Shots In The Dark: Another Shameless Plug

Tuesday, April 26, 2024

Another Shameless Plug

Saw another powerful, well-made documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival today: "The Brooklyn Connection," directed by Klaartje Quirijns. The film tells the story of Florin Krasniqui, a Kosovar Albanian living in Brooklyn. Almost singlehandedly, Krasniqui equipped and armed the Kosovo Liberation Army in its war against Serbia—and he did it all legally, buying thousands of guns in the United States and putting them on planes to Albania, where the arms were smuggled over the border into Kosovo.

I once spent some time in Kosovo and wrote a piece about life there after the NATO bombing of Serb troops. It's a dangerous, creepy place where violence simmers just beneath the surface of ordinary life. But the film is also about how absurdly easy it is to export violence across borders. In one disturbing scene, Krasniqui buys some kind of massive gun (I'm a blue stater, I have no idea what kind) from a Pennsylvania gun shop. The proprietor asks him what he plans to use it for; Krasniqui says he's going elephant-hunting. No one believes this lie, but no one cares. It's cover enough.

We hear a lot about other countries, Muslim countries, exporting violence to the United States. But in this case, Krasniqui, a private citizen, exported violence from the United States to a predominantly Muslim country, and he did it all perfectly legally. That's scary. That the United States happened to support the efforts of the KLA doesn't change the fact that next time, all those guns could be going to someone we don't support. And as the film shows, if NATO-occupied Kosovo devolves into violence again, NATO soldiers will be fighting rebels equipped with American firepower. All legally bought and sold.

Full disclosure now: The film was based on a book by my friend Stacy Sullivan, a brave journalist and fantastic writer. It's called Be Not Afraid, For You Have Sons in America, and it's a gripping read. Congrats to Stacy and everyone else involved in the making of The Brooklyn Connection.

¶ 10:33 PM

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