SARAJEVO FILM FESTIVAL, Z. beretki 12, 71 000 Sarajevo, B&H, tel. 387 33 209 411, fax. 263 381, www.sff.ba
HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD 2022 I 3 Contents HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD The Sarajevo Film Festival Human Rights Award is supported by the Embassy of the Netherlands. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views of the Embassy of the Netherlands. 5 Jan Waltmans: Introduction 6 Rada Šešić: Introduction 7 Jury of Competition Programme – Documentary Film 9 Competition Programme – Documentary Film 20 Tue Steen Mueller: A New Generation’s Fight for Human Rights 22 Human Rights Day Programme 23 Human Rights Day Programme – Mentors 27 Human Rights Day Programme – Films
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The cornerstone of democracy is accountabil ity, including with respect to human rights. That is what a community and individuals deserve. It comes with rights and responsibilities. The whole world is facing tough challenges. Un fortunately wars are not a thing from the past, as my generation started to think they might be. Wars are ongoing, developing in different forms. The Russian war on Ukraine shows how a regime that does not respect human rights and account ability systems can destroy millions of lives on all Bysides.supporting the Sarajevo Film Festival’s Human Rights Day, the Kingdom of the Netherlands sup ports freedom of expression. The Russian movie “The New Greatness” contains rare footage that allows us to see what is going on behind the “iron curtain”. What we see is that, once again, there are no winners in a war. Not far away from here innocent people are, if not killed and dis placed, being tortured and imprisoned for shar ing their thoughts and believes. We must not be silent on this.
Jan Waltmans Ambassador of The Kingdom of The Netherlands to Bosnia and Herzegovina
Each generation grows up thinking that its genera tion will be the one that changes the world for the better. As we develop and strive to achieve our goals, we face reality: not everyone is interested in the collective good. Some people ignore joint development and happiness, only for them to fo cus on their personal interests.
Human Rights Day
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Programmer Competition Programme – Documentary Film
Our Competition Programme – Documentary Film is a special space that welcomes and enables us to create a certain energy together, one that launch es strong films and discusses powerful, relevant stories. The conversations with enthusiastic Sara jevo Film Festival audiences after each film, and at the Docu Press Corner every day, will provide lots of excitement and food for thought.
Rada Sesic
The selection puts a large number of debut direc tors and producers into the limelight. I also proud ly emphasise the significant presence of women as directors and producers.
Holding a mirror up to our times
Welcome!
Documentary makers do not spend their time chasing the latest story. Documentaries are not fleeting, but hold a mirror up to our times. They are able to stimulate the viewer and provoke thought, ask questions, initiate debates. With the films they make, they approach the accurate and actual from a new angles, and express original point of view. Among this year’s selection of twenty-two films, of which nine are shorts, are three compelling documentaries from Ukraine, a country struggling to survive, its people dying and suffering every day, but nevertheless managing to create valuable artistic dox to share with the world.
The programme opens with two productions: the Ukrainian short film LITURGY FOR ANTI-TANK OBSTACLES by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, a young director who recently presented his fic tion feature PAMFIR at the Festival de Cannes, will have its world premiere in Sarajevo. It was made during the ongoing war and was finished on the eve of the festival. As well, we present the re gional premiere of ANOTHER SPRING by Heart of Sarajevo-winner Mladen Kovačević from Serbia, which features masterfully edited archival footage of a smallpox epidemic that occurred in Yugosla via. From today’s perspective of these (hopefully) post-COVID-19 times, this dramatic story from the early 1970s brings a fresh view to the table, with a new meaning and stimulus. In our program we visit many countries and delve into various narratives: coming near to the world of football hooligans in Bulgaria; depicting the spiritual needs of youngsters in Ukraine and their evident interest in religion; encountering deeply wounded women from Croatia, victims of war rape; observing the life style of hardworking Macedonians as UN troops in Afghanistan; visit ing a language school for migrants in Austria; em pathizing with a mother whose child got sexually molested; spending time at a hospital during co vid in a provincial town in Bulgaria; peeking into the soul of a Bosnian young girl; witnessing the destiny of a migrant worker from Kosovo; all these and many more exciting stories are offered in our Competition Programme – Documentary Film.
In the Competition Programme-Documentary Film international jury of three-namely Hilal Baydarov (Azerbaijan), Salome Jashi (Georgia), Margje de Koning (Netherlands). The jury will select the recipients of the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Documentary Film (4000 €) sponsored by Government of Switzerland, Heart of Sarajevo for Best Short Documentary Film (2,000 €), Human Rights Award (3000 €) sponsored by Kingdom of the Netherlands, Special Jury Prize (2500 €).
