Return to Kosovo in September 1998, as the Kosovo war was raging, British journalist Julius Strauss met five-year-old Besnik Deliu, who had just survived a massacre that killed 23 members of his family. Strauss developed a bond with Besnik, visited him regularly, bringing food, toys, and a child psychologist. Twenty-five years later, Julius—now living in Canada—received an unexpected message from Besnik asking that they meet again. Julius returns to Kosovo, where together they visit the scene of the massacre, finally learning the full truth about what happened on that terrible day.

Julius Strauss was a correspondent for the British newspaper Daily Telegraph and other publications, based in the Balkans for nearly 10 years, where he covered the end of the Bosnian war, the Kosovo war, and uprisings in Serbia, Macedonia and Albania. Later, he became the Moscow bureau chief for the Daily Telegraph, covering Russia under Vladimir Putin, including writing first-hand accounts of the notorious terrorist attacks in the early 2000s. In addition to Bosnia and Kosovo, Strauss has covered wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, and Chechnya. He also worked with the US Marines in southern Afghanistan as a political officer. He has taught journalism as a guest professor at the University of Alaska and in Budapest, Hungary. He now divides his time between Canada, where he runs a wilderness lodge that specializes in viewing grizzly bears and leads environmental and charity initiatives, and Europe, where he teaches and writes.

The film screening followed by a discussion with Julius is organized in Vassar’s new Institute For the Liberal Arts and is open to the public.

This event is open to the public.