Supported by:
Partner:
Program Partners:
Main sponsors of Sarajevo Film Festival
Content
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Introduction Maša Marković, Dealing with the Past Programme Manager
6 Programme 14 Films 18 Stories 20 Team
DEALING WITH THE PAST 2021 I 3
Introduction
In these unprecedented times, when it seems that the world we used to know might not exist in the future, truth-seeking and fact-checking are more important than ever. But the anxieties of the world we have left behind will trickle into the new order and be triggered again. If we have learnt anything over the past year, I daresay it is that our personal lives can be turned upside-down in a matter of moments. The Sarajevo Film Festival’s Dealing with the Past programme has had a clear mission since its beginnings: to conduct honest dialogue about our region’s recent past as a prerequisite to resolving the problems of the present that stem from the Yugoslav Wars – problems that continue to strain our societies. Over the last six years, we have shared many deeply inspiring, if gut-wrenching, stories from our own region and around the world. This year’s programme is divided in two sections, one of which concentrates on seeking truth by using both conventional and unconventional methods. This part of the programme is marked by films by the renowned Danish filmmaker Mads Brugger, who has become internationally renowned for his unorthodox approach towards the topics and characters in his films. He is a journalist and filmmaker who seeks out truth and pushes
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boundaries to expose corruption and humanrights violations in countries where investigative journalism does not exist. Ever wondered how diamond smuggling is conducted in Africa? Accompany Brugger on a journey on which he acquires a diplomatic passport and masquerades as the Liberian consul to the Central African Republic to show us the murky world of blood diamonds in his film THE AMBASSADOR. In COLD CASE HAMMARSKJÖLD, Brugger investigates the mysterious death of the UN’s second secretary-general. In his own words, the filmmaker describes the case as “either the world’s biggest mystery or the world’s most idiotic conspiracy theory.” And I have no doubt viewers will be in awe after watching Bruggers’s most recent film, the docu/spy thriller THE MOLE: UNDERCOVER IN NORTH KOREA, in which we are placed in media res when a 44-year-old Dane infiltrates the world’s most secretive regime to learn all about the weapons trade. Brugger pushes viewers to question where and what the boundaries are between art and journalism, and to consider whether unethical practices should be used to expose larger truths. What is our role as spectator? How can we address the fact that the world that we know and are comfortable in often veils the inequality that surrounds us? To explore Brugger’s work further, the Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink Talks programme offers a live, online master class led by the director.
In alignment with its look at the truth-seeking process, DEALING WITH THE PAST also presents a new take on the 1934 assassination of Aleksandar I of Yugoslavia, as Serbian director Gordan Matić minutely reconstructs the assassins’ trail, shedding light on historical figures and facts available to date. The second section of the programme focusses on the conflicts that have yet to be resolved and their long-lasting impact on the communities affected by them. In many cases, the issue of confronting the current global pandemic has tended to eclipse ongoing fights for human rights, so that embattled communities are at great risk of being forgotten. These films bring the remarkable resilience of impacted communities to the forefront; by presenting these films in Sarajevo, we seek to begin and continue much-needed dialogue. Najwa Najjar’s BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH, a beautiful road movie that wends its way through Palestine, reveals secrets not only about film’s central characters but also the creation of the State of Israel. THE VOICE OF AHMAD is an anthology of seven short films about Arabs working in Israel, revolving around 1966’s I AM AHMAD. The omnibus film was created and curated by Renen Schorr, a filmmaker and the former Head and founder of the Sam Spiegel Film and Television
School in Tel Aviv, who brought together his current and former students to shoot different segments featuring the “Ahmeds” of today’s Israel. This film will have an international premiere in Sarajevo. The programme closes with the world premiere of Maysoon Pachachi’s OUR RIVER OUR SKY, which provides perspective on ordinary people in Baghdad as they await conflict – a portrait of lives lived in constant uncertainty. Dealing with the Past also presents the exhibition “A Palestine, and a Promised Land,” in collaboration with the WARM Foundation and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. The exhibition is open to the public every day from 14 to 20 August between 12:00 and 20:00. As well, we welcome twenty-five young people from the Western Balkans as part of the In Youth Eyes programme, which offers a series of panels, closed discussions and debates centred on peace activism and reconciliation practices. In Youth Eyes is organised in collaboration with the Regional Youth Cooperation Office, Forum ZFD and Pro.budućnost. The Dealing with the Past programme is supported by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Maša Marković, Dealing with the Past Manager