Jury of Competition Programme –Documentary Film
Hilal Baydarov was born in Baku in 1987. After obtaining a master’s degree in computer sciences, he studied filmmaking in Sarajevo at the Sarajevo Film Academy’s film.factory, founded by Béla Tarr. Baydarov’s debut feature film HILLS WITHOUT NAMES had its premiere at the Montreal World Film Festival in 2018. The same year, he won the Docu Talent Award at the Sarajevo Film Festival for BIRTHDAY, his second documentary film. His next three documentary films, WHEN THE PER SIMMONS GREW, MOTHER AND SON, and NAILS IN MY BRAIN, premiered at and won several awards from acclaimed festivals such as Visions du Réel, the Sarajevo Film Festival and the Inter national Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Baydarov’s second narrative feature, IN BETWEEN DYING, premiered in the main competition of the Venice International Film Festival in 2020. His third feature, CRANE LANTER, premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Artistic Contribution. SERMON TO THE FISH, his most recent narrative feature, premiered in competition at the Locarno Film Fes tival in 2022. HILAL Director,BAYDAROVAzerbaijan
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Salomé Jashi was born in Tbilisi in 1981. A docu mentary filmmaker and producer, she holds MAs in documentary filmmaking from Royal Holloway, University of London, and in journalism from the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs. Her TAMING THE GARDEN (2021) was selected for the Sun dance Film Festival’s World Cinema Documen tary Competition and the Berlinale Forum, and was nominated for a European Film Award. THE DAZZLING LIGHT OF SUNSET (2016) was awarded prizes at Visions du Réel’s Regard Neuf Competi tion and several other festivals. Her earlier work BAKHMARO (2011) was nominated for an Asia Pacific Screen Award. Jashi was a fellow of the Nipkow Scholarship in 2017 and the DAAD Artistsin-Berlin Programme in 2020. She is a member of the European Film Academy.
MARGJE DE KONING Artistic Director of Movies that Matter, The Netherlands
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SALOME JASHI Director, Georgia After completing her studies, Margje de Kon ing made several documentaries for numerous broadcasting companies over the course of twelve years. In 2004, de Koning became a part-time teacher in the Culture & Media Studies section of the Department of Film and Television at the University of Amsterdam. In 2004, she became Commissioning Editor for a slot of 52-minute doc umentaries, for which she acted as a creative pro ducer. Since 2005, de Koning has been responsible for the television department of IKON, where, in 2012, she became Head of TV, Radio and New Media programming. Since 2016, IKON has been incorporated within EO, with de Koning as Com missioning Editor of Documentaries for EO, JDocs, and IKONdocs. Since 2019, she has been the artis tic director of Movies that Matter.
ANOTHER SPRING is a “medical thriller” reconstructed from fifty-year-old archival footage taken place in the spring of 1972, when the smallpox virus was brought into Yugoslavia from a bazaar in Iraq. The disease spread for a full month before it was discovered in Kosovo, while in Belgrade it remained unde tected even when the first victims started dying. Smallpox, the deadliest disease in human history, killed nearly 500 million people in the twentieth century alone. It is also the only deadly virus humans have eradicated, a feat regarded as one of the greatest achievements of our civilization. In a story that united the entire world, the Yugoslavian smallpox epidemic is still remembered as one of the most horrifying and inspiring chapters. It was the final outbreak of the disease in Europe.
REGIONAL PREMIERE Another Spring Serbia, France, Qatar, 2022, Colour and B&W, 90 min, Serbian, Albanian, English Director: Mladen Kovačević Screenplay: Mladen Kovačević
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WORLD PREMIERE Liturgy of anti-tank obstacles Ukraine, United States, 2022, Colour, 12 min, Ukrainian Director: Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk Screenplay: Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk Ukrainian reality is divided into two periods – before and after begining the war. In the nationwide resis tance, every citizen tries to be helpful. Ukrainians change professions and adapt to wartime. Sculptors fabricate anti-tank obstacles in their workshops. Just like the Terracotta Army, silent figures of Ukrainian personalities, angels, Cossacks, and copies of Jesus Christ freeze in anticipation of new creations.
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Twenty-five years after the Croatian War of Independence, its women survivors have yet to heal. Still traumatised by their experiences of torture, rape, and the loss of their loved ones, several women go through a three-year therapeutic programme. While friction escalates along cultural lines, Katica, Ana, and Marija share their life stories, confront their traumas, and seek self-acceptance in order to find their inner strength and learn how to embrace the joy of life.
In a space halfway between animation and whispered confession, this coming-of-age melodrama seeks to discover the origin of a constant feeling of guilt. Tangling the line between emotion and body, a young girl begins to wonder if feeling guilty is the same as being guilty.
REGIONAL PREMIERE Ribs Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Portugal, Belgium, 2022, Colour, 8 min, Bosnian
Director: Farah Hasanbegović Screenplay: Farah Hasanbegović
This film is the result of a collaboration between two colleagues and friends, Mirta Puhlovski and Vedrana Pribačić. The two of them achieved cooperation in a similar way as the protagonists of the film, both in author’s work and work on themselves during the empowerment program. It was the unity among women that led to the (best) results.
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EUROPEAN PREMIERE Bigger Than Trauma Croatia, 2022, Colour, 91 min, Croatian
Director: Vedrana Pribačić Screenplay: Mirta Puhlovski, Vedrana Pribačić
HUMAN
WORLD PREMIERE Shadowed by the Plane Tree Azerbaijan, 2022, Colour, 18 min, Azerbaijani
Twenty-eight years after she and her family were displaced, Aynur Elgunesh is setting off to visit Aghdam in Azerbaijan. She comes across fragments of stone: among them, she searches for traces of her past, of a childhood gone with the war. The memories that had faded now haunt her through these ruins.
