Adem's Cross

In September 1993, when Adem is fourteen, his homeland of Kosovo has been under Serb military domination for four and a half years. Adem is ethnic Albanian. His people, the great majority of the Kosovo population, share with their Serb neighbors only one thing- an ancient hatred. Adem is sick of living with oppression, sick of the unresisted terrorizing, teargassing, beatings, killings. How he would love to fight back. But the power belongs to the Serbs, and anyway, the Albanians have adopted a policy of non-violent resistance. Clearly, this affords them no protection. And when Adem's beloved sister Fatmira confesses in the strictest confidence that she plans to read a protest poem in public, Adem is heartsick. Fatmira's attempt to speak up sets in motion a chain of events that brings Adem's family closer together, yet separates them.