10/08/2023
A story that sheds light on the past, on the present on wounds, and the history we wish never to repeat. Do the job even when you have to document horrific situations? This is the story of Helena Ranta, but also the story of all those who worked with flesh and soul, without even saving their lives.
The story begins with a portrayal of the leader of the Finnish team of forensic experts, Helena Ranta. After the war in Bosnia, she found herself in Kosovo, to impartially carry out her important as well as human mission, to bring the honor of those who were killed in the Kosovo War to the country.
A narrative is transmitted through interviews, with personal witnesses involved in the case, where Ranta is at the center, and gives her testimony about the situation at that time, about what she documented with her eyes. A documentary that tries to tell objectively, listening and questioning all parties, giving them voice and image, regardless of what they have to prove. They should or should not testify.
The documentary begins with a single individual with a sublime mission, in the face of attempts to change the truth, in the face of pressures to hide and distort. Then the story unfolds and touches the lives of all those who contributed, naturally becoming its characters.
It is very difficult, almost impossible, to write in a few paragraphs the emotional, human, and inhuman weight of the 56 minutes that "Fragments of Humanity" contains.
The director of the film, Elli Rintala tried to do this, which appeared as part of the "Special Screenings" program at DokuPlato this Wednesday evening.
"I started talking to Helena Ranta about her career and we did long interviews and she explained the whole story. From that point on, I started to do more research on what happened and what was possible and I also wanted to take the time to be able to and learn about it. She is a very approachable, practical person who always speaks impartially. By interviewing the second person in the story, I thought that I should also show the complexity of the situation by bringing these two figures into the picture. I thought I should show the conflict so that even for the viewer, it becomes understandable," said Rintala during the Q&A session after the screening.
"Fragments of Humanity" is more than a documentary, a tribute, the fulfillment of individual and common moral responsibility, to show the world the past, because that is the only way it is unlikely to be repeated.
By: Ana Haxhimali
Photo: Agon Dana