Soviet cinematographer Leonid Burlaka worked at the Odessa Film Studio in the 1960s on dozens of films that have travelled the world. Today, he is in his eighties and has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. As his memory fades away, his grandson, the young filmmaker Igor Ivanko, follows the tracks Burlaka left behind via film rolls, homemade videos, letters, and forgotten friends. As he dives deeper and deeper into the archive, Ivanko realises that the story of his grandfather has historical value. Burlaka started his career at a time when scripts were often rejected and artists were dealing with censorship, and established himself as a cinematographer in the mid-1960s, when Soviet repression finally began to relax. This political change is present in his works and also creates a strong bond between grandfather and grandson, since they both started working in cinema in times of turmoil. Yet the time is running out: soon Leonid will not remember Igor at all.
REGIONAL PREMIERE Fragile Memory Ukraine, Slovakia, 2022, Colour, 85 min, Ukrainian, Russian, Polish Director: Igor Ivanko Screenplay: Igor Ivanko, Mariia Ponomarova
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Director: Aynur Elgunesh Screenplay: Aynur Elgunesh
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BABAJANJA is a short essay film with horror elements. Going back to the past, the narrator tries to find the mysterious woman he was scared of as a boy. Rummaging through memories, dreams, and forgotten horror films, he attempts to determine who she is, and where she is today. He inclu-des his family and fellow villagers in his investigation – none of whom are particularly keen on helping him – but as he gath ers more and more information about, the narrator is getting closer to finally meeting her.
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
Babajanja Croatia, 2022, Colour, 13 min, Croatian Director: Ante Zlatko Stolica Screenplay: Ante Zlatko Stolica Peli and Nina are a couple from a traditional Roma community who were married by arrangement and are parents to a little girl. However, local custom posits that a marital union can only endure if the couple conceive a boy who can later inherit the family’s badge – the chalice (tahtai). While they live under tre mendous strain and keep undergoing fertility and ultrasound checks, their respective families are disput ing their rights to the chalice pledged by Peli’s father to Nina’s family when they arranged the couple’s match. This puts Nina under considerable pressure, but nobody around her is sympathetic to her plight. As we impatiently await the resolution of the conflict, the film invites us to reflect on women’s resilience in a male-dominated society.
Director: Cătălina Tesăr, Dana Bunescu Screenplay: Cătălina Tesăr
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WORLD PREMIERE The Chalice. Of Sons and Daughters Romania, 2022, Colour, 85 min, Romany, Romanian
The appearance of female bodybuilders makes them outcasts. Diving under the glitter, this film looks for the reasons lying behind these women’s lifestyles. Four portraits; four different approaches to body building. Four middle-aged women – Csonka, Yvette, Eszter, and Noemi – show those parts of their lives that are normally hidden from view: when they are offstage, as themselves and with their loved ones. They prepare their bodies for months, years. “Let the beast out!” the women say, while pumping all their fears and desires into their muscles. This is their way to success, and to what we all desire: appreciation.
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Director: Anna Eszter Nemes NO PLACE FOR YOU IN OUR TOWN pulls us into the heads of the football hooligans from the most hostile city in Bulgaria — Pernik. Once a flourishing mining centre, today all that’s left here are jokes about its cit izens’ roughness — an echo of their brave and glorious past. Having exclusive access to the inhabitants, Nikolay Stefanov’s film follows Tsetso, a skinhead and single father, the gang leader Dado, and Mimeto, the only woman in the group, who are devoted to helping their football team rise from the last league. Their customary lifestyle is seriously challenged when Tsetso falls ill and stays in the hospitals for months, while the decaying city faces a grave water crisis caused by corruption. Will the hooligans change in the face of the challenges, looking for their place under the sun?
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REGIONAL PREMIERE No Place for You in Our Town Bulgaria, 2022, Colour, 81 min, Bulgarian
REGIONAL PREMIERE Beauty of the Beast Hungary, Serbia, 2022, Colour, 48 min, Hungarian
Director: Nikolay Stefanov Screenplay: Mariana Sabeva, Nikolay Stefanov, Ralitsa Golemanova
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Over the past twenty years, thousands of young Macedonian women and men were recruited to work in the kitchens and laundries of US military bases in Afghanistan and Iraq. With the withdrawal of the US troops from Afghanistan last summer, the workers returned home, bringing with them quickly earned money that was soon invested in real estate – as well as traumatic memories that have marked them.
Atonal Glow Georgia, 2022, Colour and B&W, 67 min, Georgian Director: Alexander Koridze Screenplay: Alexander Koridze
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
Retreat Germany, North Macedonia, 2022, Colour, 30 min, Macedonian, Serbian, English Director: Anabela Angelovska Screenplay: Anabela Angelovska
History is made up of political, social, cultural, and other events, which influence and shape society. As times goes by, most of these events are buried in the past and forgotten. But some, like the emergence of brightly shining prodigies, withstand the test of time and space. One such shining star has been born in Georgia, and his name is Tsotne Zedginidze – a ten-year-old composing prodigy who demonstrates a unique combination of childlike simplicity and complex, mature emotions.
