“Yugoslavia, My Fatherland” Goran Vojnovic

In the summer of 1991, 11-year-old Vladan Borojevic was enjoying his childhood in the seaside town of Pula in present-day Croatia. Unaware of the tensions in a country on the brink of partition, he and his friends spend time swimming and playing sports. His Serbian father is a member of the Yugoslav Army, who along with his family is relocated to Belgrade, where Vladan’s childhood ends abruptly with the disappearance of his father.

Seventeen years later, Vladan, who is separated from his mother, still lives in Slovenia. He googles his father’s name and unexpectedly discovers a dark family secret. His discovery that he is the son of a fugitive war criminal prompts him to travel through the Balkans to find his father. Along the way, he begins to understand that the destruction of his family is closely related to the destruction of the reality around him. The story of the Borojevic family reveals the destinies of people who managed to avoid death, but could not avoid the war.