THE VALLEY (1999) – Dan Reed

DIRECTOR, SCREENPLAY, PRODUCER: DAN REED
PRODUCER: VAUGHAN SMITH,
CINEMATOGRAPHER: JACEK PETRYCKI
SOUND: PATRICK BOLAND
EDITING: STEFAN RONOWICZ
MUSIC: DAVID HUGHES & JOHN MURPHY
TRANSLATORS IN KOSOVO: SAFET GASHI, EVLIANA BERANI AND JETA XHARRA
TRANSLATORS IN LONDON: AFERDITA STATOVCI, JEHONA GJURGJEALA
© DAN REED & © CHANNEL 4

Filmed during the bitter fighting before the NATO air war began, The Valley is a journey deep into the killing fields of Kosovo, Europe’s last war of the 20th century. The Drenica Valley was hit first and hardest in this war and is now devastated.

This extraordinary film shows how the spiral of fear, hatred and killing—fueled by ancient myths—can take on a terrible logic of its own. The Valley dramatically demonstrates the power of understatement and underproduction. Here, haunting scenes of burning villages and charred corpses are offset by vast natural beauty. With its horrifying yet visually beautiful cinematography, and its reliance on natural sound devoid of distracting music or narration, the documentary creates stunning immediacy and realism.

Producer and director Dan Reed spent much of 1998 in the heart of both the Kosovo Albanian uprising and the all-out Serbian offensive that followed. His film bears witness to, as he puts it, “the parallel half-truths which divide the Serbs and Albanians of Kosovo and make them blind to each other’s plight” and “the sheer incestuous brutality of war between neighbours.”

AWARDS:

1999 WINNER BANFF ROCKIE AWARD, BEST SOCIAL & POLITICAL DOCUMENTARY
1999 WINNER INTERNATIONAL CRITICS PRIZE IN BANFF TELEVISION FESTIVAL
1999 WINNER GERMAN TELEVISION AWARD, BEST FOREIGN PROGRAM (BESTE AUSLÄNDISCHE
SENDUNG)
1999 WINNER IN SPIRIT FOR FREEDOM AWARD, BEST DOCUMENTARY, JERUSALEM FILM
FESTIVAL
2000 WINNER GOLDEN NYMPH, BEST CURRENT AFFAIRS PROGRAMME, MONTE CARLO TV
FESTIVAL
1999 WINNER GOLDEN REMBRANDT, NOMBRE D’OR AWARDS
2000 WINNER PEABODY AWARD
1999 WINNER PRIX ITALIA, BEST DOCUMENTARY - CURRENT AFFAIRS
2000 WINNER GOLDEN SPIRE, SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL