fm4v2.ORF.at / Summer Comes in February


	Sarajevo \| 19.2.2004 \| 21:11 Ups and downs of life in Sarajevo.	Rotifer, Hedi, Janis

Bosnian movie-prodigys


	Winners of the 33rd International Film Festival Rotterdam. Srdjan Vuletic (middle) high up with Tiger Award

Summer in the Golden Valley

Good news!

A film by young Sarajevo director Srdjan Vuletic "Summer in the Golden Valley" is the winner of the 33rd International Film Festival in Rotterdam.

More good news!

The jury of young European film makers at the Rotterdam Film Festival chose "Summer in the Golden Valley" as their pick for prestigious MovieZone Award.

In this host area I already wrote about the film (click here for more) as my favorite of Sarajevo Film Festival 2003, but this news comes just great since it promotes Vuletic as the new generation of successful Bosnian (and European) film makers. He has already won an impressive award collection with his short movies, but "Summer..." as his (golden) feature film debut opens new horizons of his creativity.

Srdjan Vuletic (born 1971) is definitely the man with a strong feel of Sarajevo streets. As he wrote the screenplay for this movie himself, he made the full use of his hard grip with Sarajevo concrete becoming a sort of the spokesman for his generation:

"I am part of a generation of sons whose fathers left them nothing but a legacy of destroyed cities, fallen principles and the chaos of a broken society. Generations of sons have become hostages of bad decisions made in the past.

This film is about the moment when we, the sons, must decide whether to correct our fathers' mistakes or simply tell them to fuck off. My choice is the latter.", claimed Vuletic about the background of the film, the motive of his work, but also about the generation gap in the Bosnian society in a whole.

Thinking seriously about that, one can only agree with it.


	The flight over Sarajevo golden valley


	Kemal Cebo and Haris Sijaric : a more than successful film debut

Bosnian Film School

Another fresh Bosnian film "Gori vatra" (aka "Fuse") by Pjer Zalica, the overall winner of Sarajevo Film Festival 2003, recently won the Silver Leopard at the Locarno Film Fest.

Less than a year ago the triumph of Bosnian film was absolute when Danis Tanovic won the Oscars award for his feature film debut "No Man's Land", a movie that earlier collected Berlin and Cannes trophies.

The list of success goes on with "Perfect Circle" (1997), "Kuduz" (1989) and fantastic "What Little Soul There Is" (1986) all 3 by Ademir Kenovic, Dino Mustafic's "Remake" and two cult films by Emir Kusturica "Father's on a Business Trip" (1985) and magnificent debut "Do You Remember Dolly Bell?" (1981). It's important to mention that the screenplays for last 3 mentioned was written by Abdulah Sidran.

Short films "10 minutes" (by Ahmed Imamovic), "First Death Experience" (by Aida Begic), "Hop, Skip & Jump" (Srdjan Vuletic again) and my personal favorite "Do You remember Sarajevo?" (by Kresevljakovic brothers and Nedim Alikadic) all made significant international success.


	...and the Oscar goes to Danis Tanovic - "No Mans Land" - Bosnia and Herzegovina


	"Gori vatra" (Fuse): Satiric story of President Clinton's visit to Bosnian town of Tesanj

100% success

Sad but true: the fact that there is no single professional film camera existing in the whole Bosnia and Herzegovina sounds almost unreal in this context.

At the same time, too real is that the public funds for the cinematography are microscopic or, until last year, non-existing. That is a reason why in the titles of Bosnian films you can find country names as France, Slovenia, Belgium, Spain, etc. since producers (money) from those countries financed the films.

Still, literally all movies made in Bosnia get the highest awards and recognition at the international festivals. Without making a big mistake one can claim that in the past years Bosnian movies make the cutting edge of recent film production and have significant place in international cinematography.

So, how come a small, troubled and undeveloped (to avoid the term: "poor") country as Bosnia and Herzegovina has so much success in film making?

The combination of a unique approach to life, hard work, talent of the authors and gigantic life experiences of the whole Bosnian society is only a part of the answer. The rest is ... magic.

"(A)torsion" Goes for Oscars

And, finally, another good news comes for Bosnian filmmakers. Namely, the above mentioned, celebrated Sarajevo writer, poet and intellectual Abdulah Sidran.

A short film "(A)torsion" by Stefan Arsenijevic (Belgrade) based on a script by Abdulah Sidran has been nominated for this year's Academy Award in the Best short film category.

"(A)torsion" produced and filmed in Slovenia, tells a story about the one day of Sarajevo Tunnel - gutter secretly dug under Sarajevo Airport runway - city's wartime lifeline and the only way out of siege of Sarajevo during the aggression on Bosnia.

The film has already collected the European Film Academy Award and "Golden Bear" at the Berlin Film Festival.


	Abdulah Sidran


	(A)torzija: wartime events at Sarajevo secret tunnel



	Read more about Bosnian cinematography: Short History of Bosnian Film by Bosnian Institute


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