In the review of the film directed by Sanjin Miric, we take into account its two main aspects: the

subject of the film and its form.

"7000 Souls" is a work dealing with historical theme related to the Great War, but unlike most documentaries of the genre that pay attention to military and political history, crucial battles and political intrigues, the work of director Miric has as its subject an ordinary man, caught in the terrible whirlwind of war, who is often ignored and pushed aside, in favor of "great" events and prominent figures. In fact, this man is a true portrait of the world at a given moment, a world destroyed and teared apart by destruction, a world which has turned against itself, in which human qualities are pushed to the extreme like heartless atrocities on the one hand and true benevolence and self-sacrifice on the other.

The war that came to Serbia in 1914 is mostly interpreted through the prism of initial military successes against a far superior enemy, followed by the suffering of the army and the military and state leadership during the withdrawal through Albania, recovery in Greece and breakthrough back to the homeland. History has long (intentionally or accidentally) neglected an entire stage of an occupied country, whose army withdrew and was forced to leave it at the mercy of the enemy. There is also little evidence of the fate of many civilians and soldiers captured and missing during all four years of World War I. "7000 souls" is therefore an important testimony, having as its theme the forgotten story of these often nameless victims, whose fate remained unknown to their descendants and who were in fact the soul of the country plunged into the chaos of bloodshed. Taking as its theme the fate of prisoners of war, both military and civilian, deported and placed in the Jindřichovice and Broumov camps in the Czech Republic, the author draws attention to these suffering commoners, whose fate reflects the image of the epoch, state of mind, similarities and differences between societies and people. By researching this story at the source, the director manages to revive forgotten destinies first hand and documents them by creating invaluable material for future generations. In addition to the recorded historical data, he draws the material for his film from the personal stories of the descendants, both those whose ancestors went through the hardships of captivity, and those whose ancestors witnessed this suffering, developed ties and friendships with prisoners that continued long after the madness of war has ended. This is another proof that people are the ones who make the world, not the politics and games of powers, and that when all the storms subside, it is always people who remain after them, anonymous, dedicated to their simple lives and loved ones. All these people are recorded in extraordinary and shocking photographs that the director found and weaved into his story, images that cannot be found in

textbooks and history books, and are invaluable treasures with portraits of men and women, fellow prisoners who shared life in the camp, their moments of rest, hard work, difficult conditions in which they had to survive, while their faces are carved with emotions that do not leave the viewer indifferent. All this, along with statistics, reports, anecdotes and individual cases, forms a rich tapestry that revives the story of captured Serbs who never returned to their homeland, but were buried together in the second largest Serbian mass grave in the world.

When it comes to the form of this documentary, its structure can be observed as one of a collage. In order to more accurately reconstruct the story of Serb prisoners in Austro-Hungarian camps, the director used a variety of tools and techniques, including interviews, archival images, as well as staged scenes and confessions of prisoners, based on the original letters. Given that the topic is related to the events a hundred years ago, there were no living witnesses or survivors, the choice was limited to descendants who could be reached and who themselves barely possessed any more information about the fate of their ancestors. The information is therefore mostly extracted from historical material, texts

and photographs, and the entire approach to the film is journalistic. In order to better convey the essence of the story and effectively bring it to life for the film audience, staged scenes were inserted into the film, in which the actors took on the role of prisoners and their Austro-Hungarian guards. This is a standard technique, typical primarily for television program of historical and archival content.

Today, however, the question of its actuality can be posed. We are witnessing innovation and experimentation, especially in the field of documentary film, where in order to study the medium and its ability to manipulate and convey the story, new techniques and approaches have been applied in the field of research and documenting stories, editing materials, merging genres that produce new hybrid forms. Essential questions are asked about the very ability to reconstruct and pass the story, about the general subjectivity, the mechanisms of experience and the ability of the medium to convey or imitate these mechanisms. We can ask ourselves of how successful is the mixture of authentic interviews and shown photographs on the one hand and staged scenes on the other hand in communication with the modern viewer, already familiar and accustomed to bolder, more experimental approaches and forms. How much such a structure contributes to the authenticity of the story itself, and how much it pushes it into the domain of storytelling with the ambition to be instructive, suggestive. The consequence can often be the complete opposite of the intended effect. The story itself is extremely moving and offers a lot of space for the viewer to communicate with it on different levels, so that any additional underlining of its drama seems to actually diminish its effect and steal from it the authenticity so disturbingly

recorded in the photos shown. Therefore, the question arises whether such a relevant and valuable content of "7000 souls" requires perhaps a different form, more reduced and pragmatic, focused on conveying its content to the viewer while preserving all its fragile facets, without the attempt to accentuate and enhance anything.