Mission to Kosovo: The Canadian Police Experience

If the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks have dimmed memories of the horrors of the war in Kosovo, this documentary, which follows post-war peacekeeping forces assembled by the Canadian International Development Agency in service of the UN's International Police Contingent, will serve as a reminder. Mission to Kosovo depicts the aftermath of the Bosnian civil war in a restrained style that eschews hyperbole and dependence on action shots--thus the screen is often filled with faces full of concern talking about what they have seen and experienced, rather than tanks and explosions. Especially affecting are a display of landmines the peacekeepers have collected--some of which look like toys, the better to attract child detonators--and the individual stories of officers interacting with the war's survivors (people who desperately need a return of normalcy to a region that hasn't known normalcy in some time). In the enumeration of casualties and senseless brutality visited on the region and its people, nary an accusatory remark is put forth, rather the purpose here is to simply portray the human coda to modern warfare as seen through the eyes of Canadian peacekeepers. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (M. Tribby)