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Director: Srđan Perkić Screenplay: Davor Sučić
WORLD PREMIERE Lights of Sarajevo Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2022, Colour and B&W, 68 min, Bosnian
WORLD PREMIERE The Film Factory Croatia, 2022, Black and white, 15 min, Croatian Director: Silvestar Kolbas Screenplay: Silvestar Kolbas Sarajevo 1969–2019. The fiftieth anniversary of the legendary Skenderija Hall, a temple of music and sport, famed far and wide. Half a century of history of this Sarajevo institution is told from the point of view of Sejo Sexon, leader of the band Zabranjeno Pušenje – an intimate story that goes from childhood, youthful dreams, failed attempts, and first successes, all the way through to the band’s post-war come back and the peak their career. In cold winter nights, LIGHTS OF SARAJEVO guides us through the hall’s unique myths and legends that date back to the socialist era.
An essay film about photography, told through still photographs with the passage of time registered in the aging of the photographic materials. THE FILM FACTORY is grounded in black-and-white photographs of Fotokemika, an empty, neglected factory, captured entirely using the photographic materials once produced by the factory itself. Most of the images in the film are standard photographic reproductions, some with visible damage due to the aging of the photographic material. At the same time, the film con siders the negative side of transition, the failure of industrialisation, and labour movements.
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How is the culture of Vienna imparted to migrants via integration courses? LIVING TOGETHER accom panies new immigrants from various backgrounds during their first steps in Vienna. What images and expectations do they have about their new city? What information and which values are addressed – and avoided – in these integration courses?
REGIONAL PREMIERE Living Together Austria, 2022, Colour, 90 min, German, English Director: Thomas Fürhapter Screenplay: Thomas Fürhapter
TOO CLOSE is an intimate portrait of Andrea, a single mother in her forties, who faced every woman’s worst fear. It all began as a fairy-tale romance when she fell in love with a charming man from a wellrespected local family. When the man entered her life, Andrea was divorced and raising her nine-year-old daughter alone. What seemed to be a hopeful shift turned out to be an ordeal: during their seemingly perfect relationship, her partner, the man Andrea trusted the most, was abusing her daughter. Moreover, while the abuse was taking place, Andrea became pregnant. She was carrying the perpetrator’s baby. Her life forever changed, Andrea did everything in her power to protect her family and bring the man to justice. Her ex-partner was imprisoned for his crime for some time but was released and moved back to their small village, where shaming and fear turned Andrea’s life into a nightmare. WORLD PREMIERE Too Close Romania, Hungary, 2022, Colour, 85 min, Romanian, Hungarian Director: Botond Püsök Screenplay: Botond Püsök
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REGIONAL PREMIERE A Provincial Hospital Bulgaria, Germany, 2022, Colour, 110 min, Bulgarian
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE We, ... Composition Kosovo, Germany, 2022, 15 min, German
Director: Visar Jusufi Screenplay: Visar Jusufi Kyustendil, a sleepy town in the Bulgarian mountains, has been hard hit by Covid. In a close-knit com munity, patients meet former classmates in the same hospital room. Banter can often be heard in the corridors, but death is never far. Many patients live in constant fear of deteriorating quickly and being sent “upstairs.” “Upstairs” is the intensive care unit, where only a handful are known to have survived. Presiding over the perpetual stream of complicated cases is Dr. Popov. Tall and kind-hearted, for some he has a witty line, for others a quote from Kant. Some of them misfire, but through the quiet dread in the hospital, the doctor exudes a profusion of human warmth. Unexpectedly, light and laughter echo through the hospital halls.
Screenplay: Ilian Metev, Ivan Chertov, Zlatina Teneva
The director asks in a very personal way whether one should still dream.
Director: Ilian Metev, Ivan Chertov, Zlatina Teneva
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B&H PREMIERE Museum of the Revolution Serbia, Croatia, Czech Republic, 2021, Colour, 91 min, Serbian, Romany Director: Srđan Keča Screenplay: Srđan Keča Director Marta Smerechynska approaches her sister Nastia after six years of silence. She films Nastia’s life in a new home – a convent of the Brides of Christ located in Western Ukraine. Marta’s relationship with Nastia, who has renounced all her human possessions to become a part of this isolated world, reflects the experience of other families and their daughters inside the closed religious community. Unlike when she is talking to her sister, Smerechynska manages to discuss her emotions and feelings freely with nuns, who see her as a point of connection to their past. The film explores their loss, misunderstandings, and judgments. Smerechynska not only struggles with the rules set by the nunnery but also rediscovers her own beliefs and values. Searching for answers, she rediscovers love for her sister and her companions throughout this journey, despite their paths taking very different directions.
