Home-Grown Glamour

This year’s Sarajevo Film Festival focuses on regional stars as Bosnia prepares its film industry for international success. by Jen Tracy and Anes Alic 5 September 2003 SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina--The organizers of the 9th Sarajevo Film Festival were not interested in Hollywood’s glamour, glitter, and stiff protocol. If there was going to be any celebrity worship this year, it was going to be home-grown in Southeastern Europe. They rolled out the red carpet for regional stars, leaving Hollywood on the sidelines, for their most successful festival yet.

This year’s film festival boasted 100,000 visitors, 25,000 more than last year, and 162 films from 44 countries. Some 277 journalists from 25 countries showed up to cover the event that set out to send a clear message to the world of film: get ready to see more of the Balkans on the international big screen.

The festival’s Regional Program, which organizers have been working to iron out for five years, was what made this year’s festival a cut above the rest. The program boasted all premier feature films from the region, including three from Slovenia, two from Croatia, two from Bosnia, and one each from Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania. And the prizes awarded at the festival’s closing ceremony on 23 August--accompanied by checks for 2,000 to 15,000 euros--meant a certain future for regional filmmakers.

The fact that all of the 17 films in this year’s Regional Program were either world, international, or regional premiers, said SFF selector Elma Tataragic, “is something few festivals can claim.”

The thousands who managed to get their hands on a ticket for the festival’s opening night, 15 August, were not disappointed with the local premier of Gori vatra (Fuse, also translated as Fire), by Bosnian director Pjer Zalica.

Fuse is a tragicomedy that takes place in a small town near the border with the Bosnian Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity in 1998. The town’s simple-minded characters, led by the mayor and police chief--who moonlights with petty criminals operating a small-time prostitution and smuggling ring--are desperately trying to clean up the town and build a quick democracy in preparation for a visit from Bill Clinton.

The awards for Best Regional Film, Best Director, Best Cameraman, and Best Debut Film all went to Fuse, along with a total of 19,500 euros. The world premiere of Fuse was on 16 August at Switzerland’s Locarno festival, where it took home the Silver Leopard award and 30,000 Swiss francs.

Fuse is Bosnian cinematography’s latest, greatest success story, said Nedzad Begovic, screenwriter, director and member of the board of directors of the Association of Bosnian Filmmakers. “The film has great international potential and is further proof that Bosnia has serious and talented directors and actors,” he said.

Bosnia’s Ljeto u zlatnoj dolini (Summer in the Golden Valley), by debut director Srdjan Vuletic, was also a crowd pleaser, offering audiences a reprieve from war themes with a dramatic story of life in present-day Bosnia. The film was anything but cliché, replacing traditional folk music and thugs with a destroyed city ruled by hip-hopers with a weakness for narcotics.

Despite the fact that Summer in the Golden Valley failed to win any of the festival’s awards, a disappointed Vuletic told SFF reporters that he hopes the film will become a cult classic in Bosnia. “I am expecting a confirmation of that, and I believe that kids will know the dialogues by heart. Now we have a different city with different people.”

The premier of Serbia’s Mali svet (Small World) was an award-winning refresher for audiences fed up with gloomy stories of post-communist transition. The cast of characters includes a suicidal doctor, two wayward policemen, one criminal suspect, his loving wife, and an unborn boy, whose paths eventually cross in this fast-paced comedy about fate.

“I didn't want to make a good film. I wanted it to be the way I would like to see it. When I was writing the script, it was without intentions; I was writing thinking the film is not going to be shot. I hope this is a small turning point in SCG cinematography,” director Milos Radovic told SFF reporters.

Serbia’s Mali svet and Slovenia’s Tu (Here) won the Special Jury Award, for 5,000 euros each.

PLAYING WITH THE BIG BOYS

Compared to two years ago, today’s regional films are of a much better quality, said Tataragic.

“Everyone is slowly beginning to find their place within the scope of small and independent production. Bosnia and Herzegovina is perhaps the best example of these changes. There were only three feature films produced between 1992 and 2001, while this year alone we have three new films, and debut feature films at that,” she said.

But the region’s film industry has many obstacles to overcome before it can be considered a major player internationally, including lack of funding challenges with distribution and international promotion, said Tataragic, who believes that the SFF’s Regional Program will help eliminate some of those problems.

“The Sarajevo Film Festival decided, through the Regional Program, to turn Sarajevo into the number one place for all filmmakers of the region, a place from which their films would begin their journey. We want to pay respect to the films of this region, films that are made under extremely difficult conditions,” Tataragic said.

