Human Rights Day Programme – Films

The New Greatness Case

Finland, Croatia, Norway, 2022, Colour, 92 min, Russian Director: Anna Shishova Screenplay: Anna Shishova

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 overthrowing 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.

Another Spring

Serbia, France, Qatar, 2022, Colour and B&W, 90 min, Serbian, Albanian, English Director: Mladen Kovačević Screenplay: Mladen Kovačević

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 undetected 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.

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

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.

Where Is Anne Frank?

Belgium, Luxembourg, Israel, Netherlands, France, 2021, Colour, 99 min, English Director: Ari Folman creenplay: 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 follows 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.

As Far as I Can Walk

Serbia, France, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Lithuania, 2021, Colour, 92 min, English, Serbian Director: Stefan Arsenijević Screenplay: Stefan Arsenijević, Bojan Vuletić, Nicolas Ducray

A re-imagining of the medieval Serbian epic poem “Banovich Strahinya,” in which contemporary African 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.

What’s This Country Called Now?

United States, 2018, Colour, 37 min, Bosnian Director: Joseph Pierson Screenplay: Joseph Pierson, Aida Čerkez Robinson

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.

B4

Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2020, Colour, 13 min, Bosnian Director: Alen Šimić Screenplay: Alen Šimić

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.

Cutting

Serbia, 2022, Colour, 23 min, Bosnian, Serbian, English Director: Davor Marinković Screenplay: Davor Marinković

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.