Known in the region for his role as spokesman for the Service de Police de la Ville de Lévis (SPVL), Jean-Sébastien Levan is currently going through a major artistic adventure. A former cameraman for major TV channels, the resident of Saint-Romuald is working on a documentary with his policeman friend Alain Boivin, who has recently returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina almost 30 years after spending time in this blue-helmet-titled European country.

A reservist in the Régiment de la Chaudière at the age of 18, Alain Boivin volunteered for service in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1990s, then during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the grip of a violent war between the Croatian-Bosnian and Serb communities.

Attached to the 1st Battalion of the 12th Armored Regiment of Canada, the soldier, who is now a police officer in Saint-Eustache, served in this Balkan country from October 1993 to May 1994. Like all UN peacekeepers deployed in Bosnia, the experience was forever marked by Alain Boivin. The latter wanted to return to Bosnia and Herzegovina for twenty years to “relive his emotions and see if the situation has improved”.

“During my assignment in Bosnia I took several photos and after my return I created an album with my pictures. I loaned it to someone 27 years ago and unfortunately the album has been lost. A few months ago, a soldier friend of mine told me that he had found my album in the 1st Battalion library. I immediately went to Quebec to pick it up and I saw all the photos again, it brought back a lot of memories and emotions. This gave me the impetus to move forward with a return to Bosnia,” shared Mr Boivin.

Alain Boivin, also a former agent of the SPVL, believed that his return to Bosnia and Herzegovina could also be the subject of a documentary film and talked about this idea with Jean-Sébastien Levan, whom he met while studying police engineering. Last summer, the two friends finally decided on the project.

“We knew we wanted to make a documentary. Even if we complement each other well, Alain could take care of the soundtrack of the documentary as a musician and I could take care of the filming and editing with my professional experience in cinema and television, we didn’t know if we would be able to to move forward as we have two active lives. This summer we decided to meet to decide whether to make the documentary or not. The desire was there for both me and Alain, and we started preparing and developing the narrative framework,” recalls Mr. Levan.

Discover a new reality

At the beginning of October, the two police friends flew to Bosnia-Herzegovina after they had started filming the documentary in the Lévis armory, one of the bases of the Régiment de la Chaudière. During their week of vacation, Alain Boivin and Jean-Sébastien Levan traveled the country to take various shots in an intimate format. Rendez-vous à Srebrenica goes back in particular to the observation posts where Alain Boivin stayed during his deployment, “goes through Alain’s eyes”, illustrated Jean-Sébastien Levan.

So they went to Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital besieged during the Bosnian War, Visoko, Mostar and Srebrenica. It should be remembered that the Bosnian Serb Army killed more than 8,000 men and youth of defenseless combat age in the latter town in 1995, a year after Canadian forces gave way to the Dutch Army in that sector as blue helmets.

Alain Boivin and Jean-Sébastien Levan started their trip to Bosnia with mixed feelings at first. “I had some fears. We didn’t know how we would be received when our project looked back on an event that was traumatic for this country. But it went really well and the different people we met during the trip were very welcoming,” said Mr Levan.

Moreover, sleeping during his first nights in Bosnia when “several things went through his mind”, Alain Boivin was able to quickly create new memories more pleasant than those he inherited on his first visit, thanks in particular to meeting with Rob Zomer, a Dutch peacekeeper who was present in Srebrenica in 1995 and has now found refuge in this Bosnian town.

“In my head I had images of destroyed cities like Mostar. From now on, this city is once again an open-air museum. The suffering no longer exists and we can see that there is a positive future for this country. It did me good and brought my memories back into balance. […] My meeting with Rob was also therapeutic. Since we had the same experience, we spoke the same language during the exchange. The first night after meeting Rob Zomer, I slept well for the first time since returning to Bosnia,” Mr Boivin introduced himself.

Soon on your screens

Back home, the two police friends began editing the documentary. With the sequences filmed in Bosnia, Rendez-vous à Srebrenica offers a journey through the whirlpool of emotions that Alain Boivin has experienced since his assignment in the Balkan country.

“The shoot was emotional. It went well. I didn’t feel like Alain put any filters on during our trip. Yes, Rendez-vous à Srebrenica tells the story of a Peacekeeper veteran, but it could have been the story of two buddies going on an adventure. […] I have the impression that the project has done Alain well. He discovered other facets of himself, but also experienced a shock. The people have made peace with this war. Young people are thinking about the future and older people have moved on. I discovered a country during our trip, but Alain rediscovered Bosnia,” explains Jean-Sébastien Levan.

“Documentary film is a way of capturing what I experienced there. I hope that our project will also inspire other of my brothers in arms to make this pilgrimage to Bosnia,” added Mr. Boivin.

Jean-Sébastien Levan hopes to complete post-production in the coming months so that the documentary can be presented next year. The work will be put online on various digital platforms and a launch could take place in the Lévis armory. If you want to know more about the development of the project, you can visit the Facebook page Filming in Bosnia 2022 (meeting in Srebrenica).