Sarajevo Film Festival has announced its open-air program, featuring a slate of films including Diego Luna’s Ashes, Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, and Danis Tanović’s No Man’s Land. The section will screen at the festival’s largest venue, the Coca-Cola Open Air Cinema, running alongside the Open Air Premiere program at UNIQA Open Air Cinema Stari Grad.
A diverse lineup for the largest venue
Fatherland opens the section at the Bosnian festival. The film stars Hanns Zischler and Sandra Hüller and will close with No Man’s Land, a 2001 drama set during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. That movie follows Čiki, a soldier in the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who finds himself trapped in the same trench as Nino, a Bosnian Serb soldier.
Ashes premieres in the lineup. Luna’s film follows two siblings forced to leave Mexico and head to Madrid to reunite with their mother. They arrive expecting a reunion, only to find a harsher reality than they imagined. Luna discussed the making of the film and its personal nature during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter at Cannes.
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Also premiering is Minotaur, another feature from Cannes. Andrey Zvyagintsev’s film follows Gleb, a successful company director facing siege from mounting corporate pressures. As his ordered life collapses, the narrative accelerates toward violence.
No Good Men from Shahrbanoo Sadat will also screen in Sarajevo. The film focuses on Naru, the only camerawoman at Kabul’s main TV station. She struggles to keep custody of her three-year-old son after leaving her husband, a serial cheater. Convinced no good men exist in her country, Naru is surprised when Qodrat, the station’s most respected journalist, offers her a career opportunity.
The open-air section includes other titles like Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved, and Michael Winterbottom’s Welcome to Sarajevo. Winterbottom’s film, released in 1997, screens in honor of Woody Harrelson, who was recently named an Honorary Heart of Sarajevo recipient.
Open Air Premiere program details
The festival also unveiled its Open Air Premiere program. This section brings together the most anticipated new films from the former Yugoslavia. These movies screen at UNIQA Open Air Cinema Stari Grad. The best film in this selection, chosen by audiences, will receive the Prix Cineplexx.
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The lineup for this program includes Miroslav Terzić’s 3 Weeks After, Miha Hočevar’s Hidden People, and Marijana Jankovic’s Home. Igor Jelinović’s Honey Bunny will screen, as will Darko Štante’s The Lost Son, Predrag Ličina’s The Virus of Pathological Kindness, and Hari Šečić’s The Widower.
The Widower follows Mirsad, a 62-year-old electrician raised in a patriarchal society. When his daily routine changes after the sudden death of his wife, Enisa, he tries to get used to life without her. He soon realizes that he took her for granted.
The 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival takes place Aug. 14-21.