DEALING WITH THE PAST is a project of the Sarajevo Film Festival supported by the FRIEDRICH EBERT STIFTUNG. DEALING WITH THE PAST 2021 I 5
Programme schedule
14TH TO 20TH OF AUGUST
MONDAY, 16TH OF AUGUST
12:00 – 20:00
18:00
Red Cross Society in B&H (Kranjčevićeva 2) Exhibition: PALESTINE, AND A PROMISED LAND
SATURDAY, 14TH OF AUGUST 18:00 Cineplexx 4 / Screening THE MOLE: UNDERCOVER IN NORTH KOREA Director: Mads Brügger Country: Norway, Denmark, United Kingdom and Sweden
SUNDAY, 15TH OF AUGUST 15:00 Cineplexx 4 / Screening COLD CASE HAMMARSKJÖLD Director: Mads Brügger Country: Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Belgium
18:00 Cineplexx 4 / Screening THE AMBASSADOR Director: Mads Brügger Country: Denmark
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Cineplexx 4 / Screening BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH Director: Najwa Najjar Country: Palestine, Iceland, Luxembourg
TUESDAY, 17TH OF AUGUST 16:00
Red Cross Society in B&H TRUE STORIES MARKET Presentastion of four cases from the archives of individuals and key organisations documenting the Yugoslav wars of the 90’s to film and TV professionals. This should serve as an open source that will inspire filmmakers and cinema experts, and from which they will weave stories for larger audiences with all the urgency and power that cinema offers. True Stories Market is a part of the CineLink Industry Days.
18:00 Cineplexx 4 / Screening THE VOICE OF AHMAD Director: Dan Geva, David Ofek, Doron Djerassi, Iddo Soskolne, Mamdooh Afdile, Noam Kaplan, Ram Loevy, Shadi Habib Allah Country: Israel
WEDNESDAY, 18TH OF AUGUST 18:00 Cineplexx 4 / Screening BULLETS OVER MARSEILLE Director: Gordan Matić Country: Serbia
THURSDAY, 19TH OF AUGUST 18:00 Cineplexx 4 / Screening OUR RIVER…OUR SKY Director: Maysoon Pachachi Country: Iraq, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar
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True Stories Market Mentors: ROBERT ZUBER, born in 1976 in Pula. For 18 years, he has worked across all segments of media in Croatia and was twice awarded by the Croatian Journalists’ Association. After gaining necessary professional experience as a journalist and editor while working, among others, for BBC, Radio 101 and Nova TV, he started working for the Croatian public broadcaster, HRT, where he spent 11 years investigating various social and humanitarian issues, mostly through his TV show THE MISSION. He started making documentaries in 2001, when he completed his first documentary film, NA STANICI U PULI, which became the most successful theatrically released documentary in Croatia that year. His second autobiographical documentary, AN ACCIDENTAL SON, filmed within the UNICEF ‘Every Child Needs a Home’ project, received the Oktavijan award for the best documentary at the Croatian Film Days festival. His next documentary, MILA SEEKS SENIDA, won the human rights award of the Sarajevo Film Festival. In 2017, he directed MILLION DOLLAR LIFE which won the “Golden Studio” media award for the best Croatian documentary. After spending three years at the helm of HRT’s Documentary Production Department, in 2016 he quit his job with the public broadcaster to establish his own production company ToroLab. ToroLab produces content for digital platforms, as well as documentary films and series. He also works as an associated professor at the Vern University in Zagreb. NATAŠA DAMNJANOVIĆ, born in 1981 in Belgrade, where she graduated film editing at the Faculty of Drama Arts. She participated in the 2008 Sarajevo Talent Campus, 2011 Berlinale Talent Campus, was nominated for the 2010 Robert Bosch Stiftung Co-production Prize, in 2012 she participated as a script editor trainee to the Torino FilmLab, as well as in 2013 EAVE Producer’s Workshop. Since 2006 she is the co-founder of DART film, a production company based in Belgrade. So far she produced two feature films - HUMIDITY by Nikola Ljuca (Berlinale Forum 2016, FEST 2016 – Best Film, Best Director, Best Male Actor, “Nebojsa Djukelic” jury special mention, Valencia Int FF – Jury Special Mention, Five Lakes Film Festival - Best Script, Vilnius Int FF, SFF, etc.) and ALL THE CITIES OF THE NORTH by Dane Komljen (Locarno 2016 - Signs of Life, Sarajevo FF, New York FF, IFF Rotterdam, Valdivia IFF, Mar del Plata, FICUNAM, Jeonju etc.), edited several documentaries and a vast number of short films. She actively pursues European co-productions and the latest film she co-produced ICH WAR ZUHAUSE ABER by German director Angela Schanelec premiered in Berlinale Competition in 2019, won the Silver Bear for Best Director and was nominated for European Film Award. DANA BUDISAVLJEVIĆ, born in 1975, Dana graduated from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb. She worked as an editor, production assistant, and organizer of film festivals. Her directorial debut was documentary STRAIGHT A’S (2004), and has gained popularity with FAMILY MEALS (2012), a documentary about her own coming out. Her first feature THE DIARY OF DIANA B. was awarded Golden Arena at the Pula Film Festival making her the first female director to receive main festival award since 1957. Dana is a co-founder of Hulahop production company, where she works as Head of production. 8 I DEALING WITH THE PAST 2021
