CoMo No. 11: Bosnia and Herzegovina (March, 2023)

[sally]

[Mario Gaborovic]

Before I write some short info on BH cinematography and culture itself (needed to understand this particular country), I'll first share this 42-minute long documentary.

Džemo (2020)
https://letterboxd.com/film/dzemo/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jsqk4m88GM&t=2527s

Džemal Jašarević is a 46-year old cattleman from the village near Sarajevo whose passion is running. Each morning he runs his pushcart downhill to buy supplies for cows, and then runs uphill - and this he uses as practice. Once arrived home, an all-day hard work is awaiting him. There's only a little additional practice he saw on TV, and that's it - his approach to trail races is completely that of an amateur.
What's extraordinary here, is that Džemo regularly beats all opponents, even professionals and those 20 years younger than him. But there's a backstory of his unusual dedication and enthusiasm to running: Džemo lost an older brother when a grenade hit their family house during the war in Bosnia, killing his 21-year old brother. It's what pushes his motivation forward to victory, whenever the race gets tough.

[niminy-piminy]

starting the viewings...

ORIENTAL DREAM (Damir Nikšić, Michael Blum, 2010) #CoMoHerBo

a post-Ottoman tribute to silent slapstick comedy
https://youtu.be/86w_jcHc1lI

otherwise, i logged only two films (related to this area) in the (recent) past ↓↓ both watched during Ji.hlava MFDF...

DOGS OF HOME (Daniela Repas, 2020)
→ https://www.danielarepas.com/dogs-of-home

Bosnia was divided by war in the 1990s. The older population stayed while the younger population left. The film’s two mediums, documentary and animation, fluctuate along the border of two worlds, which separated time and historical events but are united by a longing for home and family. People are like dogs: they never forget their way home.
https://vimeo.com/424873348

FIRST BIRTHDAY AFTER THE APOCALYPSE (Farah Hasanbegović, 2020)

In her autobiographical documentary, the young director uses cartoon impressions, photographic memories, and the various stages of baking a cake to draw the viewer into her own stream of consciousness, and using images full of kindness, tenderness, and playfulness, she deals with the sadness that began during a children's birthday party many years ago.
https://vimeo.com/467890878

[Mario Gaborovic]

Ljubav i bijes aka Love and Rage (1978)
https://letterboxd.com/film/love-and-rage-1978/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7mnPG9s4a8

Bosnian "Exorcist"-meets-"Rashomon" tells about a wealthy old merchant on his way to Middle East who got entrapped by a gang of outlaws, demanding gold. However he got broke and tells in flashbacks how he lost his fortune due to a unhappy arranged marriage he himself got into - by buying a young and beautiful bride, about 30 years his junior. Once the "rage" possessed her, he seeks help from Orthodox and then Catholic priest, but to no avail. Then he goes to hodja, who sets up an exorcism session to expel the demons. The story then switches to another man, a former warrior also put in chains by the same gang of outlaws, who has a his own version of events.

This is my latest subtitling project btw.

[sally]

This is my latest subtitling project btw.

fab mario. since i get slightly confused at locating bosnian films that aren't in bosnian (language) i'm basically using your mubi list....and then discovering that i don't seem to be able to find many of the 60's or before films, which is i guess is the period when yugo cinema in general exploded and the ones i'd be interested in most (and i doubt there are silents, are the any silent films?) i can only find the bridge, playing soldiers, and the city...you with your secret ways, know how to find any others? (with subtitles)

also the archaeologist in me would really like to see the short film kameni spavač (1969), any idea if there are subs for that? (there's french hardcoded, but since it's poetry, not sure my french is adequate)

also quite fancy swedish package holiday, so if anyone can get a hold of that....
https://letterboxd.com/film/swedish-package-holiday/

[Mario Gaborovic]

I'll give you a proper and long directions what to watch + where to find gems. The biggest film studio in Sarajevo before the war was Sutjeska Film, which is demolished by grenades and torn down around 1992. It produced the country's best films to date, and many of these were available on YouTube until the copyrights issue deleted them. Some minor number of films is still on, though.

It is a shame because most accolades Bosnian cinema won (before the era of Kusturica and Jasmila Žbanić) were short documentaries made in this studio, and they very often brought awards from the festivals such as Oberhausen.

Until then you can watch what I've suggested already.

There is no Bosnian silents available, the earliest ever film was made in 1937 and the earliest available is Dayak Boat from 1940 and some other shorts by Aleksandar Bojko, if it's still on). They only made their first feature film in 1951, titled Mayor Bauk; Bosnia was usually a lot behind other ex-YU republics in many ways, for example first Serbian feature was made 40 years prior in 1911. It was same thing with popular music for example.

