The Sarajevo Film Festival was born amid the Bosnian war, in 1994 during the four-year siege of the city. Sarajevo, the city, and the festival have done much to put that dark history behind them. But as the SFF celebrates its 30th edition, the festival continues to shine a spotlight on films that illuminate contemporary issues and politics, on films that celebrate the power of cinema even during the darkest times.
Of the nine movies screening as part of the SFF’s Competition Program, some deal with politics straight on — like Serbian director Vuk Ršumović’s Dwelling Among the Gods, which looks at issues of identity through the eyes of an Afghan refugee — or obliquely, as with Romanian filmmaker Andrei Cohn’s Holy Week, set in 1900 but around a clash of religions that still resonates today.
“As always, we are looking for original stories, new authors, and above all fresh and bold perspectives,” says Elma Tataragić, SFF’s main competition programmer. “We appreciate filmmakers who take risks with the topics they chose, with the visual language, with the ideas they are conveying. In the end, I am quite content with the selection. It is very diverse, exciting, innovative, and tempting.”
The official selection, picked from 940 submissions, features one world, one European, and six regional premieres, with one film — the Mirjana Karanović-directed Mother Mara — screening out of competition as a gala world premiere.
“This year’s selection is both an invitation and an instruction, it is a possibility and a restriction, a promise and a threat, a safe place, and a challenge,” says Tataragić. “All the filmmakers in their films express various concerns about the world today, yesterday, and tomorrow. It’s a polyphony of different and diverse perspectives on war, on history, on love, on betrayal, on fragile future and on human’s everlasting need for belonging. With this selection, we are inviting the audience to reflect on the ambivalence of our present world which seems more fragile than ever before.”
Leading the jury that will pick the winners for the four Heart of Sarajevo awards — for best film, best director, best actor, and best actress — will be American director and screenwriter Paul Schrader, joined by Slovenian actor Sebastian Cavazza, Sarajevo-born director, writer and editor Una Gunjak, Finnish director and writer Juho Kuosmanen, and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo star Noomi Rapace.
In announcing the nine films selected, Izeta Građević, SFF’s creative director, said they represented the region in terms of “diverse film practices and traditions, diversity in themes, cinematic language, and creative affinities.”
A number of the finalists have featured in competition at Berlin or Cannes, including Greek filmmaker Yorgos Zois’ fantasy drama Arcadia, which premiered in Berlinale Encounters and stars Yorgos Lanthimos collaborator Angeliki Papoulia (The Lobster) in the story of a couple who identify the victim of a tragic accident and a drawn into the case, which forces them to face their own understanding of love, loss, and regret.
Somali-Austrian filmmaker Mo Harawe’s debut feature The Village Next to Paradise premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section this year. The film follows the day-to-day travails of a Somalian family battling to survive under the shadow of almost continuous drone-led counterterrorism operations.
A number of films from emerging regional talents are also in the running this year, including Georgian director Tato Kotetishvili’s debut Holy Electricity, which follows two young boys on “a quest for love and friendship” as they try to offload a suitcase full of rusty crosses.
“The Sarajevo Film Festival started out from the need, from the thirst, of citizens of Sarajevo for cinema and visual story-telling even in the worst times during the war,” explains Tataragić. “Very early in our formative years, we learned that the region was missing a unique and common platform for exchange of thoughts, ideas, and creativity. Over the years we have become this place and we are happy that the region is now recognizing the festival as their home. We definitely want to continue this path. Sarajevo Film Festival is unique in this constant dedication to the development of cinema of Southeast Europe.”