Dealing With The Past –
Youth Programme Mentors:
ADELA JUŠIĆ rođena je u Sarajevu, Bosna i Hercegovina, 1982, gdje živi i radi. Diplomirala je na Akademiji likovnih umjetnosti u Sarajevu 2007 i magistrirala Ljudska prava i demokratiju u Jugoistočnoj Evropi, Univerzitet u Sarajevu i Bologni 2013. Od 2010 do 2019. godine je koordinirala i bila aktivno uključena u kulturne projekte Udruženja za kulturu i umjetnost CRVENA. Jedna je od dvije autorke online arhiva Antifašističke borbe žena Bosne i Hercegovine i Jugoslavije (www.afzarhiv.org). Izlagala je na brojnim internacionalnim izložbama kao što su: Frestas – Trijenale umjetnosti, Sorocaba, Sao Paolo, Manifesta 8; Murcia, Videonale Kunstmuseum Bonn; Image Counter Image, Haus der Kunst, Munich; Ja više nikada neću pričati o ratu, Färgfabriken, Stockholm, Balkan Insight, Pompidou Centar, Paris, itd. Učesnica je rezidencijalnih programima za umjetnike/ce (ISCP, New York, Kulturkontakt Vienna, itd.) i dobitnica je nagrade YVAA 2010, Henkel Young Artist Price CEE 2011 i Specijalne nagrade Oktobarskog salona 2013. ANA GVOZDIĆ graduated from Macalester College (USA) with a B.A. in Peace and Conflict Studies. Within her academic program, she focused on transitional justice in the Western Balkans, particularly the culture of memory through an Honors Project about the memorialization of children in war in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. Through internships with civil society organizations and engagement in her local community, she supported peace education programs and advocated against genderbased violence. She started working for the Initiative for Human Rights in 2021 as a program assistant supporting the justice and reconciliation programs. DAMIR OVČINA, born 1973 in Sarajevo, studied Literature Studies. Over a twenty years worked as teacher and director of a school in Sarajevo. His first novel, published twenty years after his first attempts at writing saw the light, became a literary sensation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Kad sam bio hodža (Buybook) won the Hasan Kijamija Award 2016 for best prose publication of the country as well as the Mirko Kovač Prize, one of the most prestigious literature prizes in the South Slavic world. His new novel Ko sam ti ja just been published (2021) for his publishing house impruva.ba. DAMIR ŠAGOLJ, born in 1971 in Sarajevo, is a Bosnian photographer and journalist. He completed power engineering studies in Moscow and Sarajevo but the Bosnian war and its total destruction meant a change in career for Damir. In 1996 he joined Reuters news agency as theirs Bosnia based photojournalist. For next 22 years Damir travelled the world and reported on major news stories for the agency – mostly on conflicts, civil and other disturbances and natural catastrophes, but also on contemporary and other issues. He lived in Russia, Thailand, China and spent years in the Middle East. Damir’s work was recognised with industry’s major awards – the Pulitzer prize and World Press Photo among many others. He holds a master degree from the University of Arts in London. Currently, Damir lives in Sarajevo and teaches photography at the Sarajevo Academy of Performing Arts. DINA MEMIĆ is a historian and curator from Sarajevo. She started her professional museum career at the Heritage Museum in Konjic. She had worked at the Memorial Complex Tunnel of Hope, where she dealt with the phenomenon of the siege of Sarajevo and their musealization. Today, she is the curator of the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina and contributes to the development and strengthening of the museum’s potential through her work in the Archives Collection and the Documentation Center. She is the author of permanent and tematics museum exhibitions, and in her career she has been involved in numerous museum programs and projects. In her scientific work she deals with historical and museological topics. Her narrow professional focus is the culture of remembrance in contemporary museum practices. DEALING WITH THE PAST 2021 I 9
