What does a fair trial mean for those charged with some of the most severe violations of the laws and principles which define humanity? Should those who commanded a genocide enjoy the protection of the law? In the case of Radovan Karadžić, the most feared war criminal in the Balkans, the answer to these questions lies with Marko, a young, idealistic lawyer working for the defense at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Hague. Marko does not identify with the Serbian nationalists – in fact, he left Serbia because of the Milošević regime, and ended up marrying a Slovenian – but he firmly believes in a basic law principle: everyone has the right to a good defense. But as such principled abstractions meet with the specific evidence in the case, the very real emotions of the victims, and the high public scrutiny surrounding the case, Marko’s work takes over and spills in his private life, including his own marriage. As Marko turns into a seasoned veteran, whose complex views are increasingly comfortable with ambiguity, doubt, and moral quandary, The Serbian Lawyer becomes a film about how a simple choice forces a devastating rift between the protagonist’s professional life, and his humanity. In this apparently simple story, centered on a single character, the documentary opens up a space for meditating on the meaning of the rule of law, on the relationship of each of us to history, and on the relationship between morality and the justice system.
