An American filmmaker returns to the Balkans to confront his personal failings where 25 years ago he became a paid propagandist for a Balkan country.

SYNOPSIS:

An American filmmaker becomes a paid propagandist for a Balkan government. 25 years later he returns to understand how it all went wrong. That filmmaker is Emmy-award winning documentary filmmaker Joe Tripician, the director of this film.

Once Joe heard stories from harassed journalists who had their cars bombed and people who were burned alive in their homes for being the wrong nationality, he realized that he couldn't go through with it, even if he desperately needed the money. By making this film Joe hopes to do more than he did 25 years ago.

Shot in a film noir style this personal story is told from Joe's point-of-view. The tone ranges from darkly comic to deadly serious as the camera follows Joe retracing his steps through the Balkans.

He confronts the architects of this propaganda campaign and attempts to pry the truth from them about its real goal.

Joe also meets a new generation of propaganda peddlers and disinformation dealers who are currently spreading lies in the service of government and private forces that want to maintain and expand their power. And they are accomplishing this through historical revisionism.

Historical revisionism is a form of political capital that spreads mistrust and divisions. By claiming that my country has more victims than my opponent's country, that my opponents are the guilty ones, I earn more political leverage through my perceived higher degree of victimhood. In short, I win the Victimhood Olympics. Every country in the region, and increasingly many across the world, is currently engaged in this form of historical revisionism.

At the end of Joe’s journey secrets are revealed and he begins anew, working with established independent journalists to teach aspiring reporters how to uncover and expose the truth, and the importance of a free press. These journalists, both novice and experienced, alert the audience to the current dangers of disinformation.