[Mario Gaborovic]

I've found Kameni spavač with French subtitles, but you must wait until I made subtitles. I wanted to do for some shorts anyway.

As you can see, Bakir Tanović is behind this short and the feature I suggested above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYGN7ytEduQ

[sally]

As you can see, Bakir Tanović is behind this short and the feature I suggested above.

[Mario Gaborovic]

Two regions in the country's name are historical; they are no administrative entities today. Bosnian largest town is Sarajevo and Herzegovina's largest is Mostar.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... le.svg.png

After the war, the country was divided along the ethnic lines, based on Dayton treaty from 1995. They made two entities: Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (overwhelmingly populated by Muslims and Croats) and Republika Srpska (overwhelmingly populated by Serbs). There is also a independent district of Brčko (mainly populated by Croats) in the northeast.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... na.svg.png

Short history class: when Ottomans invaded Balkans, they introduced Islam to this area and those (already present) Serbs and Croats who accepted Turkish religion, customs, etc. simply became Muslims; only after the 1990s ethnic conflicts they were named Bosniaks, I guess to easily differ them from Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats, because when one says Bosnian, it doesn't really points out their exact confession. So when one says Bosniaks, he refers to Bosnian Muslims.

Nowadays, Bosnian Muslims or Bosniaks are majority of around 51%, followed by Serbs by 33% and Croats of around 16%. Croatian ethnic population mostly lives in Herzegovina and in the district of Brčko.

There were many inter-ethnic marriages before the war, but quite rarely today - for obvious reasons. Muslim majority usually have Turkish names adapted to Slavic "ić" at the end of surnames. People's names are just modified versions of typical Arab/Turkish names (for example Ibrahim, Ahmed, Nihad, Lejla, Amina, Sulejman, Zaim, Halid, Džemila, Dževad, Džemal etc).

Diaspora lives most notably in Sweden, Germany or in other corners of developed West.

Important part of Bosnian culture is their music, called SEVDAH (which loosely means longing, desire for something unreachable if you like). It sounds like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyINpy04hQg

So basically this is a country at the very crossroads of Austro-Hungarian and Turkish empires, heavily influenced by Oriental culture & architecture and upgraded with post-WW2 socialist landscapes. It is a country of high mountains and forests, largely preserved natural beauties, cloudy weather, trains and railways, mines and coffee.

[niminy-piminy]

THE FUSE: OR HOW I BURNED SIMON BOLIVAR (Igor Drljača, 2011) #CoMoHerBo
https://vimeo.com/276638679

10 MINUTES (Ahmed Imamović, 2002) #CoMoHerBo
https://youtu.be/W9qm-Vbhglc

[niminy-piminy]

i watched these two ↓↓ without subs (could understand only occasionally some words here and there, for example, "melioracija").
in the second, the stream of the river flows so fast that it protrudes the aspect ratio of the film screen.

ABDUCTED LAND (Hajrudin Krvavac, 1954) #CoMoHerBo
https://youtu.be/f42FsXfFQY8

IN THE VALLEY OF NERETVA (Hajrudin Krvavac, 1954) #CoMoHerBo
https://youtu.be/bWzPKobLrB4

The Neretva is the largest karst river in the Dinaric Alps in the eastern part of the Adriatic basin/watershed. Its total length is 225 km (140 miles), of which 208 km (129 miles) are in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the final 22 km (14 miles) are in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County of Croatia.

[Mario Gaborovic]

There's a puppet-animated short you can watch without subs. Only at the beginning it says "Emil and Jasna" and "President of the Jury and the three beauties in the film..."

Miss Zelengrada aka The Beauty Pageant of Greentown (1962)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGFC_EfL5xs

Hajrudin 'Šiba' Krvavac was predominantly known as WW2-themed movies, the best being "The Bridge" and the most commercially successful "Walter Defends Sarajevo".

[Mario Gaborovic]

Now on to the one director I like the most... Ademir Kenović.

[sally]

There's a puppet-animated short you can watch without subs.

thank you! i was wondering about animation

[Mario Gaborovic]

Ovo malo duše aka A Little Bit of Soul (1987)



In post-war rural Bosnia, the story revolves around a poor family who go through a turning point when mother of the house is on her deathbed. Ibrahim is concerned about his children's future and decides to marry his 14-year old son Nihad, who barely knows beyond playing kid's games, let alone what women or life in general is. His first neighbor (and mate) is a pretty girl of a wealthy merchant, however her father has other plans and sends her to the nearby city. Rather quickly they set him up with an arranged marriage, and Nihad turns to despair and (some) alcohol. As one would expect.

