Sarajevo Film Festival

Wim Wenders, Mike Leigh, Béla Tarr and More Want Oleg Sentsov Freed

Ryan Lattanzio — Mon, 24 Aug 2015 20:48:59 GMT

After being arrested in May 2014 by the Russian Federal Security Service on suspicion of terrorist plotting and entanglement in a Ukrainian paramilitary group, Oleg Sentsov could be sentenced to 23 more years in prison Tuesday.

So in the face of this week's verdict, which would exile the Ukrainian filmmaker to a high-security penal colony, the European Film Academy has gathered over 1,000 signatures calling for his release from Russia, whose accusations remain shadowy after the retraction of a key witness testimony last month.

Petitioning supporters (listed here) come from all over Europe, including film academies in Poland, Germany, Austria and Czech Republic, and the Union of Russian Filmmakers—who aren't strangers to censorship. Filmmakers on the list include: Stephen Daldry, Mike Leigh, Mike Downey, Agnieszka Holland, Dariusz Jablonski, Aki Kaurismäki, Ken Loach, Wojciech Marczewski, Béla Tarr, Bertrand Tavernier, Andrzej Wajda and Wim Wenders.

READ MORE: Exotic Sarajevo Film Festival Discoveries and Awards Winners

Sentsov, known for his feature debut "Gaamer," served a prison sentence in Russia for over a year before going on trial for terrorism in July 2015. According to remarks by European Film Academy deputy and fest juror Mike Downey at the recent Sarajevo Film Festival, Sentsov was "arrested after the annexation of Crimea and subsequent protests, and imprisoned without trial in Lefortovo prison in Moscow, was severely tortured before being charged with terrorism offenses he and his lawyers say are imaginary."

Sentsov has described being beaten and threatened with rape and murder since his arrest. "When they put a bag on your head, beat you up a bit, and half an hour later, you’re ready to go back on all your beliefs, implicate yourself in whatever they ask, implicate others, just to stop them beating you," Sentsov reportedly said in court.

As indicated by Downey at Sarajevo, Sentsov is not optimistic about his fate.

Exotic Sarajevo Film Festival Discoveries and Award Winners

Anne Thompson — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 21:25:09 GMT

The Sarajevo Film Festival's existence has much to do with the specific gifts and personality of its charismatic founder and director, Mirsad Purivatra. He’s a man of the arts as well as the advertising industry, having run McCann Erickson Bosnia as well as a prominent Sarajevo theater company that also played around the world. The festival grew organically, in leaps and bounds, to where it is today, born during the brutal four-year Siege of Sarajevo (1992-1996), when 13,952 people were killed, including 5,434 civilians. After declaring independence from Yugoslavia, the Bosnian Serb Army thought they could swiftly take over Bosnia Herzogovina by conquering its capital. But that never happened.

It’s horrifying to talk to people who actually endured the siege. During the first year there wasn’t much contact with the outside world. The Serbs took over the Olympics side of the mountains, setting up snipers with a clear view of the streets who picked off military fighters and civilians at will. The Serb Army bombarded Sarajevo's infrastructure with artillery shells. The buildings in Sarajevo are still pock-marked and while many have been patched and repaired, others are abandoned ruins. One moving story, made into a documentary, is the Romeo and Juliet of Sarajevo, a couple both age 25, Bosniak Admira Ismić and Bosnian Serb Boško Brkić, who were killed by snipers on May 19, 1993, while trying to cross the Vrbanja bridge to the Serb-occupied territory of Grbavica. Their bodies were left lying for eight days as it was too dangerous to retrieve them in the open. Burials were an issue during this time; they had to take place at night.

Families huddled in their dark homes with no electricity and very little food. Bread was produced locally, somehow, and after a year the U.N. took over the airport and NGOs delivered supplies. Many children were sent away to live in other countries, separated from their parents, much like the World War II London blitz. The Bosnians built a narrow tunnel from a secret home outside the airport that burrowed under the tarmac and emerged on the other side. Food, gifts, and people were able to move through, single file in one direction, on a schedule. The tunnel saved Sarajevo.

Out of this madness and deprivation, the seeds of the Sarajevo Film Festival grew: social, communicative, oriented toward human rights. People with no way to communicate came together to watch videos in a safe basement. After the siege a screening series was born, and it grew apace, fostered by many international filmmakers. Filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron supported the first 1995 festival, delivering--at some personal peril-- a print of "The Little Princess." Mark Cousins, Angelina Jolie and others supported the cause.

French designer Agnes B., inspired by the plight of Sarajevo, designed a heart which she placed on fund-raising t-shirts. Purivatra had the insight to ask her to let him use that emblem for his festival logo--and the big prize of the fest is called "The Heart of Sarajevo." (This year's winners are listed below.)

Today the burgeoning festival draws 100,000 guests (many from neighboring Croatia, Slovenia, and Serbia) and features a competition among the Eastern European regional premieres (Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Turkey), as well as a strong Kinescope selection of festival faves. I caught up with Andrew Haigh's excellent Berlin hit "45 Years," Jeremy Saulnier's well-directed (and very violent) Sundance entry "Green Room," which A24 will release stateside, and likely Colombia Oscar submission "Embrace of the Serpent," an elegant black-and-white tale of white explorers and their mystical native guide on the Amazon.

The festival tributed Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro, and also devoted retrospectives to Armenian-Canadian auteur Atom Egoyan and Philippine late-bloomer Brillante Mendoza, who has made 16 idiosyncratic films in the last 10 years. I liked his latest film, moving verite essay "The Trap," about marginal people living in the path of coastal typhoons. "We always try to have a director with a strong combination of film language, storytelling, acting — different skills," Purivatra told me. "Someone who brings something different. Brillante is a great storyteller; very straight, with no compromises. The visual style, the film language — it’s all there. We decided to have him as talent just to show it’s not just with skill. It’s really something you have as a person. If you have to be different, be yourself. Don’t try to repeat other directors; try to find your way. I think Brillante found his way. If you watch them, all his films are different, through the phases of life. I think all of them have not only film art, but life."

Gaining by far the best reaction of the films I viewed there was Cannes Directors Fortnight entry "Mustang" (Cohen Media Group) which won the Heart of Sarajevo award as well as an acting award for the cast. Turkish actress-turned-writer-director Deniz Gamze Ergüven's debut feature tells the story of a family of five school girls who are caught frolicking innocently with boys in the surf one day and subsequently are clapped in prison inside their home, subjected to virginity tests, until they can be married off. Each time one manages to escape, the family adds higher barriers and window bars to keep them enclosed. (The film will play Toronto.)

The CICAE award went to Cannes Un Certain Regard prize-winner Dalibor Matanić's Croatia/Serbia/Slovenia film "The High Sun," which depicts the high cost of Serbo-Croat hatred in a triptych of thwarted romance, somewhat distractingly played by the same actors. You could hear a pin drop in the National Theatre as the Sarajevo audience clearly responded to these three wrenching tales of ethnic heartbreak and dissonance.

"It’s stayed in our mind," said Purivatra, whose programmers have organized a Human Rights Day at the festival for ten years; this time it was focused on immigration. "It’s only 20 years, but we are still paying the price of all these crazy things we had in ’92 and ’95. Still, we’re dealing with the past. The consequences of some decisions or reactions, the genocide and some operations where hundreds of thousands of Serbs went out of Croatia — it’s some kind of a tectonic change in the whole region. It’s demographic; it’s psychological. That’s one reason I think Dalibor is so important: he’s dealing with it in a very, very clever way."

Winning a special jury prize was debut feature director László Nemes's Cannes award-winner "Son of Saul," the official Hungarian Oscar submission, which Sony Pictures Classics will likely unveil stateside at Telluride, followed by Toronto and New York. "Son of Saul" went through the festival's 12-year-old co-production market CineLink, "the biggest co-production market in this part of Europe," said Purivatra. "I could compare it with the one in Rotterdam or Torino Lab. We are offering, every year, 15 to 18 projects from the region. Bear in mind, some of those projects are not developed in the right way. We are offering script-doctoring, budgeting, promotion, pitching. Like the Sundance lab. They’re preparing for four months the project, then they’re bringing it to the festival, and then we’re inviting the producers, TV companies. And many found developers and financiers here, like Semih Kaplanoğlu's 'Honey,' winner of the Golden Bear in Berlin, and Florin Serban's 'If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle,' the winner of the Silver Bear in Berlin."

Sarajevo is building a network, starting with their Talent in Sarajevo mission, which brings young talent from 25-30 years old to work with experienced film professionals. "Then they’re coming back and we’re offering them consultancy," said Purivatra. "They are bringing these to the CineLink markets, to find the financiers, to have even post-production...One project we launched two years ago: we are putting exhibitors and distributors from the region together, here, in Sarajevo. They have three days. We aren’t showing the film for competition, but possible acquisition titles for buyers and sales. They have an industry terrace where they’re meeting each other. Our goal is to create a platform, and now it’s up to them."

