ABOUT 13TH ANNUAL BOSNIAN-HERZEGOVINIAN FILM FESTIVAL - 2016
A total of 19 films screened Wednesday through Saturday, May 25 through May 28, 2016, at two Manhattan venues SVA Theatre and Anthology Film Archives.
The program consisted of four blockbuster features, nine documentaries, and six short films, including an animated film including works by eight women directors.
We kicked things off with the BH Film Forum program on Wednesday, May 25 at Anthology Film Archives, the place that hosted our second and third annual BHFF editions back in 2005 and 2006. The evening included the screenings of five films as part of our non-competition program, as well as a special panel presentation featuring Bosnian-Herzegovinian and international film professionals and cinema experts. The panel included Elma Tataragić, Ines Tanović, scholar of cinema and cultural studies Dijana Jelača, and filmmaker and multimedia artist Amir Husak.
Then, from Thursday, May 26 through Saturday, May 28, the action moved to SVA Theatre for a jam-packed, three-day marathon of screenings featuring the 2016 BHFF competition selections and Q&A with the director of Our Everyday Life, Ines Tanović, film’s producer Alem Babić and actor Uliks Fehmiu. The discussion was led by Dijana Jelača.
In 2016, the BHFF is very proud and honored to have developed a much stronger relationship with the Association of Filmmakers in Bosnia-Herzegovina/Udruženje Filmskih Radnika Bosne i Hercegovine (UFRBiH). This year’s festival was supported by both UFRBiH and the Foundation of Cinematography Sarajevo. UFRBiH was also the co-curator of the ‘BH Film Forum panel.
This year’s festival screened the largest number of films in its 13-year history. The year 2016 was also significant as it marked the first time the festival expanded from three to four days.
The festival also received close to 60 submissions this year, the highest number ever.
BHFF 2016 PROGRAM
PICNIC
(Piknik)
2015 | Jure Pavlović | 13 min
Narrative Short
"Picnic" focuses on one of the most important relationships in the life of every man: the father-son relationship. The nature of that relationship is slowly revealed to the audience: the father is only allowed to visit his son under supervision, during time-limited visits. What adds more to the story is that the father clearly did something horrible in the past, for which he deserves the treatment he is getting, and he is aware of it. But still, one should never underestimate the power of the father-son bond…
LIONHEART
(Treba biti lav)
2015 | Sabrina Begović Ćorić | 23 min
Documentary Short
"Lionheart" is a shocking account of an issue that’s not talked about much in Bosnia-Herzegovina: human trafficking. Girls from Moldova, Ukraine, and Romania have been tricked and taken to Bosnia where they became slaves to the nightclub owners. The film centers on a story of a woman from Moldova, who, looking for a better life for herself, became a victim of human trafficking in Bosnia.
NO ONE'S CHILD
(Ničije dete)
2014 | Vuk Ršumović | 95 min
Narrative Feature
In the spring of 1988, a wild boy is found deep in the Bosnian mountains living amongst wolves. He is randomly given the name Haris and sent to an orphanage in Belgrade. He becomes inseparable with another boy, Žika, and slowly starts to show progress. In 1992, after he became a fairly socialized young man, local authorities force him to go back to war-torn Bosnia. "No One’s Child" is based on a true story.
TIGERS
2014 | Danis Tanović | 90 min
Narrative Feature
Everything is going well for Ayan, a young Indian man who just married and has become rising star at his job selling infant formula for a multinational business. But Ayan is horrified when he discovers that the product he’s peddling so successfully can have deadly side effects. Determined to stop the formula’s use, Ayan risks everything in to fight a one-man battle against a global corporation. Based on a real-life story.
ONE DAY IN SARAJEVO
(Jedan dan u Sarajevu)
2015 | Jasmila Žbanić| 60 min
Documentary Feature
"One Day in Sarajevo" is about Sarajevans marking the 100th anniversary of what’s become known as the Sarajevo Assassination: the killing of Austro-Hungarian presumptive heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife on June 28, 1914. The film explores different aspects of events that happened on that day using materials shot by citizens of Sarajevo, each of whom has their own personal interpretation of the event.
REQUIEM FOR PINOCCHIO
2016 | Berin Tuzlić | 11 min
Animated Short
Award-winning animator and cartoonist Berin Tuzlić uses vivid colors and subtle storytelling in this animated short in order to take us on an emotional journey.
