About First annual Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival™ 2003

The First annual BHFF™ was held at the Pioneer Theatre in Manhattan's East Village. It was officially opened by Bosnian director Benjamin Filipovic on Friday, October 24, 2003. The opening screening was a feature film "Remake" by Dino Mustafic. All screenings included a short and a feature film. The photography exhibit by Sara Terry "Aftermath" and artwork by Bosnian teenagers "Aftershock" were also shown.

Benjamin Filipovic is a winner of the Grand Prix of Europe for Best Short Film, Barcelona, 1997. He is a former President of the Association of Filmmakers of Bosnia, a Member of the European Film Academy, and Professor at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Sarajevo and Tuzla. One of his most notable films is Mizaldo, End of Theater / Mizaldo, Kraj Teatra (1994), a drama and documentary about war, people and art in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Press coverage

An article in the Independent Magazine BH Dani Sarajevo, Bosna i Hercegovina, October 31, 2003, about the First annual BHFF. (bosnian only)

Feature Presentations from the First annual BHFF in 2003

Summer in the Golden Valley (Ljeto u Zlatnoj Dolini), Srdjan Vuletic
Fikret Varupa would be just an ordinary sixteen-year-old boy from Sarajevo, had it not been for an incredible stroke of bad luck. At the traditional Muslim funeral service for his father, he learns that his father owes money to Hamid, a man he does not even know. Wishing to repay his father’s debt and to secure forgiveness, Fikret wanders into the real world of Sarajevo, the world ruled by post-war chaos, misery and poverty…

Srdjan Vuletic was born in Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the age of eighteen he enrolled in the Academy of Performing Arts, Dept. of directing. During the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia he joined a hospital team as a nurse, an experience that was later to inspire the film I Burnt Legs. His short film Hop, Skip and Jump won numerous awards.

North Went Mad (Sjever je Poludio), Aida Begic
An eighteen-year-old girl was murdered during a football match. After the murder her body travels from hand to hand. Everyone who gets in touch with the corps thinks that he was the one who murdered her. In the meantime, back at home, Selma's mother is finishing her prom dress.

Aida Begic was born in Sarajevo in 1976. She graduated in directing from the Academy of Performing Arts Sarajevo in 2000. During her studies she produced several TV and theater projects. Her short movie First Death Experience was shown at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.

10 Minutes (Deset Minuta), Ahmed Imamovic
The short film “Deset Minuta” juxtaposes the experiences of a carefree tourist and a hopeless child in Bosnia. The film relates the story of a tourist vacationing in Rome, who is amazed by the fact that photographs can be developed in ten minutes. The time passes quickly for this tourist. Yet for a Bosnian child living in a country shattered by war, the same ten minutes seem to last an eternity.

Ahmed Imamovic graduated from the Academy of Film & Dramatic Arts of the University of Sarajevo in 2002. During his time at the Academy, Imamovic worked for SaGA Production Company filming over thirty documentaries. He also helped to produce Ademir Kenovic’s film, “The Perfect Circle,” as well as Michael Winterbottom’s “Welcome to Sarajevo.” During his career, he has worked as a cameraman, an assistant director and a screenwriter producing documentaries and commercials. His documentary filmography includes “Father's Profession: Witchdoctor of Fortuneteller” (1996) and “Women” (1997). “Deset Minuta” was recently awarded the European Short Film Award presented by the European Film Academy.

Remake, Dino Mustafic
Tragic stories of father and son are interwoven with refinement. With an interval of fifty years in between, the film brings the experience of the start of a war in Sarajevo. “Remake” tells three tragic stories in one. The first is about the young Bosnian Moslem Tarik, who is working in Paris in 1993 on a film script about the life of his father Ahmed. The second story is about Ahmed, who experienced the outbreak of the Second World War in Sarajevo. And finally there is the story of Tarik during the occupation of Sarajevo in 1992, where he was violently separated from his aged father. Remake is however more than a war film. It is also a coming-of-age drama, with scenes in which Ahmed and Tarik (with an intervening period of fifty years) go out with their friends, have fun, fall in love. The restrained acting, the flowing transitions between the flashbacks and the clever cutting make “Remake” a penetrating film experience.

Dino Mustafic was born in Sarajevo in 1969. After graduating from the Academy of Performing Arts and Philosophy, he produced numerous documentaries and video shorts for television. Some of his most noted works are: “Runway of Life” (1993), “Let There Be Light” (1994), and “Miracle in Bosnia” (1995). His films have garnered international attention at various film festivals and programs around the world, including Amsterdam, Montreal, Istanbul, and Gothenburg. In addition to his film pursuits, Mustafic is an accomplished theater director. “Remake” is Mustafic’s first feature film.

Kuduz, Ademir Kenovic
After the release from prison, small-time criminal marries his girlfriend and lives a straight and poor, but happy life with her and her daughter. However, his happiness is shattered by wife's infidelity. Driven mad by jealousy, he kills her and her lover and runs into mountains, thus escaping law for years. This film is based on the true story about Junuz Keco, the last Bosnian outlaw. Kuduz was awarded the Felix Award for Best Film, Best Leading Actress and Best Music. The Special Prize of the Jury was awarded to this film for "its new spirit coming from Sarajevo."

Ademir Kenovic was born in Sarajevo in 1950, Kenovic graduated from the University of Sarajevo in 1969 and studied film, English literature and Art at Dennison University in Ohio. Since 1989, he has been a professor at the Cinema and Theater Academy of Sarajevo. Kenovic has produced and directed a number of documentaries, short feature films, publicity and educational films for Sarajevo Television. Some of his feature films include: "Secret Passage" (2002), and "Man, God, the Monster," aka "MGM/Sarajevo: covjek, Bog, monstrum" (1994), which opened the Director's Fortnight in Cannes, and awarded at the European Academy in Berlin. His "A Little Bit Of Sou"l (Ovo Malo Duše) (1986) opened The Directors' Fortnight at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. In 1990, Kenovic together with Ismet Arnautalic formed SaGA (Sarajevo Group of Authors) which gathers most of Sarajevo film-makers, professionals and students, in addition to a great number of writers, poets, painters and creators in varying fields whose first vocation is to defend artists’ interests.

 

The First annual Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival was held on October 24, 25 and 26, 2003, and was organized by the following organizations and individuals:

-Voice of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Inc.
-Columbia University Harriman Center for Human Rights,
-Dr. Dzemaludin Harba
-Almir Lucevic,
-Damir Pozderac,
-Darko Jelisic,
-Iris Kulasic,
-Jasna Hasovic,
-Leila Rachidi
-Selma Subasic
-Ilhan Ramic

Special thanks go to Vesna Loney for technical support and ultimatemotion.com for web hosting.