Lidija Zelović has been portraying her displaced family in the Netherlands since 1993, since they fled their war-thorn home in Sarajevo. Her film essay exposes the duality that all migrants live with: what is “home”? By doing so, the filmmaker draws attention to disruptive social and political developments in the Netherlands, which she recognizes from her native (fallen apart) Yugoslavia. Drawing from her family film archive, Zelović alternates scenes at home – discussions about politics and football on Sundays with her parents and brother, her son growing up, the holidays “at home” in Bosnia – with political events in the Netherlands, such as political murders, scandals involving government discrimination, growing social polarization, increasing unrest in society and the acceptance of radical right-wing politics at the center of power. Home Game offers a sometimes funny, often confrontational and always sincere look into Zelovićʼs life, which functions as a mirror for the current political climate in The Netherlands and many other countries around the world.

The film screening will be followed by a discussion (in English):

How to recognise warning signs of the rise of authoritarianism in a democratic society? Director Lidija Zelović finds the same patterns of social polarisation, political violence, and normalisation of extremism in the Netherlands today as she remembers from Bosnia preceding the breakup of Yugoslavia. Her film uncovers an unsettling reality – societies systematically overlooking the gradual onset of nationalism and intolerance until it’s too late.

In the discussion following the film, we will examine our collective “blind spots”: why we don’t see fascism until it is too late, how extremism is normalised in everyday life, why we refuse to see the historical parallels, and what our Slovak and Central European “blind spots” are. Should we be concerned about the current onset of populism and authoritarianism in Europe, or do we think that our society is immune to it? Where are the boundaries between “normal” politics and dangerous extremism?

Guests:

• Lidija Zelović, director of the documentary film
• Pavol Hardoš, political scientist

Hosted by Peter Ivanič, journalist and university educator.

The discussion is organised in collaboration with the media initiative “The World Between the Lines”, co-financed by SlovakAid.