Movie Stars in a Former War Zone: Sarajevo Film Festival Thrives For Locals and Industry Attendees

CineLink is another big reason for Sarajevo’s festival’s increasing industry presence. This co-production market and script-development program includes feature projects from Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia. Now in its third year, CineLink can celebrate its first completed project, Nedzad Begovic’s charmingly quirky documentary “Totally Personal,” which premiered at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival.

Even though some of the films I selected to see at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival didn’t blow my mind, the breadth and overall quality of the program did impress me. The competition program includes only films from Eastern Europe, and there were also regional offerings out of competition, regional documentaries, and local films showing as part of the concurrent Second National Film Festival of Bosnia and Herzegovina (I’d already seen “Fuse” director Pjer Zalica‘s quietly funny and moving drama “Days and Hours” at another festival, but it’s definitely one of the highlights of the year in Bosnian film.)

The top competition prize went to Georgi Djulgerov‘s “Lady Zee” from Bulgaria, with a special award to the beautifully shot drama “Kukumi” by Isa Qosja from Kosovo. The shorts winner was Balint Kenyeres’ “Before Dawn”. Special mentions went to two Bosnian shorts: Alen Drljevic‘s “Paycheck” (which also won the EFA/UIP award) and Elmir Jukic‘s “Frame for the Picture of my Homeland.” (Both of those were produced by local powerhouse Refresh Production.)

As you’d expect from a region with such recent turmoil, most of the features were heavy—if you live through a war, you don’t come out the other side wanting to make “Love Actually 2.” Among the regional highlights for me were “Lost and Found,” a group project with segments from six directors based in Eastern Europe. Like most similar projects, it didn’t feel as cohesive as its planners might have hoped, but as a collection of related shorts it was great.

Bosnian documentary “Borderline Lovers,” which won a human rights jury special mention, was a moving look at couples who faced obstacles because of their different backgrounds (Serbian-Muslim; Montenegrin-Croatian). “Borderline Lovers” was a fascinating, moving, and an eye-opening look at the personal politics of the region. The Human Rights Award, for documentary competition, went to Andrey Paounov‘s “Georgi and the Butterflies” from Bulgaria, a nimble and touching documentary about the remarkable head doctor at a home for psychologically challenged men.

The Panorama features and documentaries gathered some highlights from around the world. Section programmer Howard Feinstein (also an indieWIRE contributor) selected some of the best international offerings of the year. In fact, the two best films I saw during my days in Sarajevo both came from the Panorama section—Kyle Henry‘s “Room,” and Pirjo Honkasalo‘s “The 3 Rooms of Melancholia.” “Room,” the debut narrative feature from Austin, Texas, documentary filmmaker Kyle Henry, is one of the most exciting American indie films of the year—it’s a challenging, artfully crafted psychological portrait of a middle-aged woman who starts seeing strange visions. “Melancholia” was a lingering, poetic triptych—the opposite of a talking-head doc—looking at the Chechen war’s affects on children.

The festival’s infrastructure was impressive—guests were treated well, transportation went smoothly, and festival venues were in easy walking distance to one another (near the tourist-friendly old town.) Screenings started on time and projection at most of the venues was excellent. The fest’s other activities were also laudable—coffee chats with the big directors in town, kids having ice cream with the likes of “Lemony Snicket” director Brad Silberling, and lots of moving and educational tours of Sarajevo and beyond. 

Having an industry presence in town can also mean more brutal discussions. Thomas Clay‘s controversial feature “The Great Ecstasy of Robert Carmichael,” which ends with a horrifically graphic rape scene, spurred quite a heated audience Q&A during which Sundance’s Geoffrey Gilmore and director Isaac Julien really laid into Clay (rightly, in my opinion) for resorting to such cheap shock value. Of course, the local film lovers also asked some provocative questions during other Q&As. You could almost feel the catharsis in the room as locals asked the director of “The 3 Rooms of Melancholia” about how they might help the Chechen children growing up in the latest war-torn part of the world. It’s a reminder that a film festival can be a way not just to make deals and meet industry players, but connect disparate parts of the world through film.

[For the full list of winners, visit the festival’s website.]