“I saw him a week before the war started. He just picked up his family and escaped. They left everything, goats, cows, and the house. So we knew something was going to happen. And then it happened.” Maso (Elite veteran of Bosnian Army, resident of Jacerdoli). © Camilla De Maffei
“This used to be…I don’t know how to explain it to you…this used to be Džennet. Paradise. It was a clean forest, it was wilderness, you were allowed to go anywhere, you could even sleep there, anything was possible. You bring food, water is there, and then when you go back home, along the way you can pick up all the fresh wood you want.” Hasan (Resident of Jacerdoli). © Camilla De Maffei
“People behave differently in war and in peace, but I started to mix. Peace came and I was still seeing bad things in people, I forgot it was no war.” Ramis (Resident of Shirokacha). © Camilla De Maffei
Mount Trebevic. Sarajevo. A woodcutter's horse resting in the woods. © Camilla De Maffei
“For me to declare oneself in national terms is meaningless. Under Tito I always declared myself Yugoslav. And then I used to sign in Cyrillic, so to emphasize Yugoslav nationality. I wanted to promote it as a form of cosmopolitism, it was real cosmopolitism to me. I don’t draw any distinction based on religion or nationality, I am just a human being." Izo (Physical Education teacher).
“This place used to symbolize Olympic Games. Now it’s just the symbol of agression.” Azra (Journalist). © Camilla De Maffei
“We grew up together city, you and me? The same blue sky gave us rhymes? Under Trebevi? We dreamt the same dreams? Who will grow faster, who will be nicer.” Sarajevo ljubavi moja, Kemal Monteno's song. © Camilla De Maffei
“There were women in our resistance. They made food for us, knittled socks and cleaned the dishes after meals, so we didn’t get sick. There was no hygiene. They washed dishes only with water and nettles, so we wouldn’t get infected. That was the way everybody helped to defend this city. Soldiers could lead something similar to normal life." Okac (Fruiterer and war veteran). © Camilla De Maffei
“It was Trebevic? Where they were throwing bombs from, where they were shooting from, and I live right under that line." Okac (Fruiterer and war veteran). © Camilla De Maffei
"Don't be shy! I can think about the war." Tarik (touristic guide in Sarajevo). © Camilla De Maffei
“Politicians gave up on veterans. We are the biggest weight for the State. Especially those over fifty years old. Nobody wants them. There is concern for those who crossed the threshold of fifty, in particular those who were somebody during the war, may have postwar syndrome, that they are sick, not able work and think properly.” Maso (Elite veteran of Bosnian Army). © Camilla De Maffei
“Before Yogoslavia meant something to the world, now Bosnia and Herzegovina means nothing.” Gordana (Professor at the architecture faculty, University of Sarajevo) . © Camilla De Maffei
Diggers. Many people goes to Trebevic to collect iron, copper and cables. They dig in the rubble of hotels and the olympics venues looking for something to sell in the black market. © Camilla De Maffei
“This people was really brave, that’s my conclusion. Very good and open to help everybody. Basically each person here was a hero, without water, without electricity, without food. But we are really known as stubborn people. Even today I think it was not possible to defeat these people, no way, even with all their weapons you know, it was not possible.” Maso (Elite veteran of Bosnian Army).
"It took me two years to realize that war was not here anymore. That is the bad thing about war: you get used to it." Maso (Elite veteran of Bosnian Army, resident of Jacerdoli). © Camilla De Maffei
"Leave the past where it is." Okac (Fruiterer and war veteran). © Camilla De Maffei
“Do you know someone who wants stories from the war? I have a very good friend, he was a sniper during the war, understand? In Sarajevo, for the Armija. If you hear of somebody that wants the story...but it’s not for free. Because he shares emotional experience.” Tarik (touristic guide in Sarajevo). © Camilla De Maffei
“Trebevic had been strongly mined. Between 1.2 and 1.3 square kilometres have been cleared. Trebevic has been a priority to us. Our work respects all international standards. But if I was to go on Trebevic, I’d rather walk on concrete.” F.S. (Director of a de-mining company). © Camilla De Maffei
“We organized this as a barrack. I established it, and soldiers were sleeping here. Once one grenade fell here, four of my men died, three were injured. I had been sleeping here for two months, but that evening I went out somewhere. Just an hour. This is luck.” Fudo, El Comandante (The organizer of the resistence in Shirokacha). © Camilla De Maffei
"We are still under siege, under a cultural, economical and phsycological siege." Ramis (War veteran, resident of Shirokacha). © Camilla De Maffei
“I can remember everything...” Tarik (touristic guide in Sarajevo). © Camilla De Maffei
"Do you know what the problem is? Return. Only old people come back because they’re homesick, not a single youngster comes back. Simply, how could people live here? There’s no infrastructure. It’s as if I’d throw you onto the top of a mountain and you settle up there. Without anything. It is all so unstable.” Fudo, El Comandante (Organizer of the resistance in Shirokacha). © Camilla De Maffei
“I don’t feel the border so much. Only when somebody reminds me of it. But that is a disease. People made it and packed it. It has to disappear. It will disappear for sure. A younger generation will come and change everything with their love and needs. This is not a way to live. My children cannot live in fear, nor theirs, not yours.” Okac (Fruiterer and war veteran). © Camilla De Maffei
“Here the situation is so nasty that it would take a new revolution. I’d do it for my children but I’m too tired now, weakened by war, like everybody else.” Enver (Resident of Jacerdoli). © Camilla De Maffei
“In my opinion the young generation has a complex of fear that other people inculcated to them. People still talk about divisions. Borders. Now part of the border is in them, and it’s coming to me and then goes back to them again. It is all covered with one single sky, one cloud that can make the same rain fall on this place. But now under that small cloud they make a border.” Ramis (War veteran).
“Little by little Trebevic fell into oblivion. In my opinion there is a political will to forget it. But this happens also because a lot of current politicians come from somewhere else and Trebevic means nothing to them. They have no emotional bond with it, to them it is just a border.” Azra (Journalist). © Camilla De Maffei
© Camilla De Maffei
"People enjoy with chainsaw here!" Zoran (woodcutter in Trebevic), © Camilla De Maffei
“I don’t feel the border. No, I feel the mountain here, I feel comfortable. Do you know what else I feel when I come up? I’m glad we survived, that we survived that border. All that happened...it’s human nature, but now you come up here and you know that there are no more bad things, no more war, and that there are still good humans on top of the borders.” Maso (Elite veteran of Bosnian Army).