetniks. There is no mention of the Chetnik's collaboration with the Nazis and the Ustashe, nor of their ethnic cleansing and mass murder operations towards non-Serbs in Bosnia and the Sandjak (It is untrue, as apologists for the Chetniks claim, that Chetnik massacres were simply retaliation for prior Ustasha massacres.) The number of people killed at Jasenovac is also exaggerated (700,000 figure is not taken seriously by anyone but Serb nationalists), and there is no mention of the fact that many Croats and Muslims were killed there.Also very telling is what is not mentioned in this 'documentry'. In the film, the rebellion of Serbs in Croatia is treated as a legitimate demand for cultural autonomy; the actual truth of the nature of this secession is bypassed. There is no mention of the ethnic cleansing of 150,000 to 200,000 Croats from Serb-controlled areas of the so called Republika Srpska Krajina in 1991/1992. There is only a very brief mention of the horrific destruction of Vukovar and the bombing of Dubrovnik. The film also disingenuously mentions Operation Storm before any mention of the war in Bosnia and the Srebrenica massacre, even though it occurred afterwards. The number of Serbs killed during the operation is exaggerated (even Serb sources say the number of civilians killed is around 1200, not 2000 as the film states).The 'documentry' spends very little time on Bosnia, but again it's omissions are very telling. There is virtually no mention of any ethnic cleansing of Bosnia by Serb forces. The film also neglects to mention the siege of Sarajevo and Tuzla, all very strange targets if the Serbs just wanted to "control the areas which were inhabited by Serbs" as the director says, seeing as they are Muslim majority cities.The "history lesson" of Kosova is also pathetic. It goes straight from the annexation of Kosova from the Ottoman Empire in 1913 to the persecution of Serbs during WW2 by Albanian fascist collaborators. There is no mention of the ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albananians in the period between WW1 and WW2, which included massacre, colonisation by Serbs and even attempts to deport the Albanian population to Turkey, nor is there any mention that Albania was under fascist (and later Nazi) occupation at the time, and that many Albanians fought against the Nazis. The Albanians are treated in general like a bunch of ungrateful fascists who just want to kill Serbs for no reason. As for the Kosova War 1998-1999,the Serbs campaign of systematic violence against the Kosovar Albanian population is not mentioned at all, in fact the ludicrous assertion that no Kosovars were killed in areas controlled by the Serb security forces is made. The director asserts that the Recak massacre was a hoax, this is untrue. It is true that the Yugoslav and Belarusian (ordered by the Yugoslav government) concluded that those killed were not civilians, but the Finnish investigation included evidence that the victims were unarmed civilians, not soldiers. The team leader, too, described the dead as unarmed civilians, including older men and a woman, who had all been killed at the same time. She stated that the killings were "a crime against humanity." Nothing said or published by any members of the team has contradicted that statement.These are just some of the examples of the propaganda in this so called 'documentry'. If you are looking for how Serb nationalists attempt to spin the war to alleviate their guilt and portray themselves as the victims, this film has uses, but if you are looking for a factual account of the war, avoid like the plague.