About the Project
Return to Europe
Following an initiative of ERSTE Foundation and the scientific research conducted by the European Stability Initiative (ESI), ORF, ORF/3sat and pre tv co-produced the Return to Europe, a ten-part documentary, one of the most ambitious TV projects in South Eastern Europe in the recent years.
Hop on and let›s take a ride across the south-east of Europe. What is so fascinating about this colourful entity called the «Balkans»? History is told on old Roman and Ottoman roads, in young urban centres like Tirana, in the mountainous countryside of Montenegro. With stories written by life – and based on the results of sound scientific research by the European Stability Initiative (ESI).
Return to Europe gives people who have contributed to the region’s progress since the mid-1990s the opportunity to comment on their present situation: artists, lawyers, journalists, activists, mayors and football players tell their version of the story. With powerful images, these ten 52-minute episodes provide a new perspective on the present and possible future of the region.
To present the changing Balkans to a wider public we have embarked on a journey of discovery. Like many European stories, our trip starts in Rome, the eternal city. From there it leads across South Eastern Europe as far as Istanbul, the region›s largest city since the 4th century. In between we stop in Kotor on the Adriatic Sea, Novi Sad on the Danube, Tirana in the Albanian coastal plains, and in Thessaloniki on the Aegean Sea. The journey ends near the Ottoman «Fortress of Europe» (Rumeli Hisari) in Istanbul, city of patriarchs and caliphs. We visit Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Turkey. It is a journey of colours: the facades of Tirana, the painted mosques of Travnik, the fabulous old houses of Plovdiv and the spectacular blue of water – dark in the Bay of Kotor, emerald in the river valleys of Bosnia, deep blue in Ohrid, twinkling in the Aegean Sea and on the Bosporus.
«Europeanisation»
Europe is discovering its fascination for the Balkans. After years of bloody conflict, this region has become again a region of hope. Romania and Bulgaria have joined the European Union. There is peace. A new generation desires change. The magic word that echoes from Tirana to Belgrade, from Sarajevo to Istanbul is «Europeanisation». But there are also ongoing tensions in some parts of the region.
In 2005 an international commission headed by Giuliano Amato, the former Italian Prime Minister and former Minister of the Interior, warned that «the smell of violence still hangs in the air» in the Balkans. Contested borders, social tensions, oppressed minorities, weak states: all these continue to be realities in Europe›s southeast.
The expression «Balkan conditions» describes a world of tribal feuds and of vendettas, of political insecurity and of mafia structures. But there are also other things to be found across the region today: the ability to forgive, the return of displaced people, entrepreneurship and creativity. There is fanaticism but also tolerance, animosity but also co-existence of different cultures. Throughout the region there are activists trying to tap dormant potentials.
A journey through the Balkans is a journey through Europe›s past and its future. The British author Timothy Garton Ash writes that a European century full of folly and destruction began in Sarajevo in the summer of 1914. At the time, the founding fathers of the European Union, Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet, were 28 and 26 years old respectively and their dream of a unified Europe can be traced back to the experiences of that summer. One century later, the pax europea has become a reality in almost every corner of the continent.
The Making of Return to Europe
Before this large project started it first had to be imagined. Return to Europe began as a series of conversations in cafés in Vienna. The participants: Gerald Knaus (ESI), Knut Neumayer (ERSTE Stiftung) and Martin Traxl (ORF/3sat). A decisive step was taken at a brainstorming in July 2006 in the garden of Bosphorus University in Istanbul, where Gerald, Knut and Martin agreed on the format of the series: an ambitious journey with 10 stops, starting in Rome, crossing the Adriatic to Montenegro, passing through all of South Eastern Europe, ending in Istanbul on the shores of the Bosphorus.
However, having an ambitious plan and a vision is one thing; mobilising the necessary resources to implement it is another. The research for Return to Europe consisted of more than 1,000 interviews made and transcribed in 10 countries of the Balkans, Brussels, Vienna and Rome by ESI. ERSTE Foundation moved the initial idea from the realm of conversation into that of action plans by giving not only organisational and financial support. In the final phase of the production, Erhard Busek, chairman of the Board of Trustees of ERSTE Foundation and former Head of the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe was a constant source of reflection and critical annotations to safeguard a balanced story telling. und als former Stabilitätspakt… guter Kenner der Region, gave also important (inhaltliche Input…).
But now, the next step was finding the team to turn the vision into products. For this a crucial partnership had to be developed between the ESI team of researchers and analysts on the one hand and the creative team of film directors, camera-men, sound engineers and cutters, put together by the production company pre-tv and its manager Nikolaus Wisiak, on the other.
Together ESI and pre-tv began to turn the original vision into drafts, scripts, rough cuts and finally products to be broadcast on television in different countries in Europe. In June 2007, one year after the initial meeting on the shores of the Bosphorus, script writer Wolfgang Stickler, director Peter Behringer and ESI›s Gerald Knaus went to Macedonia to begin to work on the ground. After that, different teams of directors, cameramen and ESI analysts went to Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. The filming was done by 6 directors and 6 cameramen, who during 190 days of shooting and after taping 140 interviews within 12 months brought home more than 400 hours of footage.
An award winning documentary
The ten part documentary has been awarded the «Erasmus EuroMedia Grand Award» 2008 for outstanding European media productions by the European Society for Education and Communication (ESEC). The documentary series was selected by an international jury among more than 250 applications from all over Europe.
In his laudation, ESEC Chairman Professor Thomas A. Bauer stressed the exemplary way in which the series blends inspired direction and emphatic camera work with sound scientific research and journalistic excellence. He said that the result is a remarkable combination of information, education and entertainment which conveys an appealing message about the complex topic of Europe.
Less then a month later the film on Turkey “Istanbul: Truth, fear and hope”, received the “Turkey Article of the Year” award, initiated by the Information Office of the Turkish Embassy in Vienna.
The German quality papers Die Zeit and Süddeutsche Zeitung called the film on Turkey a «fascinating kaleidoscope of impressions» and a «wonderful documentary». «Return to Europe» is one of the most ambitious TV projects on South Eastern Europe produced in recent years.
