The Friends

How Muslims and Catholics joined forces to build a church.

The Friends

How Muslims and Catholics joined forces to build a church.

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The Friends
Wednesday, 6 June, 2012

Three men -- Croat Jandro Curic and Bosniaks Muhamed Alijagic and Osman Muslic -- recall how their community pulled together to build a new church for the village of Kralje.

The three live near Bihac in northwestern Bosnia, an area that saw fierce fighting during the war. They say the Bosniaks and Croats in their village managed to maintain good relations.

When the Croats decided to put up a Catholic church, Alijagic was asked to do the timbering for it, and insisted he would provide the wood from his lumberyard free of charge, just as he would have done for a new mosque. Music and other Bosniaks laid on a supply of food for the builders.

This film was produced by IWPR and Mebius Film to mark the 20th anniversary of the start of war in Bosnia, under IWPR's Programme for the Western Balkans and ICTY, funded by the Norwegian government.

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