Here we have a circle of poverty that white trash find themselves into, especially after they neglect education since they don't know any better. Their lives aren't theirs, just like the marriage; Nihad's fate is sealed even before his moustache grow. Just like the parable of the sun and the eye at the very end of the movie: as close as it seems, your first neighbor has more options and is out of reach, and for good.

But don't this sour synopsis fool you: there's an abundance of humor all throughout. But the soul itself is always in the focus; just like their old grandpa who wants to make a will, goes all the way down to the city, but "somehow he can't".

This is my favourite BH film, and one of two of Ademir Kenović I would easily recommend.

[niminy-piminy]

the first dafilms viewing (another river)...

A DAY ON THE DRINA (Ines Tanović, 2011) #CoMoHerBo

https://dafilms.com/film/9042-a-day-on-the-drina
Summer 2010 looks so carefree in a hot Sarajevo. In the media, I read the call for volunteers who will help dig up human remains in the mud lake Perucac. The forensic team is racing with time. The Republic of Serbia threatens to let water through the dam and flood the lake again. And the witness of a terrible crime would again disappear underwater. I'm thinking, what I can do about it? Cancel my holiday and make a movie about the event, so that it is not forgotten.

The Drina is a 346 km (215 mi) long river, which forms a large portion of the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.
Lake Perućac is an artificial lake on the Drina River, on the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. It was created in 1966 and occupies a natural bend of the river, which encircles the Tara mountain, between towns of Višegrad in Bosnia and Bajina Bašta in Serbia.

[niminy-piminy]

FLOODS (Milutin Kosovac, Hajrudin Krvavac, 1960) #CoMoHerBo

Floods in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1959
https://youtu.be/GWA8ijMtrrg

[Mario Gaborovic]

Kuduz (1989)
https://letterboxd.com/film/kuduz/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vf2kjS7oAI

Based on a true story (slightly modified), this film follows a poorly educated, but honest and hardworking hot-tempered man who is released from prison and tries to fit in again. Then he meets a single mother who turns out to be a home-wrecker with questionable past. However the main character forms a strong and affectionate bond with his wife's daughter, and their relationship winds throughout like the brightest moment where the stage was set up for a tragedy long before.

In reality, in 1985 Junuz Kečo (here named as Kuduz Bećir) stabbed his wife and then went to hide in the mountains for about half a year, until the police arrested him during routine check at the Montenegrin seaside where he was making his living as a bricklayer. He was released in 1993 whe the war broke out. He and his wife's daughter (14 at the time) died when they were running for cover, and found holding their hands.

[Mario Gaborovic]

This is my latest subtitling project btw.

fab mario. since i get slightly confused at locating bosnian films that aren't in bosnian (language) i'm basically using your mubi list....and then discovering that i don't seem to be able to find many of the 60's or before films, which is i guess is the period when yugo cinema in general exploded and the ones i'd be interested in most (and i doubt there are silents, are the any silent films?) i can only find the bridge, playing soldiers, and the city...you with your secret ways, know how to find any others? (with subtitles)

also the archaeologist in me would really like to see the short film kameni spavač (1969), any idea if there are subs for that? (there's french hardcoded, but since it's poetry, not sure my french is adequate)

also quite fancy swedish package holiday, so if anyone can get a hold of that....
https://letterboxd.com/film/swedish-package-holiday/

It's easy because pre-1990 there were only a few film studios in B&H:

- Sutjeska Film (largest and best known)
- Bosna Film (pioneer studio but of limited production)
- Studio Film Sarajevo (a small arthouse studio, similar like Kino Klub's that existed in every other larger city)

[Mario Gaborovic]

Ok 1960s shall be... A French nouvelle vague made impact on more than a few local directors, too. It was Mirza Idrizović debut and certainly the most valuable film of his.

Ram za sliku moje drage / Frame for the Picture of My Beloved One (1968)
https://letterboxd.com/film/frame-for-t ... loved-one/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv6E1eUtjiQ

A group of boys enter the adolescence discovering erotica. On comes a young student who just moved into their neighborhood to teach them about sex while they use his window as a goal.



There's also a young woman who washes herself every morning and they watch her through a peephole.

