Rubbed Out
Director Dimitar Anakiev
Countries Slovenia
Duration 45 min
Synopsis
The documentary explores the original method of ethnic cleansing in Slovenia executed by the Slovenian government in 1992, since termed »soft killing« by independent media. On February 26th 1992, a year after achieving independence from Yugoslavia, the Slovenian government »rubbed out« 18, 305 people origined from other ex-Yugoslav republic from the book of permanent sojourn. This administrative killing – performed as one would delate spam messages – created many personal tragedies: people, many of whom were borned in Slovenia, were detained without documents, lost their jobs, their social insurance. Many were arrested as »illegal aliens« and deported to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia or Macedonia. Some deportations were enacted into the middle of nearby ethnic wars; resulting in murders by nationalists of other ex-Yugoslav republic. Such ethnic cleansing was unknown previously in Slovenia ( during its time of negotiations for entering EU, for instance ) and the government was able to hide the situation for many years and in that time secure a good image for itself, especially in the west, that of democratic and pluralistic country. Ten years later, Aleksandar Todorovic, the main character in the documentary, has founded the Society of Erased People of Slovenia to fight for their rights. The documentary follows the story of Todorovic at the height of their attempts to achieve justice and closure for these people.
The documentary explores the original method of ethnic cleansing in Slovenia executed by the Slovenian government in 1992, since termed »soft killing« by independent media. On February 26th 1992, a year after achieving independence from Yugoslavia, the Slovenian government »rubbed out« 18, 305 people origined from other ex-Yugoslav republic from the book of permanent sojourn. This administrative killing – performed as one would delate spam messages – created many personal tragedies: people, many of whom were borned in Slovenia, were detained without documents, lost their jobs, their social insurance. Many were arrested as »illegal aliens« and deported to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia or Macedonia. Some deportations were enacted into the middle of nearby ethnic wars; resulting in murders by nationalists of other ex-Yugoslav republic. Such ethnic cleansing was unknown previously in Slovenia ( during its time of negotiations for entering EU, for instance ) and the government was able to hide the situation for many years and in that time secure a good image for itself, especially in the west, that of democratic and pluralistic country. Ten years later, Aleksandar Todorovic, the main character in the documentary, has founded the Society of Erased People of Slovenia to fight for their rights. The documentary follows the story of Todorovic at the height of their attempts to achieve justice and closure for these people.