Landing a Special Jury Mention was Locarno hit "Chevalier," Athina Rachel Tsangari's feminist comedy, which could well be Greece's Oscar submission. Women did well at Sarajevo. The popular Sarajevo opening night film, Anna Muylaert's "The Second Mother," stars Brazilian Oprah Winfrey Regina Case as Val, a live-in housekeeper for a wealthy Sao Paulo family whose life is upended when her brainy daughter Jessica moves in. A likely Oscar submission from Brazil, the crowdpleaser will open in the U.S. via Oscilloscope on August 28.

Shown as a work-in-progress at Locarno last year, the film was seen by Sundance and Berlin programmers and went on to win prizes at both festivals. But the price of success weighs on Muylaert, who spoke out at Sarajevo about being a woman filmmaker in a sexist country: "This film was much more difficult for men to accept. As a successful woman, I feel like Jessica: I am sitting at a table that women are not supposed to sit; I shouldn’t cross that door; I feel they don’t know what to do with me." She added, "I have been treated like second class citizen; it's very painful to me. Even in a good position as I am today, my film is successful, even then maybe because of that, I am being treated like a dog. This is something we should be aware of in the 21st century... Maybe it's time to realize, from where does sexism come? It’s sad. It’s not time for that any more."

As popular as the festival is in Sarajevo, as throngs crowd the streets in celebratory partying every night of the ten day event, there is a sense of haves and have-nots, of glittery velvet rope revelry amid an impoverished country where, according to Salary Explorer, the average ~~annual~~ monthly salary is $881. No question, gifted patron of the arts Purivatra is on the side of the angels as the festival enhances the economy of Sarajevo and develops a stronger regional film industry. As the strapped government withdraws support from the festival as it shuts down art museums, forcing Purivatra to lean more and more on corporate sponsors for support, some of the folks on the outside looking in still view him as a very lucky man.

OFFICIAL AWARDS

COMPETITION PROGRAMME – FEATURE FILM

Jury:
President of the Jury: Călin Peter Netzer, director (Romania)

Members of the Jury:

Diana Bustamante, Artistic Director of Cartagena International Film Festival (Colombia)

Zrinka Cvitešić, Actress (Croatia, UK)

Mike Downey, Producer (UK, Ireland)

Maja Miloš, Director (Serbia)

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST FEATURE FILM

MUSTANG

Turkey, France, Germany, Qatar

Director: Deniz Gamze Ergüven

Financial Award, in the amount of 16,000 €, is provided by Council of Europe

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE

SON OF SAUL / SAUL FIA

Hungary

Director: László Nemes

Financial Award, in the amount of 10,000 €, is provided by Agnes B.

SPECIAL JURY MENTION

CHEVALIER

Greece

Director: Athina Rachel Tsangari

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST ACTRESS

Güneş Şensoy, Doga Doğuşlu, Tuğba Sunguroğlu, Elit İşcan, Ilayda Akdoğan (MUSTANG / Turkey, France, Germany, Qatar)

Financial award in the amount of 2,500 €

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST ACTOR

Yorgos Kéntros, Vangelis Mouríkis, Panos Kóronis, Makis Papadimitríou, Yorgos Pyrpassópoulos, Sakis Rouvás (CHEVALIER / Greece)

Financial award in the amount of 2,500 €

COMPETITION PROGRAMME – SHORT FILM

Jury:

Marion Döring, European Film Academy Director (Germany)

Una Gunjak, Director and film editor (UK)

Alice Kharoubi, Head of Cannes Film Festival Short Films (France)

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST SHORT FILM

A MATTER OF WILL / BISERNA OBALA

Montenegro

Director: Dušan Kasalica

SPECIAL JURY MENTION

DAMAGED GOODS / KALO

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Director: Nermin Hamzagić

SPECIAL JURY MENTION

TUESDAY / SALI

Turkey, France

Director: Ziya Demirel

COMPETITION PROGRAMME – DOCUMENTARY FILM

Jury:

Boro Kontić, Director of the Media Center in Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina)

Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, Director/writer (France, Brasil)

Anka Schmid, Filmmaker, videoartist (Switzerland)

HEART OF SARAJEVO FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM

TOTO AND HIS SISTERS / TOTO ŞI SURORILE LUI

Romania

Director: Alexander Nanau

Financial award, in the amount of 3,000 €, is provided by The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

SPECIAL JURY PRIZE FOR COMPETITION PROGRAMME DOCUMENTARY FILM

TITITÁ

Hungary

Director: Tamás Almási

Financial Award, in the amount of 2,500 €, is provided by Al Jazeera Balkans.

SPECIAL JURY MENTION

FLOTEL EUROPA

Denmark, Serbia

Director: Vladimir Tomić

HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD

ONE DAY IN SARAJEVO / JEDAN DAN U SARAJEVU

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria

Director: Jasmila Žbanić

Award for the best film of the Competition Programme - Documentary Film dealing with the subject of human rights. Award in the amount of 3,000 € is granted by The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

HONORARY HEART OF SARAJEVO

Atom Egoyan, director

Benicio Del Toro, actor

KATRIN CARTLIDGE FOUNDATION AWARD 2015

Ran Huang

YOUNG AUDIENCE AWARD

NEXT TO ME / PORED MENE

Serbia

Stevan Filipović

CINELINK AWARDS

Co-production market jury:

Behrooz Hashemian, Silkroad Production

Čedomir Kolar, ASAP Films

Georges Goldenstern, Festival Cannes

Rémi Burah, ARTE FRANCE

Annamaria Lodato, ARTE France

Darko Baseski, Macedonian Film Agency

Dorien Van de Pas, Netherlands Film Fund

EURIMAGES COPRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT AWARD

A BALLADE Aida Begić / Adis Đapo

20,000 €

ARTE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS CINELINK AWARD

HAMARAT APARTMENT Huseyin Karabey / Su Baloglu

6,000 €

MACEDONIAN FILM AGENCY CINELINK AWARD

THE SON Ines Tanović / Alem Babić

10,000 €

LIVING PICTURES SERVICE CINELINK AWARD

SOLDIERS Ivana Mladenović / Ada Solomon

in kind support up to 10,000 €

SYNCHRO FILM VIENNA CINELINK AWARD

A BALLADE Aida Begić / Adis Đapo

HAMARAT APARTMENT Huseyin Karabey / Su Baloglu

THE SON Ines Tanović / Alem Babić

in kind support up to 2,500 € each

EAVE SCHOLARSHIP

Alem Babić

WORK IN PROGRESS AWARDS

Work in Progress Jury:

Khalil Benkirane, Head of Grants, Doha Film Institute

Tanja Meissner, Head of International Sales & Acquisitions, Memento Films

Tolke Palm, The Post Republic

POST REPUBLIC AWARD

THE FIXER Adrian Sitaru / Anamaria Antoci

in kind post production services worth 50.000 €

RESTART AWARD

GODLESS Ralitza Petrova / Rossitsa Valkanova

in kind support worth 20.000 €

21st SARAJEVO FILM FESTIVAL PARTNERS AWARDS

ASSOCIATION OF FILMMAKERS IN B&H - “IVICA MATIĆ” AWARD

Mirsad Purivatra

for his contribution to B&H cinema

Zoran Galić

for his contribution to B&H cinema

CINEUROPA PRIZE

SUPERWORLD

Austria

Karl Markovics

Jury: Arben Zharku, David Gonzales

CICAE AWARD

THE HIGH SUN

Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia

Dalibor Matanić

Jury: Kevin De Ridder, Silvia Bahl

EDN TALENT GRANT

I LIKE THAT SUPER MOST THE BEST

Croatia

Eva Kraljević

SARAJEVO SHORT FILM NOMINEE FOR THE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2015

TRANSLATOR

Turkey

Emre Kayiş

Jury: Laurent Crouzeixis, Marina Kožul, Tom Shoval

Best Pack & Pitch Award (Talents Sarajevo Pack & Pitch)

The best pitch

Anda Puscas

The postproduction of sound services in the amount of 4.000 EUR provided by studio Chelia

Ismet Kurtulus

An Invitation to CineLink’s Coproduction Market

BH FILM STUDENT PROGRAMME AWARD

Best film:

VEJDA: ENCHANTED WORLD OF FAIRIES

Julia Klier (ASU Sarajevo)

Special Jury Award

IMPERATIV

Jelena Ilić Todorović (Akademija umjetnosti Banja Luka)

Special Jury Mention

WOYZECK

Adi Selimović (ASU Sarajevo)

Jury: Adis Đapo, Mirna Dizdarević, Mladen Đukić

DOCU ROUGH CUT BOUTIQUE AWARDS

Work in Progress Digital Cube Award

KORIDA

Siniša Vidović

HBO Adria Award 2,000 EUROS

KORIDA

Siniša Vidović

IDFA Award

LITTLE BERLIN WALL

Toma Chagelishvili

CAT &Docs Award 2,000 EUROS

CINEMA, MON AMOUR

Alexandru Belc

Croatian Radiotelevision Award (HRT) 2,000 EUROS

CINEMA, MON AMOUR

Alexandru Belc

European Film Industry Passes Gender Equality Declaration (UPDATED)

Inkoo Kang — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 15:02:55 GMT

Representatives from European film funds and ministries of culture passed a declaration embracing gender equality in the industry on the first day of the Sarajevo Film Festival (August 14-22).