WORLD PREMIERE Diary of a Bride of Christ Ukraine, 2021, Colour, 90 min, Ukrainian, Spanish Director: Marta Smerechynska Screenplay: Marta Smerechynska
“The wind got up in the night and took our plans away,” reads the proverb in the opening titles of MU SEUM OF THE REVOLUTION. The words are a reference to the 1961 plan to build a grand museum in Bel grade as a tribute to Socialist Yugoslavia. Meant to “safeguard the truth” about the Yugoslav people, the plan never went beyond the construction of the basement. The derelict building now tells a very different story than that envisioned by the initiators sixty years ago. In the damp, pitch-dark space live the outcasts of a society reshaped by capitalism. The film focuses on a girl who earns cash on the street by cleaning car windows with her mother, and who has a close friendship with an old woman who also lives in the basement. Against the background of a transforming city, the three women find refuge in each other.
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Anikó and Laci are a middle-aged couple living in a small town in Hungary. Before winning two million euros in 2013, their circumstances were miserable. Still, they managed stability, living in deep poverty, often dreaming of a holiday by the sea. Once they hit the jackpot, hand in hand, truly full of gratitude, the couple dove into a life of what they considered luxury. For Laci, this means the “privilege of not doing,” while for Anikó this means the “power of doing.” On their way to realising material happiness, their rela tionship has changed. The wife doesn’t understand her husband’s behaviour, while the husband cannot accept his “new” wife. The personal story of the couple’s delight and unexpected difficulties is shown in this contemporary fable about finding happiness.
REGIONAL PREMIERE Microbiome Greece, 2021, Colour, 27 min, Greek
Director: Stavros Petropoulos Screenplay: Stavros Petropoulos
Director: Mátyás Kálmán
The limits of intrusion into the peaceful lives of the inhabitants of the island of Ikaria are being tested by the quest of a group of scientists to find the secret of a long and healthy life. A clash of energies arises between the locals and the perplexed scientists, who leave no stone unturned in the attempt to under stand frozen time and intriguing idiosyncrasies. A comedic study in pacing and reframing a world view.
Screenplay: Mátyás Kálmán
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WORLD PREMIERE Paying a Visit to Fortuna Hungary, Croatia, 2022, Colour, 74 min, Hungarian
20 I HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD 2022 Under the auspices of the Kingdom of the Nether lands, the 2022 Sarajevo Film Festival organises its annual 14th Human Rights Day programme, which includes a screening of Anna Shishova’s THE NEW GREATNESS CASE. Speaking out against human rights violations remains the guiding principle of this festival programme. Currently, we are seeing the devastating consequences of the Russian re gime’s human rights abuses in the case of the war in Ukraine. With this in mind, we have decided to show this film to general audiences and to include young activists from the region in the discussion. We are delighted to announce that this year’s Hu man Rights Day programme includes a workshop for young activists aged between 18 and 25 from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Western Bal kans. The workshop is organised in partnership with KULT and Young European Ambassadors. As in previous years, the programme also features a panel discussion and opening remarks. The pan el’s moderator is film critic True Steen Mueller.
“Surprised? No, I guess not, if you follow the re ports coming out of Russia. I used to go to Rus sia for film events and I know a lot of filmmakers, friends with whom I have talked about how life passes while you are not busy doing something other than making films. Always being care ful not to get into trouble when demonstrations take place. As Anna Shishova, the director of THE NEW GREATNESS CASE, which has been chosen for this Human Rights Day event said in an in terview: ‘For 10 or 20 years, the legal system in Russia has drifted in a totalitarian direction. We have many new laws. One of those laws says that if you say something bad against authority, you can be put in jail. Another law punishes extremist organisations, which means you are guilty if you say something against authority within a group.’
INTRODUCTION BY TUE STEEN MUELLER: “One of my Russian friends wrote this to me not long ago: ‘A few days ago … two women and their five children aged 7 to 11 were detained at the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow. The children made a ‘No War’ poster and went with it. All seven were detained by the police. At first, they were kept in a paddy wagon; then they were taken to the Pres nenskoye police department. Initially, all those who had been arrested were going to be left at the station, but the any children and their moth ers were released. Now parents are waiting for court appearances, fines, and they are afraid they will be deprived of parental rights. They are look ing for a human rights lawyer….’
“Words I have heard again and again when visiting St. Petersburg or Moscow. Often said with a twist of irony, making fun of the regime and its leaders.
A New Generation’s Fight for Human Rights
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There is no more irony – there is a need for con stant good journalism and documentaries like THE NEW GREATNESS CASE. “The film: Anya Pavlikova. Seventeen years old. She is in a courtroom, inside the terrible glass enclosure we know so well from films about the Russian justice system. Her parents sit in front of the glass. The camera catches Anya’s nervous face: she seems to be on the edge of a break down. Fear! A judge enters the room and reads out the verdict: Anya is sentenced to three years in prison for her participation in a group of young sters called the New Greatness… The beginning of a superb “Shisova’sfilm.film is what a documentary should be: it documents; it interprets; it asks for reflection; it has a strong emotional impact on the audience. It tells the story of young people who were chat ting on the internet discussing all kinds of matters, including the social and the political. And it stays with the parents and sketches a gripping portrait of the mother. “What is new here, at least for me, is the skill with which the regime works with informers, who – as the film shows so well – infiltrated the young sters, invited them to have their own “office” and pushed them to go to demonstrations with leaflet, until eventually they were arrested for speaking out against the government, etc. Anya was one of those captured by the surveillance cameras set up by the secret service. In a room that comes back again and again with the main informer in the pic ture. “UnlikeAbsurd!many other films about opposition that have come from Russia, like those on Navalny, Boris Nemtsov, and Anna Politkovskaya, THE NEW GREATNESS CASE follows Anya’s family, especially her mother, who turns fear into a hunger strike and herself into one of the many political activists we hear too little about. “The film has been characterised as ‘a chilling portrait of the intensified crackdown on dissent and free expression in Putin’s Russia’ (Sheffield DocFest). True! “Just imagine: Of the 30 articles in the UN dec laration of Human Rights, how many would be relevant for a discussion after the film screening. Quite a lot I would say!”
