HOW I KILLED A SAINT takes place in early 2001. The main character of Viola returns to Skopje to discover that tension has reached a high point and armed conflict has started between the Macedonian army and the newly organized NLA (Albanian Liberation Army), formerly the UCK.
I originally had the idea for the film when I returned home after living several years in the US. I remember arriving to Skopje airport, waiting at the baggage carousel and being surrounded by young military personnel with expressions just as scared and bewildered as mine. I noticed two men dressed in bright orange. Puzzled by the brilliance of the color, I stared at them. When they walked away, I discovered "Mine Technician" written on their backs. Then the ride to Skopje, gray and gloomy, beautiful mountains surrounding the view. This is what I tried to capture at the beginning of HOW I KILLED A SAINT, when Viola is riding in the car home from the airport.
There is nothing more devestating than returning home, to the place you have grown up, and finding war and destruction. What dies it mean to find your chiuldhood place in shambles and what does it mean to feel like a foreigner in the place you were born? Terrorists, war, guns and politics, humanitarian organisations, religious parties, NATO, UN, the international media - everyone has arrived to offer help. And then what?
HOW I KILLED A SAINT is a story about people and destinies. The backdrop is the political and social state of Macedonia during the 2001 conflict. The film does not try to give answers or take sides. It deals with the human factor caught up in the midst of the threat of war.
