BBC Four: Milosevic is referred to as having a kind of autism in the film. How does this manifest itself?
Leslie Woodhead: The cartoonist CORAX says that he draws Milosevic with no eyes because that best expresses Slobo's autism, the feeling that he "never looks at what's happening around him. He always looks into himself". After long hours in the Belgrade archives looking at Milosevic's public image, there's something hypnotic about this coldly uncharismatic man who controlled the hearts and minds of his people for a decade.
As we hear from former colleagues, he ran an intensely personal regime. "He didn't discuss," says former Information Minister Aleksander Tijanic, "just gave directions and commands which were to be carried out". We also hear from former friend and general director of State TV Dusan Mitevic: "In 10 years he never appeared where it was difficult, where people suffered, with wounded people, children, soldiers. That's simply unbelievable".
BBC Four: What do you see as being the tenets of "Slobism"?
LW: I think the texture of the word perfectly encapsulates the smeared tangle of brutishness and calculation, which is the essence of the regime. "Slobism" is defined by Aleksander Tijanic as "an odd mix which at first sight looks completely democratic and western - a multi-party system, parliament, elections, basic free media. But in fact everything runs the way the ruler wants. He rules practically without restrictions through the secret police, money controls and the media." As journalist Stojan Cerovic puts it: "It was a kind of facade democracy - Milosevic was essentially a dictator, but the system was not a dictatorship." As I say at the beginning of the film, I see Slobism as "a fatal brew of dictatorship by television, ethnic rabble rousing and mass hypnosis".
BBC Four: The interview with his wife Mira Markovic is remarkable. Were you surprised by her answers and willingness to speak to you? Any questions she wouldn't answer?
LW: It took co-producer Paul Jenkins and myself almost a year to get the interview with Mrs Milosevic. She insisted on having the camera as far from her as possible, and in fact the cameraman finally shot the interview though a doorway. I thought she seemed nervous, but she answered every question at length, rarely betraying any obvious emotion. It was only when I asked about her son Marco that she became animated.
BBC Four: Media control has obviously always been important to dictators. Do you think he manipulated TV in new ways?
LW: Milosevic was one of the first former Communist leaders to understand the use of television to secure his rule. His special skill, I think, was in using a modern medium to exploit age-old antagonisms. In using TV to ferment ethnic hatred, for years he kept his population - who received almost all their information from State TV - in a state of fear and rage, ready to respond to his darkest prompting.
BBC Four: We hear from various vocal opponents of the Milosevic regime. What was your sense of how they now look back on those years and are they optimistic about the future?
LW: "I can't even bear to look back" one former TV worker told us. "I'd like to forget those years ever happened." For many who suffered, there is an understandable feeling of anger about a lost decade and the squandered potential of a country which had dreamed of achieving a European standard of living. There's also dismay about being branded citizens of a pariah state.
Many old cronies of Slobo remain in positions of power, the criminalisation of society remains a daily scandal, there's a widespread feeling that the West has abandoned the former Yugoslavia. It can be a dispiriting place, lethargic and lacking energy. And yet I met many talented, imaginative, and stimulating people. There's obviously a basis for rebuilding if only the crushing economic problems can be tackled.
BBC Four: Why do you think Milosevic continues to enthrall so many Serbians?
LW: It's true that Milosevic continues to enthral many Serbs, but I imagine few would want him back. A few old people, after the manner of faithful Stalinists in Russia, still revere the old leader. Many more I think are grudgingly impressed by his unyielding defiance of the War Crimes Tribunal, displaying the essential Serb virtues of heroic resistance against overwhelming odds. The fear is, as Alexander Tijanic says in the film: "If we do not investigate the reasons for his long rule in the Balkans, as time passes Milosevic will grow in the eyes of Serbs who love him, like a Serbian John Wayne, a myth even after his death."
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