About the work
"Srebrenica" is a documentary theatre project by Branko Šimić and Armin Smailovic that brings the memory of the Srebrenica genocide (July 1995) to the stage. It premiered on 3 December 2015 at the Thalia Theater Hamburg (Thalia in der Gaußstraße); the production was later taken into the repertoire of the Berliner Ensemble. The evening combines documentary research, personal life stories and the political meta-level in order to make tangible the scale of the largest war crime in Europe since the Second World War.
Plot
The piece is told from three perspectives, following the biographies of three men: a survivor of the massacre who now testifies as a key witness before the war crimes tribunal in The Hague; a Dutch UN soldier stationed in Srebrenica in 1995; and a member of a Bosnian-Serb commando unit who now lives under a completely new identity. The juxtaposition of witness, perpetrator and victim creates a polyphonic picture of the events that refuses simple apportioning of blame and poses questions of responsibility, trauma and memory. It is based on real conversations and testimonies gathered by the authors over several years.
Cultural significance
In the Srebrenica genocide of July 1995, more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were murdered; the crime is recognised in international law as genocide. "Srebrenica" stands in the tradition of documentary theatre, which brings real testimony rather than fictional plot to the stage and understands theatre as a site of political enlightenment and collective remembrance. By giving voice to survivors, perpetrators and observers, the project contributes to working through a trauma that still shapes relations between the successor states of Yugoslavia today.