The declaration came out of a high-level conference attended by experts from all over Europe, including the European Women’s Audiovisual Network (EWA), called "Women in Today’s Film Industry: Gender Issues. Can We Do Better?" The answer to the conference's question was an emphatic yes, with the declaration assuming the position that "a true democracy must make full use of the skills, talents and creativity of women and men alike."

The declaration also includes the following agenda for participating agencies and organizations:
--assess disparities and analyse the causes and factors leading to the marginalisation of women in the various sectors of the film industry
--encourage member states to adopt equality policies aimed at promoting women in the film industry and improving their access to public funding
--develop and apply appropriate measures for reducing inequality and improving gender balance in decision-making posts in the industry and within selection panels, institutions for education and training, juries, festivals etc., in particular by enhancing prospects for women
--enhance the visibility and recognition of female filmmakers, welcome their work and celebrate their successes, in particular by setting up a prize at a festival and organizing a season of screenings in collaboration with a relevant theatre network
--raise awareness of the status of women in film, both as regards on-screen representation and in professional terms
--encourage film-makers to be more sensitive to on-screen female representation

Isabel Castro, deputy executive director at the Eurimages film fund, told Screen Daily: “From 2000-2012, the average number of films directed by women in Europe was 16.3%, and this has not really increased in the last five years.

“In France -- the biggest producer of films in Europe -- the average is 22%. We need to explore why these figures are so low.

“Analysis shows that the proportion of women in film schools is even so they start in the profession but don’t become directors. They are made to think it is too ambitious and aren’t encouraged to become directors.

“There is also a drop when it comes to women making a second film. Things will improve when women are allowed to fail as much as men.”

Francine Raveney, EWA Director and Eurimages Project Manager, told Women and Hollywood, "This declaration is an important first step, as it gives a mandate for the Eurimages film fund to take some pro-gender-equality measures. The declaration will also be discussed at a high-level meeting involving representatives of 47 governments. It is expected that they will approve preparations for a recommendation, which would impact on how 47 countries manage their public funding for film with gender equality firmly in mind."

[via Screen Daily, Hollywood Reporter]

Sarajevo Film Fest Lineup Has Auteurs, Cannes Winners and Favorites

Ryan Lattanzio — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 18:04:10 GMT

It's mid-summer, which means European film festivals — from Karlovy Vary to Locarno and, now, Sarajevo — start to offer up alternative programming as the busy Fall season looms.

Now in its 21st year, the Sarajevo Film Festival is bringing competition premieres as well as buzzy Cannes titles to Bosnia. Those who missed Sony Pictures Classics pickup "Son of Saul," the Holocaust drama that took the Coens' Cannes jury prize and is now Hungary's Oscar submission, can see it here.

The festival runs August 14-22.

Also from Cannes are "Amy," prize winner "The Lobster," "Irrational Man," "Green Room," Quinzaine winner "Mustang," "Panama," "The High Sun" and "The Treasure," from acclaimed Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu, who helmed postmodern procedural "Police, Adjective" and more. Director Andrei Cohn will also represent Romania with "Back Home."

READ MORE: Hungary Submits "Son of Saul" to Oscars

The festival, like this year's Venice, has also made room for women directors. Athina Rachel Tsangari, one in a new wave of Greek filmmakers, will present "Chevalier" in Sarajevo after screening in competition at Locarno, which runs August 5 through 15. Her flippant comedy "Attenberg," from 2010, was a real treat.

2015 Berlinale Golden Bear winner "Taxi," from Jafar Panahi, will also play the festival's Kinoscope section. Kino Lorber acquired the film's US rights.

The 21st Sarajevo Film Festival's lifetime achievement equivalent, the Honorary Heart, will be awarded to Benicio Del Toro, who will present Fernando León de Aranoa’s "A Perfect Day." In this drama, which bowed at Cannes Directors' Fortnight, the Oscar winner plays a disenchanted aid worker in an armed conflict zone alongside Tim Robbins, Olga Kurylenko and Melanie Thierry.

Auteurs Brillante Mendoza and Atom Egoyan will receive tributes, with retrospective screenings. Herewith the competition lineup. Screen International has nicely laid out the full list of titles here.

Competition - Features

"Back Home," Andrei Cohn
"Chevalier," Athina Rachel Tsangari
"Entanglement," Tunç Davut
"The High Sun," Dalibor Matanić
"Mustang," Deniz Gamze Ergüven
"Our Everyday Life," Ines Tanović
"Panama," Pavle Vučković
"Son Of Saul," László Nemes
"Superworld," Karl Markovics
"The Treasure," Corneliu Porumboiu

Benicio Del Toro Receives Sarajevo Film Fest Honor

Ryan Lattanzio — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 16:25:15 GMT

The 21st Sarajevo Film Festival's lifetime achievement equivalent will be awarded to Benicio Del Toro, who will present Fernando León de Aranoa’s "A Perfect Day." In this drama, which bowed at Cannes Directors' Fortnight, the Oscar winner plays a disenchanted aid worker in an armed conflict zone alongside Tim Robbins, Olga Kurylenko and Melanie Thierry.

Accompanying the Honorary Heart prize, Del Toro will hold a master class at the festival for participants in its training program Talents Sarajevo, which offers a networking hub for emerging film professionals in the region.

READ MORE: Sarajevo Film Fest Plucks Cannes Titles, Including Oscar Contender 'Son of Saul' (Trailer)

Del Toro, who is in talks for a villain role in "Star Wars: Episode VIII," will be seen this Fall in another Cannes drama, Denis Villeneuve’s "Sicario" opposite Emily Blunt and Josh Brolin, which is slated for a September 18th, 2015 release by Lionsgate in the U.S.

The Honorary Heart of Sarajevo last year went to Gael Garcia Bernal, and French film producer and fashion designer Agnes B. The fest runs August 14th through the 22nd.

Sarajevo Film Fest Plucks Cannes Titles, Including Oscar Contender 'Son of Saul' (Trailer)

Ryan Lattanzio — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 16:04:35 GMT

It's mid-summer, which means European film festivals — from Karlovy Vary to Locarno and, now, Sarajevo — start to offer up alternative programming as the busy Fall season looms.

Now in its 21st year, the Sarajevo Film Festival is bringing world premieres as well as buzzy Cannes titles to Bosnia. Those who missed Sony Pictures Classics pickup "Son of Saul," the Holocaust drama that took the Coens' Cannes jury prize and is now Hungary's Oscar submission, can see it here. (Trailer below.)

READ MORE: Hungary Submits "Son of Saul" to Oscars

Also from Cannes are Quinzaine winner "Mustang," "Panama," "The High Sun" and "The Treasure," from acclaimed Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu, who helmed postmodern procedural "Police, Adjective." Director Andrei Cohn will also represent Romania with "Back Home."

The festival, like this year's Venice, has also made room for women directors. Athina Rachel Tsangari, one in a new wave of Greek filmmakers, will present "Chevalier" in Sarajevo after screening in competition at Locarno, which runs August 5 through 15. Her flippant comedy "Attenberg," from 2010, was a real treat.

Here's the Sarajevo lineup.

WORLD PREMIERES:

OUR EVERYDAY LIFE / NAŠA SVAKODNEVNA PRIČA
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, 2015, 90 min.
Director: Ines Tanović
First Feature

ENTANGLEMENT / DOLANMA
Turkey, 2015, 86 min.
Director: Tunç Davut
First Feature

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE:

BACK HOME / ACASĂ LA TATA
Romania, 2014, 91 min.
Director: Andrei Cohn
First Feature

REGIONAL PREMIERES:

CHEVALIER
Greece, 2015, 99 min.
Director: Athina Rachel Tsangari

THE HIGH SUN / ZVIZDAN
Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, 2015, 123 min.
Director: Dalibor Matanić

MUSTANG Turkey, France, Germany, Qatar, 2015, 94 min.
Director: Deniz Gamze Ergüven
First Feature

PANAMA
Serbia, 2015, 105 min.
Director: Pavle Vučković
First Feature

SON OF SAUL / SAUL FIA
Hungary, 2015, 107 min.
Director: László Nemes
First Feature

SUPERWORLD / SUPERWELT
Austria, 2015, 120 min.
Director: Karl Markovics

THE TREASURE / COMOARA
Romania, France, 2015, 89 min.
Director: Corneliu Porumboiu

LatinoBuzz: Gael Garcia Bernal is Winning Hearts in Sarajevo

Vanessa Erazo — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 18:50:29 GMT

Over the weekend, Gael Garcia Bernal was honored at the Sarajevo Film Festival. As part of the opening ceremonies that marked the launch of the 20th annual festival in the Bosnian capital, Gael was awarded the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo (and probably the hearts of lots of the ladies in the audience) on Friday night. The presentation of the heart-shaped trophy was followed by an outdoor screening of the film that launched him to international stardom, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s "Amores Perros" (2000).

