A commemoration at the 'Shattered Landscape' memorial was held under the patronage of the Croatian Government. Lederer was killed by a sniper on August 10, 1991, while documenting the truth about the Homeland War in Banija.
The sniper bullet that killed Gordan Lederer, a Croatian Radiotelevision cameraman, in the late afternoon of August 10, 1991, while he was filming Croatian soldiers in the Pounje region, was commemorated on Monday on Čukur Hill above Hrvatska Kostajnica, exactly 35 years after his death, which froze the newsroom and became a symbol of the cost of documenting the Homeland War.
The commemoration at the 'Shattered Landscape' memorial began at 10 a.m. under the patronage of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, bringing together officials, colleagues, and admirers of Lederer's work, with the entire event broadcast live on the Fourth Program of Croatian Television. After the national anthem, a minute of silence, wreath-laying, and a prayer, attendees were addressed by the Mayor of Hrvatska Kostajnica, Dalibor Bišćan; the Deputy Prefect of Sisak-Moslavina County, Mihael Jurić; and the envoy of the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Croatian Veterans, Tomo Medved.
Lederer was fatally struck amid fierce Serbian attacks while filming the operation of Croatian forces in the Pounje area; his last journalistic assignment in Banija is forever etched in collective memory as a testament to the dangers war reporters faced daily. As a war cameraman, he reported from numerous frontlines across Croatia, from Kruševo, Kijevo, and Knin to Lovinac, Pakrac, and Vinkovci.
However, a special place in that legacy is held by the legendary 'Banija War Dawns,' footage that, with its documentary authenticity and aesthetic value, remains one of the most striking memories of wartime, bearing witness not only to suffering but also to the camerawork skill Lederer brought to the front lines.
Born in Zagreb on April 21, 1958, Lederer built his artistic path by exploring media that seemed incompatible at first glance; he graduated in film and television cinematography in 1989 from the Academy of Dramatic Arts, while simultaneously studying archaeology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences from 1986, and in 1989 he also enrolled in postgraduate studies at the Inter-University Centre in Dubrovnik, focusing on the cultural history of the eastern Adriatic coast.
Before the war camera defined his fate, Lederer left a significant mark in film art; as early as 1986, he co-directed and shot the short animated-experimental film 'Maybridge and comp.' with collaborator Mojmir Konić, which won the ASIFA award for best debut film at the 33rd Yugoslav Documentary and Short Film Festival in Belgrade. That same year, the film also received the May Day Award from the University and the Seven Secretaries of SKOJ Award. He also worked as an assistant special effects cameraman on the animated classics 'The Elm-Chanted Forest' and 'The Magician's Hat' directed by Mladen Blažeković, and collaborated on multimedia projects by Boris Bakal, including 'Stolpnik' and '22 Scenes of Death.'
He accepted a permanent position as a cameraman at Croatian Television in 1989, where he proved himself not only as a cameraman but also as a screenwriter and author; he had a fruitful two-year collaboration with Dražen Šimić, and the public remembered his authored segments on archaeology and history, as well as travelogues like 'Bunja' and 'Easter Customs in Velika Hrvatska.' In 1990, he shot the documentary 'Tunguska Catastrophe' with director Željko Belić, and in early 1991, he took his camera to the Iran-Iraq battlefield, just months before he himself would fall on the home front, documenting the war that was engulfing his country. As early as 1988, he became a member of the Association of Film Workers, and during the productive year of 1990, he created the intriguing miniseries 'Agramer Historische Videozeitung – Last Resting Places of Old Zagreb Residents,' along with segments 'Oldest Topusko' and 'Millers in Zagreb.'