DALMIR MIŠKOVIĆ is a peacebuilding activist from Livno, Bosnia and Herzegovina. His work is mostly concentrated on peacebuilding, dealing with the past and especially culture of remembrance. Since 2015 together with his team and with the support from the Centre for nonviolent action Sarajevo/Beograd, he has marked and documented 115 unmarked atrocities sites all across BiH. More info about his work and “Neobilježena mjesta stradanja” can be found on onms.nenasilje.org SENADIN MUSABEGOVIĆ was born in Sarajevo in 1970. During the siege of Sarajevo, he served in the army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and also worked as a journalist for the BH Press. He began publishing poetry, essays and stories during the war. Since then, he has published three books of poetry in Bosnian: Body Strikes (1995), The Maturing of Homeland (1999), and The Heavenly Sphere (2004). The Maturing of Homeland was translated into French and Italian, while numerous other works were translated into seven languages. In 1999, he received the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Writers’ Association Award for his collection of essays, as well as the Planjax Award for his book of poetry. A graduate of Sienna University in Italy, Musabegović read political philosophy. In 2004, he presented his doctorate thesis, “War — Reconstruction of the Totalitarian Body” at the European Institute in Florence. He has held lectures as a guest professor at European and American universities. Currently, he works as a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo, where he teaches courses in cultural sociology and art theory. FLORENCE HARTMANN is a French journalist and author. From 1987 was a correspondent in the Balkans for the French newspaper Le Monde, and witnesses of the disintegration of the Yugoslavia as well as 1991 war. From 2000 she was official spokesperson and Balkan adviser to Carla Del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. she is the author of several books in this field (Milosevic, the opposite of crazy; Peace and punishment; The Srebrenica Affair: The Blood of Realpolitik). LEJLA GAČANICA is a PhD candidate in law, currently working as a legal expert and independent researcher in the field of transitional justice with a focus on the politics and culture of remembrance. She is the author of published articles, analytical, scientific and research papers in these fields. In her focus in past two years was particularly legal regulation of denial, justification and glorification of war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including research study ‘Calling war atrocities by their right name’ and Srebrenica genocide denial report for 2021. MILA TURAJLIĆ is an award-winning director born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Her films have screened at numerous festivals including Toronto and Tribeca, and have been released theatrically in Europe, North America and across the former Yugoslavia. Her most recent film THE OTHER SIDE OF EVERYTHING (2017) was HBO Europe’s first co-production with Serbia. It won 32 awards including the IDFA Award for Best Documentary Film, the Grand Prix for Best historical documentary released in France in 2018, and was nominated for the LUX Prize the European Parliament. Mila’s debut feature doc, CINEMA KOMUNISTO (2011) played at over 100 festivals and won 16 awards including the Gold Hugo and the FOCAL Award for Creative Use of Archival Footage. In her work with archives, Mila researches the intersection of personal and national memories, seeking to reactivate forgotten histories, through forms ranging from lecture performances and video art to analytical essays. In 2018 she was commissioned by MoMA to create a series of archive-based video installations for their landmark exhibition on Yugoslav modernist architecture. A graduate of the London School of Economics, Mila teaches documentary and creative use of archives at SciencesPo and INASup in Paris. Mila is currently in post-production on her third feature film, The Labudović Reels, an archival road trip through the archives of African liberation movements of the 10 I DEALING WITH THE PAST 2021
50’s and 60’s filmed by Stevan Labudović, the cameraman of Yugoslav President Tito. In 2020 Mila was a Chicken&Egg Award grantee and invited to join the AMPAS Documentary Branch . She is a 2021 TED Fellow. NAJWA NAJJAR / Writer/Director Najwa Najjar has explored several new artistic grounds having written, directed and produced over a dozen critically acclaimed award winning films premiering in Cairo, Berlin, Cannes, Locarno and Sundance. In 2020 she was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is also a member of the European Film Academy. With a MA Film(US) she has worked in both documentary and fiction since 2000. Her critically acclaimed debut was the feature film Pomegranates and Myrrh (2009). Her second award winning film Eyes of a Thief (2014) was the Palestinian nomination for the 2015 Oscars Best Foreign Film. Her third feature film Between Heaven and Earth Nov 2019 won the 41st Cairo IFF Naguib Mahfouz Best Screenplay award among a long slate of international awards, and was selected to the European Film Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Asia Pacific Screen Awards and nominated to the Icelandic Film and