Illyricvm

The Roman province of Illyria covered the vast terrain of the western Balkan peninsula. The settlement area of ​​the Illyrians covered almost the entire Adriatic coast as well as its hinterlands. According to Albanian historiography, the origin of the Albanian people derives, at least in part, from the Illyrian people. In the film Volsus, a young Liburnian, volunteers to assist a Roman unit in collecting taxes from the Illyrians. The Romans see the Illyrian tribes as nothing but "barbarians", and indeed, local customs were harsh. Roman patrols or roving mercenaries plunder, rape and burn down villages. Volsus witnesses both this violence and a slowly growing resistance. In his co-production, the recipient of support from five different countries, director Simon Bogojević Narath depicts this archaic world with expansive landscape panoramas, as well as with images of destruction, death and despair. This unconventional thriller, set in pre-Christian times, exemplifies that the fatal practices of colonisation and the political functionalisation of inter-ethnic conflicts are mechanisms with a long tradition.

Weltspiegel Room 2: Original version with English subtitles