“Since 24 February 2022, I have not travelled to Russia – and many filmmakers have left the coun try. The brutality has increased, demonstrators are knocked down and imprisoned. And the bru tality in the war against Ukraine is indescribable.
7 / Screening
7 / Screening HUMAN RIGHTS DAY FILM: THE NEW GREATNESS CASE
7 / Screening Dealing With the Past – Short Documentaries WHAT’S THIS COUNTRY CALLED NOW? Director: Joseph Pierson Country: United States Director:CUTTINGDavor Marinković Country: Serbia Director:B4 Alen Šimić Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina *Please secure your ticket at the Box Office
Red Cross Society in B&H (Kranjčevićeva 2)
SUNDAY, 14TH OF AUGUST 19:00 Cineplexx
Screening
ANOTHER SPRING Director: Mladen Kovačević Country: Serbia, France, Qatar 19:00 Cineplexx
Director: Ari Folman Country: Israel, France, Germany, United States, Finland, Switzerland, Belgium, Australia
WALTZ WITH BASHIR
12TH TO 19TH OF AUGUST 12:00 – 20:00
Director: Ari Folman Countries: Belgium, Luxembourg, Israel, Netherlands, France MONDAY, 15TH OF AUGUST 15:00 National Theatre AS FAR AS I CAN WALK Director: Stefan Arsenijević Countries: Serbia, France, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Lithuania TUESDAY, 16TH OF AUGUST 12:00 Cineplexx Director: Anna Shishova Countries: Finland, Croatia, Norway 13:30 – 15:00 19:00 Cineplexx
SATURDAY, 13TH OF AUGUST 15:30 Cineplexx
WHERE IS ANNE FRANK
EXHIBITION: MARIUPOL
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22 I HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD 2022 Human Rights Day Programme: Supported by the Embassy of the Netherlands
Cineplexx 7 HUMAN RIGHTS DAY PANEL DISCUSSION
7 / Screening
AIDA ČERKEZ is a writer, manager and editor with 20 years experience in covering the Balkan region for major international media organisations. She was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1962, and grew up in the former Yugoslavia and Germany. Aida Cerkez became chief of the Associated Press (AP) Sarajevo bureau in 1994, while the Bosnian capital was under siege. She assumed responsibility for the AP’s coverage of the ongoing conflict in words and images, as well as managing logistics and security for more than and dozen local employees in three field offices, and for visiting correspondents. In 1995, Ms.Cerkez won the Associated Press’ Gramling Award for best managed media operation. In 2005 Aida Cerkez joined the board of the Centre for Investigative Journalism, based in Sarajevo and as of 2017, she is news editor at the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
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Ms. Hanušić Bećirović holds a Law degree from the University of Sarajevo and has received from the University of Strasbourg a master’s degree in Public International Law. She has completed numerous education programs, including the Open Society Fund Policy Development Fellowship Program and the Council of Europe School of Political Studies.
ADRIJANA HANUŠIĆ BEŠIROVIĆ has been active since 2012 as a Senior Legal Adviser at TRIAL Interna tional, a non-governmental organization which fights impunity for international crimes and represents victims of war crimes in their quest for justice and reparation. From 2019 to 2021, she served on the UN Secretary-General’s Civil Society Advisory Board on prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse. She has served as a human rights consultant to the OSCE Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to various NGOs in Bosnia and Herzegovina and abroad, with a focus on international human rights standards, transitional justice, women’s rights, constitutional and anti-discrimination law. From 2017 to 2022, Ms. Hanušić Bećirović sat on the board of Sarajevo Open Center. From 2010 to 2012, she worked in a law of fice, and provided legal expertise to the B&H Parliamentary Assembly during 2012. From 2012 to 2013, she was a UNDP legal expert to the National Human Rights Ombudsmen Institution. In 2008 and 2009, she was a fellow of the German Parliament and a trainee at the Council of Europe Venice Commission.
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 Eu rope. 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 Herzegov 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.
DAMIR ŠAGOLJ born in 1971 in Sarajevo, is a Bosnian photographer and journalist. He completed pow er 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 photojournal ist. 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 Human Rights Day Programme
AMBASSADOR JOHANN SATTLER is the Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina and is the European Union Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina as of 1 Sep tember 2019. He graduated from Innsbruck University in 1994 with a Diploma/Master in Political Science and Slavic Languages and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced International Studies from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. He completed his PhD in Political Science at the University of Vienna in 2008. Throughout his previous experience, and his most recent experience as Austrian ambassador to Albania, Ambassador Sattler has had a particular focus on the Western Balkans. In 1996 he joined the Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs in the Human Rights Department. In 1997, he joined the European Community Monitoring Mission, where he was posted to Sarajevo and Tirana. More recently, he was the Head of the Western Balkans Unit within the Directorate for Eastern/South Eastern Europe at the Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. He took up ambassadorial duties in Albania in 2016. He was born in 1969 in Austria. Apart from native German, Ambassador Sattler is fluent in English and Russian, and proficient in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and Albanian.