TV Awards. Najjar is presently in development of her 4th feature film Kiss of a Stranger, a musical. NICOLAS MOLL, born in 1965 in Brussels, holds a PhD in Contemporary History from the University of Freiburg (Germany), and has been living in Sarajevo since 2007. He is working as an independent researcher and as free-lance trainer in the fields of dealing with the past, international cooperation and civil society development. More information: https://www.nicolasmoll.eu/ NERMINA KULOGLIJA started working as a journalist since 2017. She began her career with Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo, first as an intern, then a journalist, where she mainly focused on researching corruption and organized crime. She holds a master’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Sarajevo. For the last two years as the member of Balkan Investigative Reporting Network Bosnia and Herzegovina, she has been working on research into extremism, terrorism, genocide denial and corruption. During 2020 and 2021, she published three researches about far right groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Following the symbols used by far right groups she found the activities of at least three ultra right-wing groups operating in BiH. Groups whose activities she found were banned in Germany and declared as terrorist in Canada. AJNA JUŠIĆ AND MUHAMED TUCAKOVIĆ / The Forgotten Children of War Association is currently the only association in the world that deals with the social and legal visibility of children born because of the war and its activities have raised this issue at the international level, which has written the first pages of history. With its movement, the Forgotten Children of War Association has made Bosnia and Herzegovina the first country in the world to take systematic and social steps in the social and legal acceptance of this category. AJNA JUSIĆ graduated in psychology at the University of Sarajevo. She attended the Academy for Young Leaders in Civil Society, and successfully completed the School of Political Studies of the Council of Europe. She is the president of the Association “Forgotten Children of War”. She fights for women who survived rape during the war and children born in the war, the rights of the LGBT community, minorities, and children with special needs. The biggest focus of her work is human rights. Through her engagement and struggle for the rights of children born because of the war, Jusić also became the author of the first world exhibition on children born because of the war and women survivors from Bosnia and HerzegovDEALING WITH THE PAST 2021 I 11
ina. The exhibition is called “Breaking Free” and has become and internationally recognized exhibition. Currently, Jusic is trying to make Bosnia and Herzegovina the first country in the world to have a law on children born as a result of war rape and children whose fathers are members of foreign humanitarian organizations and whose fathers were foreign peacekeepers. She was born in 1993 and believes that only with solidarity, empathy, humanity and dialogue can we build a better and healthier society for future MUHAMED TUCAKOVIĆ is a graduate student of International Relations and Diplomacy at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Sarajevo, a longtime activist of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, with whom he participated in a large number of programs in 2014, and in 2018 he became a program assistant. His engagement in the Forgotten Children of War Association begins in June 2020 as a project coordinator. He is one of the founders of the informal youth group Treća Smjena from Stolac, which has distinguished itself by its cultural activities in this city. He emphasizes transitional justice, dealing with the past and strengthening youth activism as his occupations. RALF MELZER, born 1967, is a German historian and journalist and since 2004 staff member of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), a non-profit political foundation close to the German social democratic party SPD. Among a variety of responsibilities in Germany and abroad he served as the foundation’s resident director in Tunisia, as the head of the foundation’s working unit on combatting right-wing extremism and as the head of the FES office in Munich. Since 2020 he is the director of the FES regional office Dialogue Southeast Europe based in Sarajevo. He intensively published on the German history in the 20th century, on anti-Semitism and on the political far right. He holds a Ph.D. in Modern History from the Freie Universität Berlin. RENEN SCHORR, born Jerusalem, Israel, 1952 is a film director, screenwriter, film producer and Israeli film activist. In 1989, he founded Israel’s first independent, national school for film and television, the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film School, and served as its director for thirty years. During the last 40 years he founded or co-founded the infrastructure of Israeli film funds and cinematheques. In December 2016 he was