The success of regional films, said SFF Director Mirsad Purivatra, has always been short-lived--something the Regional Program hopes to change. “The program has presented a multitude of good films whose ‘careers’ usually ended after a few projections at small or larger international festivals…,” he said in his opening statement published in the festival catalogue.

Purivatra said that this year’s decision to present only premier films gave the Regional Program “a seriousness and weight, and it immediately attracted the attention of professionals”—not to mention generous sponsors.

“No one is going to come to Sarajevo to see a Hollywood hit. … We are creating an atmosphere for people involved in film in this region, by giving them a place for meeting and making contacts with producers,” Purivatra said in a 14 August interview with the weekly Dani.

The next step, said the SFF director, is to build up Sarajevo’s film industry and cinema infrastructure by forming a regional team to boost international promotion and distribution, and hopefully, build a multiplex cinema.
According to Begovic, when No Man’s Land by Bosnian director Danis Tanovic, won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film last year, it was a serious boost for the local and regional film industries.

“It was a great success, especially for Bosnia’s directors,” Begovic said. “Winning an Oscar forced politicians to take Bosnia’s filmmakers more seriously and has been a factor in getting more government funding for the film industry.”

According to Begovic, it has been successes, such as Tanovic’s, that led to the establishment of the Foundation for Cinematography, which had a budget last year of around $750,000. Though Begovic admitted that the entire budget is not enough to produce even a quarter of a feature film, it is a good start.

“If producers already have some funding in their hands, they can approach international investors and be taken more seriously,” Begovic said.

WARRING THEMES

Though some film critics in both Bosnia and Serbia have accused local filmmakers of using the war as a catapult to international success--thus, making it difficult for movies with other themes to gain recognition--others believe that Bosnia’s success in marketing war-related themes is neither forced, nor a hindrance to the industry.

Begovic says that war themes are necessarily part and parcel of the film industry.

“War themes are natural for Bosnia. It’s Sarajevo’s advantage in the film industry—its inspiration. Hemingway was in the Spanish Civil War, so he could write about it. You do what you know best. A time will come, though, when new generations cease to find films about the war interesting and then the themes will have to change, naturally,” Begovic said.

And signs that themes are already beginning to change were evident at this year’s festival. Gori vatra went one step in that direction with a post-war theme of the struggle to keep the peace and build democracy. Summer in the Golden Valley went much further, ignoring the war altogether to focus on the social issues of the day and the younger generation.

The directors of both films say they are tired of rehashing the war.

“I am fed up with clichés and prejudices on what a Bosnian film should look like, and how the roles should be developed. I tried to escape that, and it seems I succeeded,” Summer in the Golden Valley director Vuletic told SFF reporters.

During the war, Gori vatra director Zalica produced some 10 films about ethnic conflict. “I just felt sick because I had to make films about something as terrible as the war, which surrounded me, choked me, which I had to breathe. I thought … I can hardly wait for peace to come so that I can make films about peace. And then peace came and I realized that, unfortunately, peace could be worse than war,” he said.

British producer and director Jeremy Thomas, a special guest at the festival, told reporters at SFF that he was thoroughly impressed with this year’s line-up and organization.

“In a short time, (the Sarajevo Film Festival has) reached a high level in comparison with other festivals. I am sure that Bosnia has a good cinematographic future,” Thomas said.

“All other film festivals have pretensions of glamour. The Sarajevo Film Festival is somehow more friendly and hospitable,” Thomas told reporters at SFF.

Whether the Sarajevo Film Festival will manage to maintain its down-to-earth image, with the hoped-for successes each new year could bring, is another question. And in the meantime, there are plenty of local cinema-goers who preferred the festival the way it was before--smaller and more easily accessed. For the throngs of people who waited in line for endless hours on the first, and only, day of ticket sales--only to be told that the show was sold out--the festival has gotten out of hand with all of its success.

Ana and Renata, two 20-something sisters from Sarajevo who consider themselves serious movie buffs and have never missed a festival, could not get tickets this year. “I’m really disappointed,” said Ana. “When we saw the line for tickets, we knew we didn’t have a chance, and just turned around, and went home.”

“Last year I stood in line for two and a half hours and couldn’t buy tickets for the films I wanted,” said an embittered 27-year-old Azer. “I can get all the festival’s films on pirate videos and DVDs, anyway. I’ll see Gori vatra when it is shown at the regular cinema, so I don’t have to queue.”