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.
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 Com munication 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 pub lished 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.
NATAŠA URBAN is a documentary film director and editor working professionally since 2005. Her films, such as Journey of a Red Fridge (IDFA First Appearance Competition 2007, IDFA Top 25 Audience Favor ites 2007) and Big Sister Punam (UNICEF Award for Children Rights), have been screened at over 100 in ternational film festivals and have received 40 awards. They have aired on major TV networks worldwide, including ARTE, RAI, ZDF, DR2, YLE, ORF, RSI, and PBS, and are part of educational programs in schools around the globe, from Ghana to Mongolia. Nataša graduated in 2001 from Bucharest’s University of Arts, in the Department of Photography and Video. She also holds a Master’s degree in Photography, awarded by the University of Arts in Belgrade in 2008. Between 2005-2013, Nataša made films under the name of LUNAM DOCS. She took part in ESoDoc 2006, IDFAcademy 2007, IDFA Summer School 2014, Berlinale Talents 2015, and Werner Herzog Rogue Film School 2016.
24 I HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD 2022 other issues. He lived in Russia, Thailand, China and spent years in the Middle East. Damir’s work was recognized 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.
NERMIN HAMZAGIĆ graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo where he works as an assistant professor. He directed several theater shows, performances as well as short films and documen taries. In 2019 he directed his first feature film “Full Moon”. European Film Academy nominated “Full Moon” for the European Discovery Price -Prix Fipresci 2020.
REFIK HODŽIĆ is a writer, journalist and strategic communications specialist from Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has worked for more than 25 years in the field of transitional justice, with a particular focus on the role of media and communications. He currently works as a strategic communications con
LEJLA GAČANICA is a PhD candidate in law, currently working as a legal expert and independent re searcher 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.
sultant on Syria with the European Institute for Peace and the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, and recently in Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. Hodžić served as ICTJ’s director of communications from 2011-2017. While with the ICTJ Hodžić worked in various capacities as an expert in strategic com munications in transitional justice processes on contexts as diverse as the former Yugoslavia, Tunisia, Lebanon, Colombia, Kenya, Guatemala, Syria, Canada, Uganda and Nepal. Hodžić served with the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia from 2000–2004 and 2006–2010 as the Tribunal’s spokesman and outreach coordinator for Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was the first head of the public information and outreach section of the Court of Bosnia. In 2004, Hodžić co-founded XY Films, an independent film and television production company producing documentary films dealing with the legacy of war crimes committed during the 1990s. With XY Films he authored award-winning documen taries and television series. Hodžić has published extensively in international media and academic pub lications on victims’ rights and the relationship between media and transitional justice. He is one of the founders of “White Armband Day,” a globally-recognized grassroots campaign for the rights of victims’ families in Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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LEJLA HODŽIĆ gratuated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo, From 1993 she works in contempo rary arts field (Obala Art Center Sarajevo 1993-94, Sarajevo Center for Contemporary Art SCCA/pro.ba 1997-2003, from 2004 as freelance) as curator of numerous art exhibitions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and abroad. Costume designer of four awarded feature films directed by Jasmila Žbanić: Grbavica, 2006; On The Road, 2010; For Those Who Can’t Speak, 2012; Island Of Love, 2014; and short films by Jasmila Žbanić, Sasa Peševski, Ermin Bravo, Alen Šimić, Alban Ukaj. Since 2010, she has worked in costume design and scenography for about 60 theatre plays in theaters in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region (direct ed by Dino Mustafić, Admir Glamočak, Paolo Magelli, Pjer Žalica, Selma Spahić, Tanja Miletić-Oručević, Andras Urban, Boris Liješević, Aleš Kurt, Kokan Mladenović etc.) for which she was awarded at the Festi vals in Jajce (2011, 2013, 2016), Zenica (2017, 2021) and Užice (2019).
MAIDA MUMINOVIĆ is Executive director of Mediacentar Sarajevo. She is responsible for design and management of media and civil society development projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the WB region in the domain of media education, media research and freedom of expression outreach and ad vocacy. Her particular area of interest is capacitating human rights CSOs with communications and out reach skills, so that their causes are better presented in media reports.
SINIŠA JURIČIĆ was born in 1965 in Zagreb, graduated in production from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb in 2009. Founded Nukleus Film in 2002. His focus is on the production of films by talented film makers from Southeast Europe. The films produced have been awarded and funded in and outside the country, winning awards in Cannes and Berlin. In 2012, he was awarded the annual Albert Kapovic Award by the Croatian Producers Association for his contribution to the international promotion of Croatian film. He is a member of the European Film Academy and the production networks of EAVE, ACE and Inside Pictures.