[sally]

just want to note that i'm not ignoring bosnia (aside from teen boy coming of age stories which mario knows i hate) only my computer-fucked situation means that it's streaming only at the minute

[Mario Gaborovic]

just want to note that i'm not ignoring bosnia (aside from teen boy coming of age stories which mario knows i hate) only my computer-fucked situation means that it's streaming only at the minute

I know you hate that but coming-of-age is not really the focus. IMO avoiding/skipping just because it 'smells like teen spirit' would spare you a lot of great movies.

Karl watched Ovo malo duše and rated it 4/5, need I say more?

[niminy-piminy]

YOUNG MEN DISCOVERING THE WORLD (Radim Špaček, 1996) #CoMoHerBo
free download with the permission of the author (in Serbo-Croatian, very little Czech, Czech subs)
→ https://uloz.to/file/fUsWPTjwJ/mladi-mu ... qLIwD5BN==

The writing-directing debut for Prague Film Academy (FAMU) student Radim Špaček. Shot on location during the military conflict in Bosnia, the drama focuses on a Czech journalist reporting on the situation in Sarajevo. The austere style, most effective in raw documentary scenes of young Sarajevans offering testimony, made the filmmaker one of the most promising talents of the nineties.

https://english.radio.cz/filmmaker-radi ... ts-8623684

Radim Spacek studied acting at the Prague Conservatory before turning to directing - the first thing I asked him was how he ended up going from being in front of the camera, to behind it.

"Through acting in fact I found directing because when I was around fifteen I was chosen for the lead in Karel Kachyna's "Little Girls and Crazy Guys" and he was a little bit nervous sometimes, he wasn't happy with my acting and he was a bit tough on me. He was a bit tough and I was thinking to myself 'why' am I doing this crazy job? Why am I not the guy behind the camera instead? That's a lot easier! So, that's how I found 'directing' interesting and why I then applied to the FAMU film academy in Prague."

The FAMU film school is of course well-known around the world, made famous primarily in the 1960s when it was attended by people like Vera Chytilova, Milos Forman, Jaromil Jires. How did you find your time there? Did any vestiges of this fame remain?

"I would say that at the time I was studying at FAMU the fame of the school was still all around, especially in former Yugoslavia because of director Emir Kusturica (Time of the Gypsies, Underground, Arizona Dream). But I would say that the atmosphere at the school at that time was a little bit 'thick'. To make something different was difficult and everything was a problem. The sad thing was that the people who were against you were the same directors who made the school famous in the 60s! So, I wasn't really happy to go there and I just went and worked and made short films and made friends with whom it was possible to collaborate. Now, though, the school is completely different."

Your first bigger film project was "Young Men Discovering the World" - set in Bosnia during the war - and in this film you mixed both fictional and documentary elements. How did you arrive at the decision to use both?

"Um, I didn't 'plan' to do it like this, originally I wanted to make a big feature with actors. But, I didn't have enough money - it had a very humble budget - a really home-made feature. In the end I was almost alone on the project, together with my ex-girlfriend and a few friends from Sarajevo who worked for free or for a pair of Reeboks or something.



And, then I found that the real true words that people were saying to me, were more interesting. At the time no one was really listening to these people, caught up in their own problems: each of us carries his own [burden]. I found it better to make more space for these really 'documentary' elements. I am very satisfied with how it turned out. And for me it remains a good example of how such a film can be done. It's the type of film I would probably try again. But, maybe about a different subject, with different people."

December was the tenth anniversary of the end of the war in Bosnia and what always strikes me is how fast the memory fades of what really happened there. How do you look back on the period, when you were actually filming there?

"Technically it was very difficult because, you know, there was no electricity for a number of weeks, and it was hard to recharge batteries or just to get film stock back and forth between Sarajevo and Prague. But, as far as I was concerned I was very happy at that time because I met a lot of great people, brave people, and all the time I was just thinking 'how would I behave in their situation', if war ever came here. And that's probably something that stayed in me for a very long time, until now, that I always try and look at problems from both sides. Always you can remember that there are plenty of people who are in worse situations, even if you're in a bad situation, surrounded by bad people 100 percent there are people who are off worse."

Istoria Umetnosti (History of Art)


What a big book! With this much fuel, my mom can cook three meals.

[sally]

totally personal - nedžad begović (2005) #CoMoHerBo

bosnian submission to the 2006 oscars

all i will say is this pigeon is looking very surprised for a reason...(talk about the male gaze, jeez)

[sally]

I know you hate that but coming-of-age is not really the focus. IMO avoiding/skipping just because it 'smells like teen spirit' would spare you a lot of great movies.

