29th SARAJEVO FILM FESTIVAL: Dealing with the Past Film Program

Delegation / Delegacija

Poland, Israel, Germany, 2023, Color, 90 min.

Director: Asaf Saban

Cast: Yoav Bavly, Neomi Harari, Leib Lev Levin, Ezra Dagan, Alma Dishy

Three Israeli high-school friends take part in class trip visiting Holocaust sites in Poland – their last time together before going into the army. During the trip, shy Frisch, aspiring artist Nitzan, and class heartthrob Ido deal with issues of love, friendship, and politics against the backdrop of concentration camps and memorial sites. This journey will change them forever.

Ciné-Guerrillas: Scenes from the Labudović Reels / Dosje Labudović: Ciné-Guerrillas

Serbia, France, Croatia, Montenegro, Qatar, 2022, Color and B&W, 94 min.

Director: Mila Turajlić

CINÉ-GUERRILAS: SCENES FROM THE LABUDOVIĆ REES is a feature-length documentary that take us on an archival roadtrip through the birth of the Third World project, based on unseen 35mm materials filmed by Stevan Labudović, the cameraman of Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito. The film plunges us into the media battle that played out during the Algerian War of Independence, where cinema was mobilized as a weapon of political struggle against colonialism. Together with NON-ALIGNED, the film forms a documentary diptych.

Mamula All Inclusive

Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Color, 68min.

Director: Aleksandar Reljić

Ivo Marković, a surviving former inmate of the Mamula prison camp, opposed the decision of Montenegro’s government to build a luxury hotel at the location of a World War II prison camp where countless civilians suffered.

The Happiest Man in the World / Najsretniji čovjek na svijetu (Dealing with the Past program opening) 

North Macedonia, Belgium, Slovenia, Denmark, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2022, Color, 95 min.

Director: Teona Strugar Mitevska

Cast: Jelena Kordić, Adnan Omerović, Labina Mitevska, Ana Kostovska, Ksenija Marinković, Izudin Bajrović, Irma Alimanović, Vedrana Božinović, Mona Muratović, Nikolina Kujača, Siniša Vidović

Asja, a forty-ear-old single woman, lives in Sarajevo. In order to meet new people, she ends up spending her Saturday at a speed-dating event. She’s matched with Zoran, a forty-three-year-old banker. However, Zoran is not looking for love but for forgiveness.

The March on Rome / Osvajanje Rima

Italy, 2022, Color and B&W, 98 min, Italian, English

Director: Mark Cousins

Cast: Alba Rohrwacher

Through little-seen archives and his characteristically cinematic analysis, Mark Cousins narrates the ascent of fascism in Italy and its fallout across 1930s Europe. At once essay film and historical document, the film contextualizes history through the now, holding up a mirror to a political landscape of a creeping far right and manipulated media.

Souvenirs of War / Ratni suveniri (main event)

Italy, 2023, Color, 75min.

Director: Georg Zeller

When is a war over? SOUVENIRS OF WAR offers an essayistic tour to Bosnia, more than two decades after the last armed conflict in Europe, when many sites of sorrow have become tourist attractions. A journey along the fine line between dark travel and empathetic memory, where some enjoy playing combat games on authentic battlefields while others still struggle to make their traumatic legacy become an opportunity.

The Uncle / Stric

Croatia, Serbia, 2022, Color, 104 min.

Director: Andrija Mardešić, David Kapac

Cast: Miki Manojlović, Ivana Roščić, Goran Bogdan, Roko Sikavica, Kaja Šišmanović

Yugoslavia, late 1980s. A family welcomes their beloved uncle, who is coming home for the holidays from Germany. The joyful Christmas lunch is interrupted by a smartphone ringing. It becomes clear it’s not the 1980s, it’s not Christmastime, and it’s not just the festive turkey that can be cut with a knife, but the tension as well.

Facing Darkness / Suočavanje sa tamom

France, Switzerland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023, Color, 110 min

Director: Jean-Gabriel Périot

The Siege of Sarajevo lasted from April 1992 to February 1996. Young men were called up to protect their city; a few of them took along their video cameras to face the violence they witnessed throughout those grueling 1425 days. Now, thirty years later, they show us their films and share their wartime filming experiences and thoughts on cinema as a means of survival and resistance.