This short film is a record of a monument, created by ordinary people, which has become a symbol of the hopelessness and futility of war.

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Afte the last conflict in Croatia, someone wrote the name of a missing relative on a brick and placed it on a main thoroughfare in the capital city of Zagreb. The idea caught on and very quickly a wall took shape. Each brick carries the name of a lost friend or relative. Some have pictures of the missing person, some have religious ikons, some have burning candles - a sure sign that even after all this time they are visited regularly and hope remains.

The length of the wall is quite staggering but nobody has counted the bricks. It is more poignant than any state funded memorial, and one cannot help feeling very emotional just looking at it.

This wall must surely be one of the most powerful of anti-war images ever created. The fact that it was a spontaneous response to the horrors of war by those most affected - ordinary people - should make it compulsory visiting.

- Brian Dunckley, FACI     July 2003

Page updated on 21 March 2008

Authors' views are not necessarily those of The Institute of Amateur Cinematographers

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