The film focuses on the topic of indoctrination at an early age, as the world changes suddenly for a little boy living in Sarajevo at the start of the 1990s.
OUR EVERYDAY LIFE
(Naša svakodnevna priča)
2015 | Ines Tanović | 89 min
Narrative Feature
"Our Everyday Life" is a story about everyday problems of a typical Sarajevo family today.
An entire generation of people who are now in their forties lost their youth in the war, yet the 2000s have offered neither freedom, successful jobs, nor progress; as if the life has been placed on hold.
The characters are ordinary people who wish for better life, comfort, and security. The static camera, the lighting, the warm colors of the costumes and the set design evokes emotion, humor, and human drama.
WHATEVER WILL BE WILL BE
(Bit će šta bude)
2015 | Esma Sarić | 10 min
Narrative Short
The robbery of an old man turns into an adventure where the first-time robber learns a powerful lesson.
This short film features a veteran Bosnian actor, as well as brand new and up-and-coming faces of the Bosnian cinema.
I CAN SPEAK
(Ja mogu da govorim)
2015 | Mirza Skenderagić | 35 min
Documentary Short
Twenty-eight-year old Mirza, who has never tried to cure his stuttering, decides to visit a speech therapist and start therapy.
Meanwhile, he finds four people of different ages who also stutter, and with them he starts a journey into their past, to the moment when the stuttering began. While speaking about themselves and their problems, they find memories they have pushed away, and begin to repair them.
DAMAGED GOODS
(Kalo)
2015 | Nermin Hamzagić | 20 min
Narrative Short
"Damaged Goods" provokes a range of emotions as it paints a snapshot into the life of a young man named Tarik. Tarik’s life seems pretty normal and at times mundane. He spends it working as a stockman in a supermarket. On the surface, Tarik looks and seems happy, but in private he often gets very frustrated dealing with a personal problem that society often mocks. Things change when a young woman starts working nearby Tarik’s supermarket. Tarik takes interest in her, but struggles to communicate his affection.
LAST PERSPECTIVE
(Posljednji pogled)
2015 | Mladen Đukić | 13 min
Narrative Short
Three sisters disguise themselves as zombies in order to survive in a post-apocalyptic world full of infected, former humans.
When they see another uninfected guy, who just ran into a group of zombies, the sisters are in a dilemma: to help him and expose themselves, or let him die?
THE HIGH SUN
(Zvizdan)
2015 | Dalibor Matanić | 122 min
Narrative Feature
"The High Sun" shines a light on three love stories, set in three consecutive decades, in two neighboring Balkan villages with a long history of inter-ethnic hatred. It is a film about the fragility–and intensity–of forbidden love. Taking place from the early 1990s to the modern day, the film probes the intersection of conflict and romance, while affirming the power of love, and the healing effects of time.
I LOVE SFK
(Volim SFK)
2015 | Ada Sokolović | 22 min
Documentary Short
The ethnically-mixed women’s soccer club ‘SFK 2000’ from Bosnia-Herzegovina is the subject of I Love SFK, which documents their losses and victories both on and off the pitch.
The film shows how sport can help unite Bosnians and help them overcome ethnic divisions.
SOUL TRAIN
2015 | Nermin Hamzagić | 78 min
Documentary Feature
This high-energy and highly entertaining (and at times humorous) film is the first-ever to tell stories about Bosnian hip-hop and rap music and the leading Bosnian artists and musicians behind the genre. It’s a rare, surprising, and refreshing look at the people who are keeping the arts alive in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
NO EXCUSES
(Nema ali)
2015 | Faruk Sokolović | 32 min
Documentary Short
No Excuses follows the story of a young history teacher, Haris Jusufović, a Bosniak from Sarajevo, as he tries to memorialize crimes that were committed against the Bosnian Serb civilians during the 1992-95 siege of the city.
100 MILLION DOLLAR HOUSE
2015 | Reshad Kulenović | 53 min
Documentary Feature
In 100 Million Dollar House, a documentary set in the West Bank, a family is offered 100 million dollars to sell their home and leave. The film also features a former Israeli soldier who shares his experiences and attempts to come to terms with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The film explores issues and themes of the meaning of home and the search for identity in a part of the world where tension and conflict continue year after year.