awarded the Chevalier des arts et lettres by the French government. Schorr’s 1985 short film, A Wedding in Jerusalem, told for the first time, the story of two of Israel’s leading cultural figures; director Uri Zohar and singer Arik Einstein, on the occasion of the Orthodox wedding of their children. The film was restored in 2016 and was the opening film at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival, at the Jerusalem Cinematheque. Late Summer Blues (1987) is Schorr’s most prominent film. It won the Silver Menorah award (Israel Academy Award) for best film, best screenplay and best original score, as well as the prize for outstanding film in the Israel Film Festivals in New York and Los Angeles. The film opened the Jerusalem Film Festival in 1987 to rave reviews and became a commercial success seen by 20,000 people, It was screened in 30 international festivals and was released in the United States and Canada. Over the years, the movie has become a cultural icon. After undergoing digital restoration, Late Summer Blues was released for screenings around Israel in honor of its 30th anniversary in 2016. The Loners (HaBodedim) debuted in November 2009. Inspired by true events that took place in an Israeli military prison in 1997, the film explores the plight of two young Russian immigrant soldiers who are falsely accused of treason. The film did not gain commercial success. Under the direction of Renen Schorr, The Sam Spiegel International Film Lab was launched in December 2011, with the goal of fostering the development and production of full-length feature films by some of the world’s most promising talents. The Sam Spiegel International Film Lab became the third film lab of its kind in the world, along with The Sundance Institute and The Torino Film Lab in Italy. The Academy Award-winning film Son of Saul, by László Nemes was developed at the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab in 2014. The son of a physician, Prof. Sam Schorr, grandson 12 I DEALING WITH THE PAST 2021
of historian Dr. Alexander Schorr, descendant of Rabbi Joseph Bechor Schorr, a 12thcentury Talmudic commentator from Orléans, France. Sixth generation Israeli on the side of his mother, Lea Heller, the daughter of Rabbi Avraham Zeide Heller of Safed. Schorr, who grew up in Tel Aviv, was attracted to the theater from a young age. He played the role of Artful Dodger in Habima’s national production of Oliver! and the Crown Prince in Giora Godik’s troupe production of The King and I. SHADI HABIB ALLAH was born in 1985, in Ein Mahel, a village near Nazareth and graduated from Sisters Saint Joseph High School at 2003 at the department of Psychology & Biology. Prior to his studies at the Sam Spiegel Film and TV School- Jerusalem, he received his bachelor’s degree for Architecture from Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid -Jordan. “SHAM Architects” his architectural office deals with the combination of local architectural elements, modern spirit and experience, and environmental challenges. He leads weekly architecture workshops with kids in which they are taught how to be creative thinkers in space, in parallel he leads a filmmaking workshops as part of “looking forward” program that Support children and youth from the weaker sections, as well as encouraging excellence in education - while promoting a new generation in the field of film and television. Began his studies at The Sam Spiegel Film School, Jerusalem, in 2015 and graduated with highest honors at 2019. His movies include: Between Six Corners (6 min’ ,Doc, 2021) Biennale Architettura 2021, Soft Grass (15’min, Fiction 2019) Haifa Film Festival, Sky of concrete (11’min Doc, 2019) MoMa 2020, DocAVIV Film Festival 2019, Sarajevo Film Festival 2021, The Bride’s Tree (Doc, 2017) Jerusalem Film Festival Jury Awards. DocAVIV Film Festival (second prize), Swing (fic, 2017) Tel Aviv international student Film Festival, The Fifth Season ( Doc, 2016) Haifa Film Festival. THOMAS DARCHINGER, born in 1963, started his acting career at the Pathos Transport Theatre in Munich, where he played in the main ensemble for more than 6 years. This theatre achieved an international popularity during the 80s. He left the company in 1991, worked as guest artist nationally and internationally and founded his own theatre group (Theater d-formation). In this context, he became appreciated as writer and director as well. In 1989, he was discovered for movies. Since then, he played in more than 150 movies and is known as the favourite villain of German films. He also works as a dubbing actor where he gives his voice to notable colleagues like Cuba Gooding Jr., Jamie Donna, Michael Kelly and David Meunier. He counts as one of the best narrator voices in Germany. Through the power of arts, he creates social engagement. His initiative „Künstlerische Demokratiekampagne“(English: Artistic Campaign for Democracy) consists of the most acknowledged readings in German-speaking countries. He’s member of the German Film Academy and is a constant Emmy Awards jury member.
