RETROSPECTIVE: Retro Sarajevo PT.1

Serbian Epics
Paweł Pawlikowski. United Kingdom, 1992. 41′

From Oscar winner Paweł Pawlikowski, a disturbing documentary about Radovan Karadžić and his narrative, made one year after the beginning of the siege of Sarajevo.

The documentary by Paweł Pawlikowski, later author of such films as Ida and Cold War, offers a rare glimpse behind the lines of the četnics in the first months of the siege, but focuses mainly on the epic and nationalist narrative of Republika Srpska. Among the most disturbing scenes, the film shows an incident also recounted by Emmanuel Carrère in Limonov: the Russian writer shoots from a hill towards the city of Sarajevo.

Followed by

Les Vivants et le Morts de Sarajevo

Shot between 1992 and 1993, Radovan Tadic’s film is an account of everyday life and the fate of some people during the first two years of the siege.

Director Radovan Tadic filmed the siege of Sarajevo for many months, and in this valuable documentary he gives us the stories of the3 Sarajevese, of those who remained prisoners in that city for more than three years. In their search for a normal life, we follow the fates of some people amid horrors and sadness, in a city deprived of everything, bread, water and basic necessities. Under the crosshairs of snipers, surviving one more day is a victory against death.

With the participation of
Alessandro Del Re – Senior Programming Manager for MUBI, Italy, former co-artistic director of Lago Film Fest is co-founder of InLaguna Film Festival and Rete Cinema in Laguna. He has written for various industry magazines and participated in collective volumes (Paolo Benvenuti, Matias Pineiro, Dario Argento). Contributor to international festivals such as Viennale, Short Waves, Pordenone Docs Fest and IsReal.