Half of Sarajevo Film Fest Doc Contenders Directed by Women

Inkoo Kang — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 14:15:08 GMT

Sometimes it's necessary to travel far afield to find good news, as was the case this week when the Toronto Film Festival's first-round lineup was revealed to be only 10% directed by women.

Good news arrives from the Sarajevo Film Festival (August 15-23), then, where 10 of the 19 nonfiction films in competition are from female filmmakers. The featured documentarians hail mostly from Central and Eastern Europe.

The films deal with a variety of issues, including the status of refugees (Evaporating Borders), corruption in Communist regimes (Uncle Tony, Three Fools and the Secret Service), and the brave women of Tahrir Square (Private Revolutions - Young, Female, Egyptian).

Here is the list of women-directed docs in competition:

Ghetto 59
Ines Tanović (Bosnia and Herzegovina) [world premiere]

Naked Island
Tiha Klara Gudac (Croatia) [world premiere]

Private Revolutions – Young, Female, Egyptian
Alexandra Schneider (Austria) [world premiere]

Scandal
Elton Baxhaku, Eriona Cami (Albania) [world premiere]

Uncle Tony, Three Fools And The Secret Service
Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova (Bulgaria)

Evaporating Borders
Iva Radivojević (US-Cyprus-Greece-Serbia)

Judgement In Hungary
Eszter Hajdu (Hungary-Germany-Portugal)

Kismet
Nina Maria Paschalidou (Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Croatia, UAE)

Happily Ever After
Tatjana Božić (Croatia-Netherlands)

Stream Of Love
Ágnes Sós (Hungary)

[via Screen Daily]

5 Must See Films from the Sarajevo Film Festival

Brian Brooks — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 07:21:48 GMT

If there is anything that defines Southeastern European films, it is, on the one hand the region’s diversity, and on the other, particular facts that the countries share. Distinct cultures, customs and values – with certain similarities – mark the personality and soul of each place. But almost all the countries in the region share a recent past of tyranny, war, radical political change, significant poverty and unemployment.

The need for funds to produce films in the region is great, but even greater is the urgent need to tell stories. The films in competition at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival - all from Southeastern Europe - were compelling, with a strong presence of new talent. The filmmakers denounced the ills of their societies and explored the persistence of hope in the face of desolation and instability. The 17th edition of this festival invited audiences to appreciate the region’s distinctive points of view and narrative styles, and to discover elements of local cultures.

This list of must-see’s, most of which have already been to other festivals, is based on the Competition Program. In some films, war wounds are still in the process of healing, in others, the urgent topics vary. But, as Howard Feinstein - who has resigned effective the end of the festival after more than ten years in charge of Panorama and Tribute To sections - mentioned in his program, "There is no one overriding horror that dominates all others."

"Avé," directed by Konstantin Bojanov. Written by Konstantin Bojanov and Arnold Barkus. Cast: Anjela Nedyalkova, Ovanes Torosyan. (Bulgaria)

First time director Bojanov tells the story of Avé and Kamen, two teenagers that meet hitchhiking from Sofia to Ruse. He is on his way to a young friends' funeral, she is a runaway in search of her drug-addicted brother. While Avé's compulsive lies get them into trouble, they will face a gradual transformation. "Two mirrored stories about confronting death and love at a very young age. They are not able to rationalize it. They spontaneously react," said Bojanov, who discovered Nedyalkova - in the role of Avé - a non-professional actress who is an ideal fit for this slow-paced road movie.

This sensitive, simple film takes care of every detail, including the sound mixing and original music of veteran Tom Paul (whose projects include Born Into Brothels and U2 3D), intimate cinematography and the use of Foley artists. In a sense, Avé and Kamen don't lie; they decide to simulate a different life for themselves. In fact, everyone in this film wishes to live another life. This is especially captured by a scene of family grief, in the vein of Thomas Vinterberg's "The Celebration," which tells so much with so little.

"A Trip," written and directed by Nejc Gazvoda. Cast: Nina Rakovec, Jure Henigman, Luka Cimpric. (Slovenia)

Ziva, Andrej and Gregor are best friends since high school. Ziva is smart and sweet, always taking care of the two boys. Andrej is the gay friend —a masculine, non-stereotyped portrayal— who hates everything and doesn't care about anything but fun. Gregor is a Slovenian soldier deployed in an international war mission in the Middle East. After many years apart, they reunite for a trip to the coast, like they used to do when they were younger. The trip begins with childish fun and memories, all of them sharing their current, seemingly satisfactory life situations. But as time goes by, secrets and true problems are revealed.

"Our generation has so much to say, but they say it only between themselves, because there's a feeling that they can't do anything to change the country," said 25-year-old first-time director Gazvoda. Drawing a parallel between Slovenia's political present and the friendship between the three, everything is apparently great, but actually at risk. Speaking out and acting will change them forever, even if what they will face in the future is even worse than not acting.

"Avé" actors Anjela Nedyalkova, Ovanes Torosyan in Sarajevo. Photo by Pablo Goldbarg.

"Loverboy," directed by Catalin Mitulescu. Written by Catalin Mitulescu, Bianca Oana and Bogdan Mustata. Cast: George Pistereanu, Ada Condeescu, Ion Besoiu. (Romania)

Luca is a loverboy, an alluring 20 year-old who works with other loverboys to seduce girls. They make them fall in love before ensnaring them in a prostitution network - a difficult to dismantle reality in today’s Romania. Luca is insensitive, incapable of loving anyone or feeling interest for anything. He is in a constant rush to simply live in the moment, day-to-day, as a way to cope with an empty life. A new potential victim, Veli, will involuntarily shake his life.

"'Loverboy' just wants to feel all the time, and he is starting to get hungry about loving and settling. But when you're all the time running, it's very hard to accomplish it," said Catalin Mitulescu about his character. This film is another account of the sense of hopelessness suffered by the region’s youth, who grew up without the presence of parents because they had no choice but to work abroad. It is also a story of a raw, visceral, uncommunicative character who faces for the first time his worst fear and most urgent reality check. It isn’t going to jail, it's not even dying... it's discovering love and meaning in life, and finding that this can hurt more than anything.

"Breathing," written and directed by Karl Markovics. Cast: Thomas Schubert, Karin Lischka, Gerhard Liebmann, Georg Friedrich. (Austria)

Roman Kogler, a 19-year-old who when younger apparently killed another teen, is serving time in a juvenile detention center while waiting for parole. Because he has served half of his sentence, he is allowed to work in a job on probation. After several failed attempts, he finally finds a quite particular one in a funeral service company that picks up dead bodies. While he gradually adapts to his new job, he wonders about his past, and searches for his biological mother for the first time.

The film works like a Swiss watch - let's rather say an Austrian watch - on multiple levels. The narrative deploys three layers: growing up in an orphanage and later serving in prison, working daily with the dead, and the difficulty of reintegrating into society. Schubert’s acting is simply impeccable. "It never happened to me before, to find such a young, natural talent in a non-actor, so emotional and instinctive. From the very first casting session I knew he was special, and when we shot the first scene I knew I made the right decision," noted Markovics, longtime actor but first time director, who recently won an award in Cannes Director's Fortnight. The subtleness, the realism, the superb acting and the invisible but distinctive direction makes this film one of the most solid selections in the festival.

"The Turin Horse," directed by Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky. Written by Béla Tarr and László Krasznahorkai. Cast: János Derzsi, Erika Bók and Mihály Kormos. (Hungary)

"As a filmmaker you can't judge, or watch or say anything in a few sentences, because the totality - how are we getting the whole world, nature, animals, society - is so, so complicated..."

What else can we expect from Béla Tarr? Master of sequence shots and long takes, he was paid tribute in the festival back in 2006, and still does not tire of exploring provocation. It is 1889: according to a story, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche witnessed the whipping of a horse while traveling in Turin, Italy. This event shocked him so deeply that he was later diagnosed with a mental illness. We see in the film what happened before that event, to the horse, the horse's owner - a long suffering but sometimes delusionally optimistic peasant who works with his horse - and his daughter.

I've seen many films that purposively move slowly to make the audience feel a sense of claustrophobia or of the harshness of life; it has never been so justified before. With pristine black and white, powerful use of silence, precise, scarce dialog, and a chilling apocalyptic vision, this film - with reminiscences of Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" - condenses elements of the other regional films into one.

