"I liked the Croatians from the beginning..."

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Megjegyzés: Néha, jól esik ha dicsérnek...és nincsen okom nem büszkének lenni.




Hrvatska - Domovinski rat
Gospodine Eduardo, dobru večer vam želim.

I will continue writing in English because I don't know when was the last time you were in Croatia, and how good is your Croatian by that matter. During the last few days I wanted to write you a letter but I didn't know what to write, what to say...so many thoughts came to my mind.
First of all, I would like to thank you from my heart for coming here when we needed help the most, in 1991. Thank you for fighting on the Croatian side, I'm very proud and honored that we had someone like you in those difficult days. I watched your movie and I must say, I was very touched, in fact, I watched it 2x. I wanted to be sure I didn't miss any details.The movie is very emotional, I liked the way you opened your soul to the viewer. Not many people do that. The retrospective approach, a unique one, you want us to completely understand who you are, what you went through before all of that happened and in the end, why you did the things you did (joined the ZNG -Croatian National Guard- and other).

You and me share this line, we like to explain to people what happened before so they can understand us today, but usually I have the feeling that they won't, or maybe, can't perceive all that. But I doesn't break my spirit, on a few occasions I noticed that someone was actually paying attention and it made me very happy.
Why am I saying this to you? I wanted you to know that I payed attention to what you were saying and it made me respect you even more :)
One sentence remained in my mind: "I liked the Croatians from the beginning, I liked the way they held each other's arms...I saw that no where in Europe, not even in Hungary!"

I remember in the movie, how it was hard for you on that plane, when you were leaving, and someone said: we are internationalists. I felt like this :'(
I also remember the way you presented yourself and other volunteers of your squad; like normal people, who came to fight for freedom of a nation, and were from all over the world. I expected someone from Zagreb, Zagi in our case, though I was surprised to see the 2 Hungarians (brothers) from Vojvodina.

You didn't Americanize the movie, like all Rambos, armed to the teeth, killing what ever gets in front of them, unstoppable, bla bla bla. You so accurately showed the mentality at the time, the fear, the expectation of a better tomorrow, faith in final victory. Respect for that.

I assume the plot is based in village of Laslovo (not far from Osijek). I know that lots of Hungarians live there. I remember in the movie, whey you came across 2 old men, and they said "good day" in Croatian (dobar dan), and you said good day back in Hungarian. They were so pleased, the said "our lads are coming back" :)
When I saw that, I felt such pride, and I thought, that is true loyalty to your country, disregarding the nationality. I heard that the Hungarians who live in Osijek-Baranja county are true gentlemen/ladies, they will always assume you are Croatian and they will start speaking to you in Croatian, they will never impose their language and culture upon you (like it was the case with the Serbs). For all I heard, I heard only the best about the Hungarians in Croatia.
And I assume you know that Hungary and Croatia are very good neighbours, and have no unresolved issues. If only all neighbours were like Hungary, we'd be better off than Switzerland :)
When thinking about your movie, it is really an excellent one. It left a permanent mark on me. Eduardo, Chico, thank you once again.

I wanted to ask you, could we continue our conversation on icq or msn?
If it's not too much trouble for you, I will not take too much of your time, I promise.
I will also tell you about the torrent that I've created about Homeland war (28 GB collection).

I apologize for writing this much to you, but as you could see, I wanted to tell you so much :)

What ever you decide, let me know.

Thank you.


Maksimir5 (Hrvatska)