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The Mole: Undercover in North Korea Director: Mads Brügger Denmark, Norway, UK, Sweden, 2020, Colour, 135 min.
A real-life spy thriller about a retired chef from Denmark, and his double life as a secret agent. Together with his side kick, a former jet set cocaine pusher from Copenhagen, The Mole manages to infiltrate one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world; North Korea. Over a period of more than 10 years, the film team gains access to the heart of an international criminal network that produces and distributes weapons and drugs for the rogue state of North Korea. Contracts are signed, deals are cut and soon the protagonists become deeply involved in a plan to make a secret, underground weapon and drug factory somewhere in Africa. But how far can they push the envelope before the trap clicks?
Cold Case Hammarskjöld Director: Mads Brügger Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, 2019, Colour, 128 min.
In 1961, United Nations secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld’s plane mysteriously crashed, killing Hammarskjöld and most of the crew. With the case still unsolved 50-plus years later, Danish journalist, filmmaker, and provocateur Mads Brügger leads us down an investigative rabbit hole to unearth the truth. Scores of false starts, dead ends, and elusive interviews later, Brügger and his sidekick, Swedish private investigator Göran Björkdahl, begin to sniff out something more monumental than anything they’d initially imagined.
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The Ambassador Director: Mads Brügger Denmark, 2011, Colour, 93 min.
A strange, enigmatic and decadent white diplomat arrives in central Africa, looking like a mixture of Henry Stanley and Karl Lagerfeld. He has recently bought an ambassadorship and claims to be a dogood rich business man, who has come to spearhead a diplomatic mission. Officially he is there to start a factory that produces matches – this, to employ locals and teach how to make this simple piece of fire-making equipment. Unofficially he is really there to gain access to vast reserves of diamonds.
Between Heaven and Earth Director: Najwa Najjar Palestine, Iceland, Luxembourg, 2019, Colour, 95
The film revolves around the divorce of a 30 something couple, Salma, a Palestinian from Nazareth, her husband, Tamer, the son of a famous intellectual revolutionary killed in Beirut. Salma and Tamer have been married for the past five years and living in the Palestinian territory. In the process of the divorce, they are confronted with a staggering discovery about Tamer’s father’s past. A love story about divorce became the journey of exploration of occupied territories, a divided country, and two people from different visions of a country.
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The Voice of Ahmad Director: Dan Geva, David Ofek, Doron Djerassi, Iddo Soskolne, Mamdooh Afdile, Noam Kaplan, Ram Loevy, Shadi Habib Allah Israel, 2019, Colour and B&W, 85
I AM AHMAD, a 1966, 13-minute revelatory short, was originally censored before its stormy release. Fifty years later, top Arab and Jewish alumni of the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film School conduct a poignant dialogue about “today’s Ahmad,” contending with questions of the impossible coexistence between Palestinian citizens of Israel and Jews that is deteriorating rapidly. Comprised of six chapters, the feature film is political, activist and fistful, mirroring a torn Israel.
Bullets Over Marseille Director: Gordan Matić Serbia, 2021, Colour and B&W, 74 min.
King Alexander of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister, Louse Barthou, were assassinated in Marseille on October 9, 1934. BULLETS OVER MARSEILLE follows the trial of the assassin Vlade Georgijev Cernozemski’s co-conspirators. Through the reconstruction and dramatization of the legal proceedings, but also everything that had been skipped over during the trial, a courthouse drama has been constructed that comes closest to the truth of the trial itself and its impact on peace in Europe.
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Our River…Our Sky Director: Maysoon Pachachi Iraq, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, 2021, Colour, 117
In a typically mixed Baghdadi neighbourhood in 2006, a community of ordinary people try to live their everyday lives amidst the threat of unpredictable violence. At the heart of these intersecting stories, we find Sara, a single mother and novelist, who regains her will to write after witnessing the forced exile of her Christian neighbour and best friend Sabiha. With the news of Saddam Hussein’s sudden execution shortly before the New Year, Sara and her neighbours brace themselves for an uncertain future. Yet, like a miracle, each is able to sustain a fragile sense of hope.