Karl watched Ovo malo duše and rated it 4/5, need I say more?

oh mario, whilst i appreciate karl's appreciation of movies, he's not exactly the world's most progressive feminist...

but anyway i guess i'm now obliged to watch ovo malo duše now aren't i

[Mario Gaborovic]

I know you hate that but coming-of-age is not really the focus. IMO avoiding/skipping just because it 'smells like teen spirit' would spare you a lot of great movies.

Karl watched Ovo malo duše and rated it 4/5, need I say more?

oh mario, whilst i appreciate karl's appreciation of movies, he's not exactly the world's most progressive feminist...

but anyway i guess i'm now obliged to watch ovo malo duše now aren't i

I believe in total equality but not in equity. Women should be doing/be able to do whatever they want, but in most cases they refuse responsibilities that come with independence.

Buy us drinks once in a while, dammit.

[Mario Gaborovic]

The first three feature films of Emir Kusturica (along with two TV films, not remarkable as big-screen efforts) were made in Bosnian production (until 1990s). I shared only the first two because Dom za vešanje/Time of the Gypsies already go too much fame.

Sjećaš li se, Dolly Bell aka Do You Remember, Dolly Bell? (1981)
https://letterboxd.com/film/do-you-remember-dolly-bell/


In 1963, local officials decided to fight the juvenile delinquency with culture - by making musical bands in each municipality. There we have young Dino growing up in the environment of Dad's communist indoctrination, petty crime, Adriano Celentano rock hits, and the love of a hot prostitute.

Otac na službenom putu/When Dad Was Away on Business (1985)
https://letterboxd.com/film/when-father ... -business/


So far the only Cannes Golden Palm winner from Yugoslavia and successor countries. In 1951, a communist apparatchik finds himself in trouble after Cominform resolution, when Stalinists were persecuted without trial and sent to forced labor camps. The story is told in a humorous way through the eyes of his younger son Malik who, being a soccer fan, remembers important dates in his life according to football matches that Yugoslavian team played back then.

In the 1990s Kusturica moved to Serbia, changed religion and was baptized as "Nemanja", thus becoming a kind of a traitor to his own people he originated from, Bosnian Muslims. All subsequent films made and keep making international recognition to a greater or lesser extent, starting from Underground on. But his first films were actually good despite him becoming anti-globalist idiot he turned into.

[Mario Gaborovic]

Which reminds me... for some years Emir was a member of best rock group that ever came from Bosnia, Zabranjeno pušenje (No Smoking). Nearly all members later moved away from Sarajevo and separated into two fractions (Zagreb and Belgrade), the latter of which became Kusturica's supporting musical band which now plays trashy folk-rock, because he also plays guitar occasionally... But the first four albums are truly canon of Yugoslavian discography, and one of the greatest songs they made was for cinephiles! Cinema "May 1st" was a cult theater which now exists only in a song.

To forget defeat and love failure
to forget all injustice and trouble
buy endocarps and a cheap ticket
and come to the cinema "May 1st."

To take revenge on those who beat you
so you don't think you have no worth
for you they'll win today -
steel gadfly or small dragon

And while the wind sways the grass, flags fly
and while the wind ruffles the hair of his beloved one
he wins alone against all, but remember:
it's only on the screen of the cinema "May 1st."

Your girlfriend won't be with you
she doesn't like this kind of movie
she doesn't like cheap talk,
he doesn't like gunfire and he doesn't like smoke

The enemy lies dead in the dust
the dusk is bathed in gunpowder smoke
she leaves with him and it's a happy ending
only on the screen of the cinema "May 1st."

Mr. Jones?
Oh, good morning
How are you? Ok, why?
Because I have some money for you...
Oh, money, how much?
Many, many money, but you got some job to do.
Oh, what?
To kill somebody.
Oh, who?
Mr. Drake.
Oh, I can't do it.
He's my friend. You must do it.

What's playing tonight?
To save my life, I don't know, dude.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV6hWTtzItM

[niminy-piminy]

Zabranjeno pušenje (No Smoking)

i was actually looking for NO SMOKING IN SARAJEVO (Gianluca Loffredo, Andrea Postiglione, 2016, 52m) but can't find it anywhere
→ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6818592/

[Mario Gaborovic]

Zabranjeno pušenje (No Smoking)

i was actually looking for NO SMOKING IN SARAJEVO (Gianluca Loffredo, Andrea Postiglione, 2016, 52m) but can't find it anywhere
→ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6818592/

As I said, it's a trash music, sort of like Balkan folklore mixed with Gypsy vibe and blues. Not my thing.

The original band was a rock band which made four great albums, but it seems that non-Balkan people are only interested to hear what they can't hear at home - trumpets. Ugh! I can't stand them.