The Stone Speakers

The fall of Communism and the Yugoslav Wars still haunt Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Igor Drljaca's first documentary is primarily set. Yet parts of the area are experiencing a revival due to an alternative sort of tourism, based not only on gorgeous vistas but also on purportedly otherworldly landmarks. One is a statue of the Virgin Mary where, several decades ago, a group of children claimed to have had direct contact with her. Another site houses pyramids named after celestial bodies. But this country views its history differently than outsiders do; one woman bemoans the loss of the factory that kept her village alive and claims the last war was about profiteering, not ethnic rivalries -- difficult to argue when you see attempts to make money off religious sites. From this visually striking and profound film emerges a portrait of a country struggling to come to terms with a rich and tragic past that is, to paraphrase Faulkner, neither dead nor even past.