Yes, the film is excessively dark, but it's also an urgent call for collective reflection. One of the film’s dialogues says it all: "...the world has been debased...touch, acquire and thereby debase. It's been going on like this for centuries...sometimes gently, sometimes brutally...the sky is already theirs and all our dreams...there is neither god nor gods...there is neither good nor bad... I thought that there has never been and could never be any kind of change here on earth...but this change has indeed taken place."

Argentine Filmmaker Lucrecia Martel in Sarajevo: "Avoiding obviousness I discover other things"

Brian Brooks — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:14:27 GMT

Writer/director/producer Lucrecia Martel was born in the northern province of Salta, Argentina. After relocating to Buenos Aires, she directed a series for Argentine television and a few short films. One of them, "Dead King" (1995), won an award in the Havana Film Festival, earning her some notoriety. In 2001 Martel released her first feature film, "The Swamp," and won the Alfred Bauer award at the Berlin International Film Festival that year, and her film, along with Iñárritu's Amores Perros and Meirelles' "City of God" inaugurated a brilliant decade in new Latin American cinema.

Martel's films deal with many issues in a subtle way, with many of her main characters are women undergoing personal crisis. She portrays small towns where boredom and mediocrity reign, and also delves into class tensions. Together with "Dead King" and "The Swamp," her other two features "The Holy Girl" (2004) and "The Headless Woman" (2008) were screened in journalist Howard Feinstein's Panorama section tribute to her at the 17th Sarajevo Film Festival, which ends this weekend. indieWIRE caught up with Martel in Sarajevo to talk film, career, the "women of Lucrecia Martel" and more.

indieWIRE: Three feature films in ten years, and a tribute. Do your films improve like wine? How important is the maturing of your projects?

Lucrecia Martel: It's necessary, at least in my case. I really admire directors that make one movie a year. When I finish one it takes some time, first of all, before wanting to make another one, and second, feeling that I have something I want to share in a film. I've always been lucky to finish my films in industry standard time. What takes time is the birth of a new script ... I search for themes, I write - I go around and around.

iW: How does this tribute make you feel?

LM: This is probably my eighth "tribute to." Generally speaking, when you already have three films, then the tributes start. Since I finished "The Headless Woman," I was invited to England, Canary Islands, Brazil and other countries that did some sort of retrospective of my films. But this is a very special one - very moving - because of what happened in this city, and also because of my close relationship with Howard Feinstein.

iW: People talk about "the women of Almodóvar". Could we talk about Lucrecia's women too?

LM: I'd love to, but I haven't made so many movies to be able to establish that kind of relationship with actresses. I love actresses that I've worked with, and I'd love to work with them again, but I have never, so far, had a role for them. I don't have actor fetishes. Now, as a woman, it's much easier to think about situations starred by women, because I've lived them before, but that is the only reason I choose women for main roles.

iW: How do you go about the casting process?

LM: I may have a character in mind, but every time I see an actor in a casting session, he/she will do something special for that role. Sometimes that act enlightens you. The simple presence of that actor proposes something else, and your character already changes. The difficult part is deciding between different actors, because in doing so, you also choose the transformation that an actor brings and you want for your movie. Almodóvar once asked me if I think about actors during script development; he sometimes does, I can't. I only have a vague idea, and not one but many actors fit.

iW: Can I say that a swamp, as a symbol of outter stillness but inner movement, somehow represents all your films?

LM: I like that description. Yes, I agree.

iW: Does it happen unconsciously?

LM: Using your description, I choose topics where there is a kind of stillness or a situation with no perturbations. But as you get closer, you find perturbations, as if you were using a microscope. You see now this surface, but through a microscope, the weaving has a completely different design or pattern. Every filmmaker chooses a different path in the narrative system to approach the story. Some directors prefer to take a vast distance and see the characters like little dolls. I'd rather try to go through the weave.

iW: You are always very subtle in how you suggest what we can't see on the screen. How do you choose what you show and what you don't?

LM: The criteria change minute-by-minute. The viewer could be infinitely smarter than me, so I can't underestimate him/her. But sometimes, in the process of trying to avoid obviousness — something that bothers the audience - I generate darkness that makes it difficult to access the film. Nevertheless, in the exercise of avoiding the obviousness, I discover other things. Yes, many times my films are superficially inaccessible.

iW: What is the importance of class struggle in your stories?

LM: Naturalization of power is key in my characters’ relations. By "naturalization" I mean believing that somebody must naturally be at your service, or naturally perform some activities at home. That is horrible, it requires much reflection. It's so difficult to see it, precisely because it's naturalized. I don't make value judgments about the roles of men/women, but if, in a couple or a family, somebody takes for granted that another must be at service, I can't overlook it in the narrative construction.

Social classes in Argentina are still like castes; most of the middle class has European heritage, and most of the lower class has indigenous heritage. We can't overlook something so evident. Prisons have a majority of people of color; that fact says something about our country. With such a high level of corruption among the European middle class, prisons should have equivalent proportions. Obviously there is a naturalization of power. Certainly some people are serving others that will never be punished for the wrong things they do.

iW: What happens when a character in your movies crosses the lines of power?

LM: When somebody transgresses in a naturalized power situation, let's say underestimation or disdain, he/she produces a grand disturbance. The same happens when it's emotionally evident that an underestimated person is also taking another role. For example, in "The Swamp," there is this girl that works as a maid, but she is also the affective and logistic support for the whole family. She is not transgressing, but by observing her closely, we will find that the line established by our culture — used to determine her role — doesn't actually exist.

iW: How do your characters go through crisis or transformation?

LM: I don't feel that my characters go through an evolution, if we compare it with a classic narrative. You can build human drama in many different ways. The most classic and effective is the one in which the main character goes through misfortunes and at the end he/she learns something about him/herself. My plots work in a different way. It's very difficult for me to think in terms of transformation. I never approach the plot in that direction.

iW: Producing in Latin America: is it true that most of the films are independent films?

LM: No, it's the opposite. There is no such thing as independent film in the world. From the moment that you need one single dollar, the independence is over. When you are facing a market, independence goes to hell. You can either abuse your friends that will work for free or help you because they love you, or you try to get subsidies or prizes. It's impossible to make films without money. The concept of "independent" refers to the ideas for making a film. Stanley Kubrick made films in Hollywood, how would you categorize what he did? I think "independent film" was a concept to try to make films outside Hollywood, but if we analyze it deeper, it's nonsense. Argentina doesn't even have a Hollywood-like mega industry.

iW: Ten years ago, Amores Perros' "City of God" and "The Swamp" were released. What is the difference with today's Latin American cinema?

LM: It's amazing the amount of new directors that came up, with different narrative systems. That's very healthy: more diversity, more health. Nevertheless, I don't think the production conditions have improved. Actually, the situation in Argentina is more complicated than when I made "The Swamp." That's a pity because the vitality of cinema depends on continuity, but also on new people and new ideas.

iW: Are there any similarities between Latin American cinema and Eastern European cinema?

LM: Yes, we share difficulties. If we see the credits at the end of many films in the [Sarajevo] festival, we [Latin Americans] also depend on the same subsidies and European funds that they depend on. The lists of foundations, funds, organizations are endless in their films; the same happens with our films. It's evident that we both walk the same financing paths.

iW: There is a pattern in your locations: small town, big hell...

LM: All the stories happened in Salta, or a similar place — I actually never mentioned a city name in my films. I don't impose that, it happens naturally. I don't say, "what else could happen in Salta?" I just think around certain ideas or characters, and then the place comes up.

iW: What's next?

LM: I'm working on a hybrid with a documentary style, but structured as fiction. Also on a book adaptation, but I can't say more.

Wim Wenders to Bring Students & "Pina" to Sarajevo Film Festival

Indiewire Staff — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 11:27:09 GMT

Wim Wenders, one of the most accomplished directors of the "New German Cinema," will be a guest at the upcoming Sarajevo Film Festival, bringing along his much-discussed 3D documentary "Pina" for a special presentation.

"Pina," a feature-length glimpse at the legacy of iconic dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch, premiered earlier this year at the Berlin International Film Festival before becoming a surprise box office hit in Germany. The film will be released stateside by IFC Films.

Wenders, who is traveling with twelve of his students, will be giving lectures for aspiring filmmakers at the Sarajevo Talent Campus. The topic of discussion this year is "Our Time, My Viewpoint," which will include screenings Wenders' vast oeuvre and talks on his response to our changing times, including his surprising usage of 3D technology.

The 2011 Sarajevo Film Festival will take place July 22 - 30.

War No More: Sarajevo Fest Fetes Serbian Film

Brian Brooks — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 07:34:49 GMT

The 16th Sarajevo Film Festival wrapped up on Saturday, July 31st with a screening of Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus” with actor Morgan Freeman in attendance. Having Freeman in Bosnia was a highlight for the festival where not only did he represent the film, but took part in the Sarajevo Talent Campus and participated in a “Coffee With” interview where he noted that “Sarajevo is a town of charming people.”