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Dealing With The Past –
True Stories Market
Selected stories Nobody’s Children Nobody’s Children is an autobiographical story about Sara Velaga, who grew up without a father from the day she was born in 1994. Her father, Siniša Velaga, Captain of the Armed Forces, left her mother during their exile in Banja Luka, and never got back in touch with her. Sara received nothing but a surname from her father – a reminder that you can be “someone’s” even when you are “nobody’s.” Sara returned to Jajce, where she lives as a national minority and persists in trying answer the question: Why did you leave us? Contact for the story: Sara Velaga velagasara@gmail.com
Generation 70/72 In March 1990, the generation born between 1970 and 1972 went to serve in the Yugoslav People’s Army (YPA). Recruitment continued until April 1991. This is the story of a cohort whose fate was determined in 1990, when they were conscripted to serve in the YPA. By April 1992, more than one hundred had been killed. Today, those who survived still suffer the psychological consequences. This is a story about families who fought to save their sons, as well as those who hid military documents in Sarajevo in December 1991, thus preventing the continuation of conscription. Contact for the story: Melina Kamerić melina.kameric@gmail.com
Jadranka Reihl-Kir In the words of Drago Hedl, Josip Reihl-Kir was “an unusually decent man, with polite manners completely atypical for chiefs of police in Osijek until then.” In June 1991, Reihl-Kir addressed the Osijek Assembly with the words, “While I am the chief of the Osijek-Baranja Police Administration, there will be no war between Serbs and Croats in this area.” He already had reason to fear for his own safety. He warned his superiors about this and asked to be transferred to Zagreb. Instead of going to Zagreb, on 1 July, he headed to Tenja to negotiate with the rebel Serbs in the village. On his way back to Osijek, at the Croatian police checkpoint in Tenja, Josip Reihl-Kir was assassinated. The perpetrator, Antun Gudelj, was a member of the reserve police force and a subordinate of Reihl-Kir. Using a Kalashnikov he had recently received from the chief himself, Gudelj fired sixteen bullets into the car Riehl-Kir was riding in, also killing local officials Goran Zobundzija and Milan Knezević, leaving Mirko Tubić as the lone survivor. Widowed, Jadranka Reihl-Kir fought for nineteen years to discover the truth about the murder in court. The day after the murder, Josip Boljkovac, who had approved Reihl-Kir’s transfer, was removed from the police station. After fleeing the country, Gudelj was convicted in absentia in 1994, and pardoned two years later. After being extradited to Croatia, Antun Gudelj was again sentenced in 2008 to a single prison sentence of twenty years. In 2009, the Supreme Court upheld the first-instance verdict.
18 I DEALING WITH THE PAST 2021
Documenta – Centre for Dealing with the Past – encourages the process of dealing with the past in Croatia, through documenting and investigating pre-war, wartime and post-war events, and works with civil society organisations, government institutions and similar centres abroad. Contact for the story: Milena Žarković milenazarkovic@hotmail.com
Reintegration or exodus? The departure of tens of thousands of people in early 1996. from parts of Sarajevo and those of its suburbs that were controlled by the Bosnian Serb army during the war remains a dark, painful and never-told story. After a brutal four-year siege of the capital of an internationally recognised state and the horrific crimes that accompanied it, Sarajevo, like the former Yugoslavia, remained divided. The goals of the owners of the dark who waved national flags before the war, thereby ignoring the civic concept of the state, have been met: ethnically “clean” territories ruled by “us or them” and a convulsive struggle to maintain an unsustainable, retrograde concept. The price has been paid – and is still being paid – by the citizens on both sides of the war and post-war demarcation line, as well as by the generations to come. Necessary if the story of the siege of the city is to be completed, a documentary will look at the causes of these events and their consequences, not only for the population but also for the identity of Sarajevo, now one of few European cities that remain divided. The longer we remain silent about such things, the more painful the slap of truth will be. Contact for the story: Damir Šagolj damir.sagolj@gmail.com
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Team Project Manager: Maša Marković Project Coordinator: Ishak Jalimam Assistant Project Coordinator: Lamija Čizmić Host of the programme Dealing with the Past: Robert Tomić Zuber
Sarajevo Film Festival / Zelenih beretki 12, 71000 Sarajevo / Bosnia and Herzegovina tel. +387 33 221 516 / +387 33 209 411 / +387 33 263 380 / fax +387 33 263 381 www.sff.ba | info-sff@sff.ba | dwp@sff.ba
