Hour and a half after midnight, on May 6th 1991, the commander of the 4th Corpus of JNA general-major Milovan Zorc received the secret dispatch from the supreme command in Belgrade (Serbia), where he was ordered to move a part of the 10th Armoured mechanized brigade from Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegowina) and join it to the rest of the tank units in Sinj (Croatia). A long tank column, equipped with battle shells and the soldiers draftees, who got the rifles and guns with live ammunition for the first time while being in the military service, set off in the early morning on May 7th 1991 from Mostar towards Sinj. At the 15th kilometres away from Mostar, the tank column came across the kilometres long barricade formed out of civilians and heavy trucks and passenger cars. General-major Milovan Zorc informed the command of JNA in Belgrade that the civilians stopped the column. While the verbal conflicts were lasting, passing over in the commanding chain of JNA, the information came to the frightened soldiers in the tanks, composed out of all of the nations from the territory of the former Yugoslavia, who didn’t even know where and why are they actually heading with the live ammunition, that they would have to use the firearms for the first time. Only some 30 metres away in front of the tank guns there was the unarmed people, determined for the armoured brigade to return to the barracks in Mostar. For the first time here, the generals, the colonels of the former JNA and the political officials of the former Yugoslavia have brought out their testimonies and feelings. Citizens, the JNA soldiers, their commanding officers, the political officials, priests, policemen…had also told their stories.
The film shows all the complexity of the situation. The entire scope of the problem can be seen in their statements, the conflicts with the superiors, with the protesters who were ready to give their lives in front of the tank, under the influence of that great adrenalin. The films enters the innermost feelings of the people in the bureaucratic offices, enters the souls of the commanders, soldiers, civilians! Through the feature film scenes, authentic takes, statements, radio and newspaper reports, the film “3 Days” shows the chaos, the suspense, the fears that dominated among the people from both sides of the barricades on the eve of the beginning of Yugoslavia’s falling apart.