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 re searcher 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/
AGNES PICOD has 25 years of experience in the field of human rights, mostly with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), including on economic and social rights and in supporting OHCHR field operations across the world. She has a Masters’ degree in international human rights law and a Master’s degree in literatures and civilizations of Anglophone countries, with a focus on American studies.
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 col lection 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 — Recon struction 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.
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ANOTHER SPRING is a “medical thriller” reconstructed from fifty-year-old archival footage taken place in the spring of 1972, when the smallpox virus was brought into Yugoslavia from a bazaar in Iraq. The disease spread for a full month before it was discovered in Kosovo, while in Belgrade it remained unde tected even when the first victims started dying. Smallpox, the deadliest disease in human history, killed nearly 500 million people in the twentieth century alone. It is also the only deadly virus humans have eradicated, a feat regarded as one of the greatest achievements of our civilization. In a story that united the entire world, the Yugoslavian smallpox epidemic is still remembered as one of the most horrifying and inspiring chapters. It was the final outbreak of the disease in Europe. Anya was an ordinary teenager who dreamed of making life in Russia better. In March 2018, she was arrested and incarcerated on charges of forming an extremist group with the aim of violently overthrow ing the government. During three following years, her mother Julia desperately struggles to prove her daughter’s innocence. Fighting for justice and learning the real state of affairs step-by-step, Julia has been transformed from an apolitical citizen into a passionate human rights activist.
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Another Spring Serbia, France, Qatar, 2022, Colour and B&W, 90 min, Serbian, Albanian, English Director: Mladen Kovačević
Screenplay: Mladen Kovačević
The New Greatness Case Finland, Croatia, Norway, 2022, Colour, 92 min, Russian Director: Anna Shishova Screenplay: Anna Shishova
Where Is Anne Frank? Belgium, Luxembourg, Israel, Netherlands, France, 2021, Colour, 99 min, English Director: Ari Folman creenplay: Ari Folman
Waltz with Bashir Israel, France, Germany, United States, Finland, Switzerland, Belgium, Australia, 2008, Colour, 90 min, Hebrew, Arabic, German, English Director: Ari Folman Screenplay: Ari Folman
WHERE IS ANNE FRANK begins with a miracle: Kitty, the imaginary friend to whom Anne Frank wrote in her famous diary, comes to life in present-day Amsterdam. Unaware that seventy-five years have gone by, Kitty is convinced that if she is alive, then Anne must be alive too. WHERE IS ANNE FRANK tells the story of Kitty’s quest across contemporary Europe to find her beloved friend. Armed with the precious diary and with help from her friend Peter, who runs a secret shelter for undocumented refugees, Kitty fol lows Anne’s traces, from the Annex to her tragic end in the Holocaust. Disoriented by our broken world, and the injustices that child refugees endure, Kitty wants to fulfill Anne’s cause. Through her honesty, she presents a message of hope and generosity addressed to future generations. One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari Folman about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by twenty-six vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there’s a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early 1980s. Folman is surprised that he can’t remember a thing about that period of his life. Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself. As Folman delves deeper and deeper in to the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images.
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A re-imagining of the medieval Serbian epic poem “Banovich Strahinya,” in which contemporary Afri can migrants take the place of Serbian national heroes. After being deported from Germany to Serbia, Ghanaian couple Strahinja and Ababuo cope differently with their new circumstances. While Strahinja is content building his football career, passionate Ababuo does not get the same opportunities to make her ambitions come true, so she joins a group of Syrian refugees on their way to Western Europe. Left alone, Strahinja embarks on an odyssey along the Balkan route to find her.
Director: Stefan Arsenijević Screenplay: Stefan Arsenijević, Bojan Vuletić, Nicolas Ducray
Director: Joseph Pierson Screenplay: Joseph Pierson, Aida Čerkez Robinson
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What’s This Country Called Now? United States, 2018, Colour, 37 min, Bosnian
WHAT’S THIS COUNTRY CALLED NOW? is based on the experiences of Aida Čerkez, a Bosnian woman who worked as a reporter throughout the Siege of Sarajevo. In 1994, on the eightieth anniversary of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Aida had the idea of finding a witness to that seminal event in world history. She found Ismet, now ninety years old, who was ten years old on that fateful day in 1914. He witnessed the shot that triggered the First World War and continued to live in Sarajevo through the years of conflict that followed. Aida interviews Ismet and in the process shares her own perspective on life during wartime.
As Far as I Can Walk Serbia, France, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Lithuania, 2021, Colour, 92 min, English, Serbian
Cutting Serbia, 2022, Colour, 23 min, Bosnian, Serbian, English
CUTTING represents two generations of refugees who are still trying to create a new identity after the break-up of Yugoslavia. Mirjana and Borislav spent most of their lives in a collective centre in Serbia. Now, they take a journey into the past to embrace the future and make roots and a new home.
Director: Davor Marinković Screenplay: Davor Marinković
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Director: Alen Šimić Screenplay: Alen Šimić
B4 Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2020, Colour, 13 min, Bosnian
At the unveiling of a memory plaque where his parents were killed, a director meets the man who saved his life on that very night twenty-six years ago.
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