The Sarajevo Film Festival was founded in 1995, in the midst of the Balkan War, in order to distract the population during the long siege that the city has suffered since 1992. Today, twenty years later, we find a different festival. The war is the protagonist, through a dozen documentaries and feature films that serve as catharsis of the drama experienced.
Dealing with the issue of the war in Bosnia is still difficult today. But perhaps it would be useful in repairing the country, if cinema helped to reflect what we are today. This current portrait is especially interesting in societies undergoing reconstruction such as the Yugoslav one. This society needs to transcend horror and darkness. It is in search of references that also address its contemporary problems and challenges.
Paradoxically, despite the fact that remembering the war hurts, the Yugoslavs have made their war history their main tourist attraction. In capitals such as Sarajevo, Belgrade or Mostar it is especially significant. There, souvenirs and guided tours have war as their main ingredient. Faced with this situation, one wonders what Bosniaks, Serbs or Croats see when they look at each other today. The memory of Tito’s Yugoslavia contrasts with the difficulties of a population that wants to “be European”. A society that the lack of employment forces to emigrate or live in precarious situations.
Today, the former Yugoslavia is facing a new challenge, to be the antechamber of Europe for thousands of Syrian and Afghan migrants. Although there are still no documentaries or feature films that show it, they are unwittingly becoming a parapet for the mass exodus to Central Europe in the face of the EU’s unsupportive policies. The volume of migrants sleeping every night in
parks or car parks in Yugoslav cities continues to grow, challenging the humanitarian capacities of countries that already have enough challenges in their own consolidation and redefinition to become refugee camps.
Is this a macabre coincidence, or are the Balkans for some reason the chosen setting for the biggest international conflicts of the last century?