After a decade and a half since the siege on Sarajevo, ethnic tensions seems to have all but disappeared in this city. Though there are still some visible reminders of the war on buildings and sidewalks, the city comes together to celebrate their love of film; the easing of the tensions can be seen in the list of award winners from the festival. For the second year in a row, The Heart of Sarajevo Award, the festival’s top prize, went to a film from Serbia. Taking the prize this year was “Tilva Rosh,” directed by Nikola Lezaic. The story of a group of teenagers who waste their summer days away by performing “Jackass”-like stunts on and off their skateboards in Bor, a small town in Serbia, that is undergoing a major capitalist change after the privatization of what was once the largest copper mine in Europe. Lead actor Marko Todorovic also walked away with the Heart of Sarajevo Award for Best Actor.

A Special Jury Award was presented to Cannes Competition title, "Tender Son – A Frankenstein Project," Kornel Mundruczo’s take on Mary Shelly’s novel. Mirela Oprisor was awarded The Best Actress prize for her role in "Tuesday After Christmas," Radu Muntean’s film about a cheating husband who makes the decision to come clean to his wife right before Christmas.

It is no surprise that Danis Tanovic’s “Cirkus Columbia” (which I wrote about in my first report) received the highest score in audience voting for Narrative Film while Robert Hernández and Geoffrey Smith’s amazing view on the Mexican penal system in “Presumed Guilty” garnered the Best Documentary Audience Award.

Rounding out the festivals other major awards, Biljana Garvanlieva’s aptly titled “The Seamstresses” was awarded Best Documentary with Robert Tomić Zuber’s “Mila Seeking Senida,” the story of a 9-month-old girl who went missing in 1992 after Serb forces invaded her village and was believed to be dead but was placed with a Serb family, winning the Human Rights Award.

In a highly emotional presentation on Monday, July 26th, The Katrin Cartlidge Foundation selected the Cine Institute of Haiti to receive its award this year, this marks the first time in the foundations 7-year history to present the award to an institution instead of an individual. Cine Institute’s mission is to educate and empower Haitian youth in order to grow local media industries. Immediately following the presentation, the festival premiered last year’s recipient Juanita Wilson’s film, “As If Not There”. The film tells the story of Samira, a young teacher, who travels to a small Bosnian village right before it is commandeered by enemy forces. It is a harrowing story of the impact of war on innocence.

Festival Highlights:

As mentioned in my previous report, the Sarajevo Film Festival’s program was a mix of previously premiered films, heavy on work that unspooled first in Berlin and Cannes, while the majority of world and international premieres were featured in the Narrative and Documentary Competitions. Outside of the competitions, screenings ran the entire gamut of films that have been garnering success on this past year’s festival circuit, including screenings of Xavier Dolan’s “Heartbeats,” Gaspar Noe’s “Enter the Void,” David Robert Mitchell’s “The Myth of the American Sleepover,” Woody Allen’s “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger,” Xiaolu Guo’s “Once Upon a Time Proletarian,” Mike Leigh’s “Another Year,” Semih Kaplanoglu’s Golden Bear-winning “Honey,” Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer,” and Juan Jose Campanella’s Oscar-winning “The Secret In Their Eyes.”

After viewing over twenty films at the festival (and also having seen some of the films at previous festivals), there are five films that deserve special mention. They are:

“Bibliotheque Pascal” (Hungary) – After winning the top prize at this year’s Hungarian Film Week and screening in Berlin, this dreamlike film is slowly making its festival rounds. A Hungarian/Romanian woman decides to accompany her father (who has just reappeared in her life after years of being absent) on a trip to Germany, leaving her small child in the care of her aunt. She is then sold into the UK sex trade and finds herself in a bizarre brothel where the prostitutes are forced to act out scenes from some of the greatest literary works.

“It’s Your Fault” (Argentina) – When a mother needs to take one of her sons to the emergency room after rough housing a little too much with his brother, she finds herself being accused of child abuse. Since Anahi Bernari succeeds in creating an amazing amount of tension in what seems to be real time, you end up finding yourself still surprised at every revelation.

“On the Path” (Bosnia and Herzegovina) – Yet another film that screened in Berlin, Jasmila Zbanic’s follow up to the award winning “Grabavica” displays the collapse of what seems to be a loving relationship after a brush with fundamentalist Islam. Luna and Amar seem to be doing well until Amar is fired for drinking on the job. After a chance run in with an old army buddy, he is invited into a secluded community of extremists and tries to lure Luna in. The story is a tale of contemporary Bosnia where cultures continue to clash.

“Paradise Hotel” (Bulgaria) – Documentary about a grand communist social experiment, where a mix of Roma and non-Roma families were moved into a large tower block in order to "be socialized." It didn’t take long for the non-Romas to move out and more Roma to move in. Soon there were no windows, doors, electricity or gas. Over 1500 people still live in the Paradise Hotel, and they all have dreams to bring it back to its previous glory, or at least bring back running water.

“Tilva Rosh” (Serbia) – What might be the most refreshing thing about this film is the fact that it’s a Balkan film with no mention of the war, but instead shows what life is like in modern-day Serbia. Almost imitating many American “disaffected youth” films, “Tilva Rosh” focuses on two teenagers, Toda and Stefan, as they waste away the summer after completing high school. They live in Bor, which is the site of what used to be the largest copper mine in Europe, but due to privatization, it is now just a giant hole in the Earth, which leads to growing protests against the corporation. After Toda gets hurt in a fight, he finds out that since he is no longer a student, he must apply for insurance leaving him in a vicious circle of bureaucracy.

Full List of Award Winners at the 16th Sarajevo Film Festival:

The Heart of Sarajevo Award for Best Film: "Tilva Rosh"
Director Nikola Lezaic – Serbia

Special Jury Award: "Tender Son – The Frankenstein Project"
Director Kornel Mundruczo – The Netherlands, Germany, Austria

The Heart of Sarajevo Award for Best Actress: "Mirela Oprisor"
Tuesday, After Christmas (Romania)

The Heart of Sarajevo Award for Best Actor: Marko Todorović
"Tilva Rosh" (Serbia)

The Heart of Sarajevo Award for Best Short Film: "Yellow Moon"
Director: Zvonimir Jurić – Croatia

Special Jury Mentions for Short Films: "No Sleep Won’t Kill You"
Director: Marko Meštrović – Croatia

"Stanka Goes Home"
Director: Maya Vitkova – Bulgaria

The Heart of Sarajevo Award for Best Documentary Film: "The Seamstresses"
Director: Biljana Garvanlieva – Macedonia, Germany

Human Rights Award: "Mila Seeking Senida"
Director: Robert Tomić Zuber – Croatia

Heart of Sarajevo Honorary Award: Dieter Kosslick
Director of the Berlin International Film Festival

CICAE Award: "Bibliotheque Pascal"
Director: Szabolcs Hajdu – Hungary, Germany, Romania, Great Britain

Cineuropa Award: "Bibliotheque Pascal"
Director: Szabolcs Hajdu – Hungary, Germany, Romania, Great Britain

Dispatch from Sarajevo: A Festival Redefining Conflict Resolution

Brian Brooks — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:10:40 GMT

The city of Sarajevo is no stranger to conflict. In order to avoid a potential conflict of its own this year, the Sarajevo Film Festival moved its August dates to July to avoid the early start of Ramadan. In this first of two reports from the 2010 Sarajevo Film Festival, I will concentrate on the idea of conflict and what it means to the programming of this festival. The second will focus on specific premieres and other films that will likely be making their rounds on the fall festival circuit.

Now in its 16th year, the Sarajevo Film Festival has both wrestled with and embraced conflict since its infancy. The festival that was launched while the war in Bosnia was still being waged, began as a conduit for conflict resolution. Over the years the festival has grown into more than just a showcase of films. With programs like the CineLink and the Sarajevo Talent Campus, the festival aims to be placed among the likes of Rotterdam and Berlin as a festival that not only presents film but also nurtures the growth of young filmmakers yearning for their stories to be told, which is especially important for the Balkan region. Also important to this region, the festival's two main competitions focus specifically on regional films, though there are several other sections that branch out across the entire spectrum of filmmaking.

The festival opened on Friday, July 23rd with the World Premiere of Danis Tanovic's "Cirkus Columbia." Though the film touches on the conflict that was featured in Tanovic's Academy Award winning film "No Man's Land," "Cirkus "is unlikely to gain the same amount of notoriety. The audience response to the film, however, proved that "Cirkus" was an appropriate selection for opening night. The film transports the viewer to a small village in South Herzegovina during time when communist rule was ending and the rumblings of war were beginning to spread.

