'Wasteniks' at SFF, a film about the fight against nuclear waste at Trgovska Gora

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The documentary film Wasteniks (Otpadnici) will have its premiere screening at the Sarajevo Film Festival, within the BH Programme, on Monday, August 15, at 3:00 PM.

One of the main protagonists of the film is Mario Crnković from NGO Green Team, the most well-known activist from Novi Grad who is fighting against the construction of a radioactive waste storage facility at Trgovska Gora.

The film follows the last three years, which were crucial for Croatia to choose this location for the storage of radioactive waste.

The Una River is the cleanest river in BiH. Despite strong opposition from local communities around Dvor na Uni, Novi Grad, Bihać, and others, the Croatian government intends to place nuclear waste from the Krško Nuclear Power Plant right next to the border with BiH.

Unlike Croatia, BiH has not benefited from the Krško Nuclear Power Plant in recent decades. The construction of a nuclear storage facility 1-2 km from the BH border would mean that a significant portion of the risks associated with such a facility would fall on innocent BiH.

To make matters worse, the selection of the location at Trgovska Gora in Croatia took place in an extremely undemocratic and non-transparent process. Politics and various influences, including those from the polluter itself, play the main role.

The local population in Croatia itself was not taken into account, and the authorities in Zagreb ignored their resistance. Furthermore, neighboring BiH and its population were completely ignored.

It appears that one of the main goals of the Croatian government is to save financial resources, rather than adopting a serious approach that respects the European Directive on the management of radioactive waste, democratic principles, and expert recommendations.

Will the dedicated activists from BiH and Croatia succeed in preventing the construction of this facility? Will BiH institutions manage to unite and oppose this burden that will endanger an already vulnerable BiH population? Will small local communities be able to defend themselves, or will they face potential devastation for the next 300 years and longer?

Join us and meet the citizens, activists, and experts.

The director, Sanja Zdjelar, lives and works in Boston, USA. She was born and raised in Sarajevo and studied film at New York University, USA. The film's producer is Dejan Rakita, a long-time investigative journalist. The director of photography is Mišo Kojić.