One of the first important cases of the Hague Tribunal against a Serbian war criminal responsible for the massacre and abuse of Bosnian Muslim civilians is at a dead end. A chance for a just verdict emerges with the testimony of a witness of the prosecution – a young boy claiming to be an orphan and to have been a member of the defendant’s paramilitary gvardia. The defense, however, finds the boy’s living father, and proves that the testimony of the witness is false.
The film characters turn to be key players in the chase of “uncompromising universal justice”. Through their personal stories, Balkan and European history and reality are confronted, which leads to a dramatic turnover of value systems. The boy’s lies tell the truth. The prosecutor, “the Iron Lady” as the media call her, blinded by her pursuit of justice, sends him away back to his motherland, sacrificing him. The boy’s father comes to The Hague from the Balkans to see with his own eyes that his son is alive, putting his child’s life at risk. The defendant’s lawyer turns against his professional principles, caring more about the father and son’s fate than he does about the fate of his client. Opening his heart to somebody else’s woe, the Westerner loses his conscientiously accomplished peace of mind and confronts his own cautiously concealed torment – he makes an irrevocably late attempt to approach his father – an already demented Russian immigrant, tucked away in a luxurious home for the elderly in the North of Holland.
Everyone has a motivation that goes beyond the role they’re given and everyone must accept the consequences of the game… For the men from the Balkans this is the fall of an illusion – that the West is the Promised Land. Does this coveted West have the resources to do good to those who don’t belong in it?

Iglika Triffonova holds a degreein Film & TV Directing from the National Academy of Theatre and Film Art in Sofia. In 1990 she wrote and directed the documentary “YEAR OF 1990” which won First Prize at “Prix Futura”, Berlin.

She is the author of more than 10 documentaries i.a.: “Possible Distances”, “Murder Stories”.

Her first feature film “Letter to America”, won 9 national prizes and it was the Bulgarian entry for Academy Award in 2001. “Letter to America” was selected by over 45 international festivals, among which: Montreal, Hoffer Filmtage, Tambov (Silver Vitiaz award) Thessaloniki, Kiev (FIPRESCI award and the Don Quijote prize of the FICC), Mannheim, Mar del Plata, Istanbul (Special Prize of the Jury), Karlovy Vary, Montpellier, Pussan, Noordelijk IFF (the MATAD’OR prize). Her 2nd feature “Investigation” won 11 national and many international prizes.