Tanovic creates characters that are caricatures of the ones that audiences have come to know in many films from the Balkans that cover this moment in time. Tanovic's characters: a man who returns to the village after years of making money in Germany; his new wife (even though his divorce is not final) who dreams of moving to America; his previous dutiful wife who has waited in vein for his return; and their disturbed son who finds himself in the middle of a Serb who has become something of a father figure to him and friends who begin to embrace their nationalist cause, never quite meld in a satisfying way. Therefore, the film runs the chance of leaving a non-Balkan audience feeling empty because of the overuse of stereotypes. The film will have more opportunities to win potential buyers over in Venice and Toronto, but it looks like it will stay on the festival circuit.

One of the ways that the Sarajevo Film Festival has embraced conflict is through its programming choices. This is especially evident in the Panorama section and its Tribute To Program, that are selected by Howard Feinstein. This year, the Tribute To Program fully embraces conflict by honoring the indefinable French artist, Bruno Dumont. Anyone who is familiar with Dumont's oeuvre can agree that he does not shy away from potential conflicts within his films, he relishes in them.

By taking a unique philosophical approach to religion, love, violence and sexuality, Dumont creates worlds that on the surface are inconceivable, but he unflinchingly exposes the true nature of humanity hidden below in all of its raw glory, in what Feinstein describes as "the New French Deliberateness." Throughout his carreer, Dumont's work has been compared to the work of Bergman, Rossellini, and Bresson, among others, though Dumont claims that while he has been inspired by other directors, one must kill those influences to create original art, in the way a child must kill their parents to become an adult... That statement, is in essence what Dumont and his work is.

Outside the festival headquarters near Sarajevo's old town. Photo by Bill Guentzler.

Just about every film in Panorama, the festival's largest section, can be described with the word 'conflict.' This year, Panorama is following the Berlinale's model, mixing narrative and documentary underneath one umbrella. Whether the conflict is centered inside a military tank in Samuel Maoz's "Lebanon" or within the family featured in Lixin Fan's "Last Train Home," the conflicts are resolved slowly and deliberately, if at all.

Panorama this year features some of the most talked about and critically acclaimed films from the past year's festival circuit. Apichatpong Weerasethakul's winner of this year's Cannes Palm d'Or, "Uncle Boonmee Who can Recall His Past Lives," shares space within the program with Laura Poitras' "The Oath" and Geoffrey Smith and Roberto Hernandez's "Presumed Guilty," along with Alexei Popogrebsky's "How I Ended This Summer" and Panorama's Opening Night feature, Hans Petter Moland's "A Somewhat Gentle Man." This year's Sarajevo Panorama reflects the conflicts that this city has faced in the past by presenting some very personal stories that cross all boundaries.

The New Currents section effectively covers the conflict of what is new and innovative cinema. By featuring first and second features of some groundbreaking filmmakers such as Jesper Ganslandt's "The Ape" and Sergei Loznitza's "My Joy." Both of these films are conflicts within themselves, making the viewer question both the narrative style and film itself.

Though most of the films I have mentioned have been on the circuit for months now, and may be considered "old news," it is the combination of these films that makes the Sarajevo Film Festival the festival I have described. This absolutely can be said about any festival, whether it is film or another art form, but when seen through the context of conflict, these films give the city of Sarajevo its sense of place in the world, a city with a long history of being the center of conflicts, and a city that is able to pick itself up, dust itself off and show the rest of the world how conflicts can be resolved, and in the case of the festival, inside a theater.

[Bill Guentzler is the Artistic Director of the Cleveland International Film Festival]

Sarajevo Standouts: Ordinary and Not So Ordinary People

Peter Knegt — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:42:36 GMT

The Sarajevo Film Festival closed out its 15th anniversary edition last night honoring films recognizing both everyday and out-there subjects, with Serbian films doing especially well. Offering a realist view of both the drudgery and soul-killing aspects of war, Vladimir Perisic's carefully composed Serbian drama, "Ordinary People," charting the course of one day in the life of a young Serbian soldier, won the festival's "Heart of Sarajevo" awards for Best Film and for Best Actor for understated yet powerful lead Relja Popovic. In pointed contrast to that film's starkness, Yorgos Lanthimos' absurdist look at the lives of a family raised in deliberate and peculiar isolation from society, "Dogtooth," from Greece, took home awards for Best Actress for cinematic sisters Angeliki Papoulia and Mary Tsoni, as well as a Special Jury Prize. Best Documentary went to Dragan Nikolic's "The Caviar Connection," focused on two Serbian fishermen brothers stuck in a small village, while fellow Serbian Marko Mamuzic's "Heated Blood" was awarded the Human Rights Award for its focus on the threat posed by right-wing nationalist anti-gay, anti-Jewish hate groups.

It's not surprising that winners should include films focused on war or hate - while the city of Sarajevo survived a 1992-1996 siege, reminders are ever-present in the bullet holes marring building facades, the occasional remnants of a mortar blast on the sidewalk, and the graveyards dotting the hillside. Other countries in the Balkans, of course, faced similar upheaval, and many filmmakers from the region are still attempting to reconcile this troubled history through their work.

At the same time, the festival's programming aims not only to expose regional cinema and its sometimes preoccupation with ethnic and religiously motivated violence, but also to bring a wide range of work from all around the world to an appreciative audience. Sarajevo was bookended with "Tales of the Golden Age" and "The Wrestler," and in-between screened numerous films that made similar waves at other major festivals, including "The White Ribbon," "Antichrist," "Fish Tank," "Mammoth," "Sin Nombre," "The Maid," "In the Loop," "Broken Embraces," "Bronson," "Goodbye Solo," "Recycle," "Food Inc," and "Cooking History," among others.

Emerging talent from the region is also cultivated through the Sarajevo Talent Campus, modeled after the successful Berlin Talent Campus at the Berlinale. Young writers, directors, producers, and actors experience the festival through a program of special workshops and lectures with established professionals speaking about their craft - such as Stellan Skarsgard, Jim Sheridan, Lukas Moodysson, and Gillian Anderson. Skarsgard did double duty at Sarajevo, also serving as the guest curator for the Katrin Cartlidge Foundation, established to honor his co-star from "Breaking the Waves" after her untimely death. In this capacity, the actor announced the Foundation's grant recipient, Irish writer/director Juanita Wilson, represented by her short film "The Door."

A scene from Vladimir Perisic's 'Ordinary People.' Image courtesy of the Sarajevo Film Festival.

Sarajevo Standouts:

While I watched many regional films, I also took the opportunity to catch up on some titles I previously missed. Among the standouts:

"Dogtooth" It's not surprising that the jury recognized Lanthimos' impressive feature, which debuted at Cannes and takes a completely twisted premise to a satisfying, blackly comic extreme. For reasons left unclear, a couple have raised their children, now past adolescence, under a total house arrest, and keeping their knowledge of any concepts connected to the outside world carefully controlled and bizarrely mediated. When an outsider, brought in to service the sexual needs of their son, opens a window into life outside their gated property, curiosity is piqued and their safe reality is threatened.

"I Killed My Mother" This Cannes Director's Fortnight award winner also focuses on a family, specifically a gay teen and his single mother, both prone to driving each other crazy as they navigate their ever-contentious relationship, adolescence, and parenthood. Much has been said about debut writer/director/actor Xavier Dolan's age; the 20-year-old impresses with believable, flawed characters, artful shot compositions, and a deliberate handling of mood and tone.

"Daniel & Ana" Another Cannes entry, writer/director Michel Franco's debut, based on a true story, also mines the realm of the family - the relationship between the titular siblings, portrayed by Dario Yazbek Bernal and Marimar Vega. After being subjected to a harrowing abduction and forced to have sex on camera, neither is able to reclaim the normalcy they took for granted in their privileged, affluent family. Franco eschews melodrama for an at times devastating psychological portrait of grief and vulnerability, expertly realized by its impressive leads.

"Ordinary People" Perisic's jury winner is as notable for its long stretches of silence and inaction as it is for the regular punctuations of matter of fact violence its young lead is forced to mete out to prisoner after prisoner. Following Popovic's Dzoni from the time he and his troop awake, through their deployment to an abandoned farm, the execution of their mission, and the end to a long day, the audience becomes witness to, and complicit with, the job of a soldier.

"Police, Adjective" Romanian cinema's impact on contemporary world cinema continues with Corneliu Porumboiu's unique take on a police procedural. While the film perhaps overdoes it in pressing the tedium (and moral ambivalence) of Cristi's stakeout of a suspected drug dealer, the bravura final scenes display an inpriring mastery of timing, humor, and performance, as the policeman's superior literally schools him in his job.

"Slovenian Girl" Director Damjan Kozole's story of a university student finding her life spiraling out of control when her hidden career as a call girl threatens to be exposed features the breathtaking debut of new talent Nina Ivanisin in the title role. Appearing in virtually every scene, she brings a raw energy to the role that simultaneously portrays strength and vulnerability, pragmatism and hope, marking an actress to keep an eye on.

"Heated Blood" Offering a chilling account of the growing influence of extreme right wing hate-motivated groups on public opinion in Serbia, Marko Mamuzic's documentary blends harrowing footage of violent propaganda and riots and interviews with both the victims of violence and its perpetrators, only too eager to espouse their short-sighted, fear-mongering ideologies targeting anyone they view as non-Serbian. Even more frightening - the religious leaders and politicians who tacitly or explicitly endorse their actions.

"On the Way To School" Directors Orhan Eskikoey and Oezguer Dogan achieve a remarkable level of trust with the inhabitants of a remote Kurdish village, and with the naive Turkish teacher who has been sent to teach their children, in this verite documentary. Expertly utilizing sly humor and irony, they expose a government practice that attempts to assimilate through the dissolution of the Kurds' native language.

"Cash & Marry" Atanas Georgiev also uses humor to explore a serious issue in his documentary - the difficulties facing illegal Eastern European immigrants in obtaining legal documents in increasingly xenophobic Austria. Facing imminent deportation, Atanas turns to his friend Marko for help in finding an Austrian citizen who will help him by marrying him. While the film becomes a comedy of errors and red tape, with Marko especially emerging as an unforgettable and lovable character, at its heart it reveals a serious, deep divide based on socioeconomic, national, and regional differences.

[Basil Tsiokos is Programming Associate, Documentary Features for the Sundance Film Festival.]

-for a complete list of winners at the Sarajevo Film Festival, go to page 2-

Winners of the 15th Sarajevo Film Festival:

Heart of Sarajevo for Best Film:
Ordinary People
Director: Vladimir Perii Serbia, France, Switzerland

The Special Jury Award:
Dogtooth
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos Greece

Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actress:
Anggeliki Papoulia and Mary Tsoni
Dogtooth

Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actor:
Relja Popovi
Ordinary People
RELJA POPOVI ORDINARY PEOPLE Serbia, France, Switzerland

Heart of Sarajevo for Best Short Film:
Party
Director: Dalibor Matani Croatia

Special Jury Mentions for Short Films:
Ciao Mama
Director: Goran Odvori Croatia

The History of Aviation
Director: Balint Kenyeres Hungary, France

Heart of Sarajevo for Best Documentary Film:
The Caviar Connection
Director: Dragan Nikoli Serbia

Special mention:
Constantin and Elena
Director: Andrei Dascalescu Romania

Human Rights Award:
Heated Blood
Director: Marko Mamuzi Serbia

Sarajevo Celebrates Zhang-ke, Barendrecht; Takes On Queer Controversies

Peter Knegt — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 06:40:06 GMT

In marking its 15th anniversary with this year's edition, the Sarajevo Film Festival has long ago realized its first year promise to offer a cultural refuge to what was then a city still under a siege by Serbian forces that had been going on since 1992. Since that founding in 1995, the festival has become the premier cinema event in the Balkans, regularly spotlighting note-worthy international and regional films and, since 2007, hosting the Sarajevo Talent Campus, modeled after the Berlinale's successful program, to provide mentoring for emerging film talent from the region.

In this first of two reports from the 2009 Sarajevo Film Festival, I look at two special tributes and one controversial panel taking place as part of the event. The second report at the end of the festival will take a closer look at the film line up.

Tribute to Jia Zhang-Ke

Jia Zhang-ke, the Chinese director of the 2008 Sarajevo Film Festival's Panorama section opening film, "24 City," was so taken by the city and the festival that he returned once again this year for a retrospective of his work, organized by programmer Howard Feinstein. The 16 film series includes a re-presentation of "24 City," along with other documentaries, narratives, and shorts that have garnered international critical acclaim.

At an intimate dinner in his honor on Saturday evening, taking place at a hillside restaurant with a stunning panoramic view of the city below, Jia and his actress muse, Tao Zhao, were feted by Feinstein and a select group of attending filmmakers, industry, and press, including local director Jasmila, Zbanic (whose "Grbavica" won the Golden Bear at the 2006 Berlinale), visiting Mexican director Michel Franco ("Daniel & Ana"), Diane Weyermann (Participant Media), and Michael Werner (Fortissimo Films). The assembled watched as a bemused Jia was serenaded with "Happy Birthday" by the restaurant's staff, who mistook a cake presented to the director honoring his attendance as a birthday cake.

The following day, the festival presented an official reception for Jia, hosted by Festival Director Mirsad Purivatra and Programmer Howard Feinstein. The director expressed his thanks to the festival for hosting his first ever full career retrospective, humbly saying, "I still think of myself as a beginning filmmaker," and enjoying the opportunity to revisit his earlier work with the Sarajevo audience.

Celebration of Wouter Barendrecht

Sunday evening also saw another tribute take place - this one preceding an open air screening of first-time director Michel Franco's "Daniel & Ana." The film, represented by Fortissimo Films, provided the opportunity for the festival to honor long time festival friend and partner, Wouter Barendrecht, who passed away suddenly this April. In a special presentation before the screening began, Purivatra, Feinstein, Screen International's Mike Goodridge, and Wouter's partner at Fortissimo, Michael Werner, all spoke eloquently about how much Wouter meant to festivals like Sarajevo. Feinstein told the audience, "Most of you never met Wouter, but his generosity affected all of you - he went out of his way to make films available and affordable to Sarajevo in a way that most other distributors wouldn't have for a festival of this size." Werner, who has participated in many tributes for his friend and partner in the past four months, acknowledged that he was still emotional speaking about Wouter. Thanking the festival and the audience, he noted, "Wouter came from the world of film festivals and would have loved to see all of you here." Following the speeches, the audience was asked to hold lit candles aloft as the screen presented a slideshow honoring Wouter, with "Thank You For Being A Friend" as the soundtrack (the Andrew Gold original, not "The Golden Girls" version, though that would have been appropriate too).

Howard Feinstein, Svetlana Durkovic, Mike Goodridge, Danis Tanovic, Basil Tsiokos and Michael Werner at a panel entitled "Gays in Long Shot and Close-up: Adding Insult to Injury" at the Sarajevo Film Festival. Photo by Bill Guentzler.

There Are [No] Gays in Sarajevo?

On Monday evening, I took part in a first-of-its-kind (for Sarajevo) panel entitled "Gays in Long Shot and Close-up: Adding Insult to Injury." Inspired by the controversy and violence that erupted after Organization Q attempted to hold the first Sarajevo Queer Film Festival nearly a year ago, in September 2008, Programmer Howard Feinstein pushed the initially resistant Sarajevo Film Festival to include a panel discussion about LGBT representation and the story of the Queer Festival.

Moderated by Feinstein, the other panelists included Svetlana Durkovic (Organization Q/Sarajevo Queer Film Festival), Danis Tanovic (Oscar-winning director of "No Man's Land" and founder of progressive political party Our Party), Mike Goodridge, and Michael Werner. The program began with screenings of two short films addressing LGBT life in Russia ("In the Theme") and in 1980s NYC ("Second Guessing Grandma"), as well as a clip from a documentary about the Sarajevo Queer Film Festival controversy. After the first film screened with only the first of double lines of subtitles visible, Feinstein brought some levity to the event by quipping that it was "good for tops, bad for bottoms," eliciting laughs from the surprisingly knowing audience.

Panelists then began a wide-ranging discussion of a number of issues related to LGBT visibility, politics, and media representation, in the Baltics and beyond. Durkovic provided extensive information about the difficulties facing her organization, including news that the festival may largely consist of an online component so as to protect participants from violence while simultaneously getting their ideas out to a wider audience. The well-respected Tanovic, who, like many other progressive straights in September, lent his support to Organization Q, spoke of his disgust at the rhetoric of political leaders who denounced the event and essentially condoned the violence committed against the LGBT community. For my part, I related the similar resistance faced by the Side By Side festival in St Petersburg, Russia. Goodridge was asked to relate the controversy over Proposition 8 in California, illustrating that homophobia is still widespread, while Werner discussed the relatively quick opening up of the formerly restrictive Taiwanese society in regards to LGBT issues.

When the discussion moved on to a consideration of LGBT representation and politics in mainstream Hollywood films, Tanovic's producer, Cedomir Kolar, from the audience urged the panelists to refocus on the situation in the Balkans, and, unsurprisingly, audience questions focused a great deal on matters closer to home. Kolar played the devil's advocate, offering that in many ways, the situation of LGBT people during Soviet times was safer (if not necessarily "better"), likening it to the US military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, and suggesting that Durkovic and her colleagues showed great courage in demanding visibility - under Communism, he said, LGBT officially didn't exist, but unofficially many were "out" to their close friends and relatives. They didn't push for public visibility, and thus were largely left alone to live their lives in peace. But for Western Europeans and Americans in the room, of course, that very visibility is the point, and is why the work of the beleaguered Durkovic is so important - attempting to use media to unite and organize a minority. It's to the Sarajevo Film Festival's credit, and especially to Feinstein's, that they provided a (incidentally well-attended and sympathetic) public forum to address these issues and to continue a dialogue.

[Basil Tsiokos is Programming Associate, Documentary Features for the Sundance Film Festival.]