The thirteenth BH film festival was held at the Anthology Film Archives and the School of Visual Arts from May 25-28.  Opening the festival, a film forum was held for the first time at the Anthology, presenting two non –competitive documentaries, Faruk Sokolovic’s 2015  No Excuses  and the  2015 100 Million Dollar House by Reshad Kulenovic. They covered severe human rights violations in the Balkans and the West Bank and were followed by an expert panel on the development of Bosnian cinema from the national to transnational frameworks. During the three days session at the School of Visual Arts 14 productions were shown in the competition selected from more than 60 submissions. They included feature films, documentaries and short films with Q & A sessions by the director of Our Everyday Life, Ines Tanovic, its producer Alem Babic, and the actor Uliks Fehmilu.  Productions for the festival were submitted by filmmakers from Bosnia-Herzegovina but also others focusing on BH themes. The BHFF fest is organized by two New York based non – profit organizations, the Voice of Bosnia and Hercegovina and the Academy of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The festival is supported by the Association of Filmmakers in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Foundation of Cinematography Sarajevo and private sponsors.  It has the objective of showing contemporary, political, and cultural issues of that country, is the only platform in the New York metropolitan area for films from Bosnia-Herzegovina and serves to expand its audience base. Golden Apple Awards were bestowed on the best documentary, I can Speak (Mirza Skenderagic), the best short film, Damaged Goods (Nermin Hamzagic) and the best feature Tigers  (Danis Tanovic).  The audience award for best picture went to Our Everyday Life (Ines Tanovic) which was also honored by the jury with a special recognition.

The Association of Filmmakers of BH is the principal force encouraging filmmaking  in that region and had 108 members in 2015. Its members have received numerous prestigious awards over the past 14 years including the Oscar, the Tiger Award (Rotterdam), the Leopard (Locarno), the Golden Bear (Berlin), and the Critic’s Grand Prix (Cannes) to name but a few.  Because most of the submissions to New York’s BHFF come from members of the Association, the high quality of the few productions selected are not surprising. Bosnia-Herzegovina is a small country, has no film industry and produced 51 films last year including two feature films. There were only four minority co-productions and one international production where that country partnered as a principal for, Blood of My  Blood (Marco Bellocchio). Last year Bosnia-Herzegovina joined film promoting agencies of the European Union and should therefore be able to expand its limited film making resources.

 To discuss some of the noteworthy productions screened in the competition:

Lionheart, Sabrina Begovic, Coric, 2015

Periods of turmoil, fractured borders, broken security, corruption and economic deprivations created a ready terrain for human trafficking as has been the case in much of the Balkans after the 1990s and specifically in Bosnia. With the expansion of the European Union, an influx of East European women involved in the sex trade has been characteristic for affluent West European countries. Prostitution for most women is not voluntary but a result of trafficking where impoverished women looking for a better life become victims of the highly profitable sex trade.  Lionheart offers a first person account of a woman tricked into the sex trade who after severe abuse escapes into an equally oppressive marriage but is able to eventually to free herself. 

Picnic, Jure Pavlovic, 2015

In this 13 minute short the conflictual relation between a youngster and his father and its momentary resolution is revealed in a brief encounter the father is allowed during a visit at his son’s institution. Though the source of the conflict remains unknown and the son’s lifestyle is rejected by the father an underlying emotional bond creates harmony when the meeting comes to an end. The initial hostility fades and the separation when they part is painful to both of them. Picnic is a sensitive and subdued, but effective, depiction of the father-son relation.

No One’s Child, Vuk Rsumovic, 2014 

The narrative of this impressive feature reminds viewers of Francoise Truffaut’s film The Wild Child and is also based on a true story covering the transformation change of a feral child over four-year period. In a winter of the late 80s, in Bosnia Herzegovina’s mountains, Serbian hunters find a boy in the forest of who seems to have been living among wolves. He moves on his hands and feet, can only express guttural sounds and fights the people trying to save him. Institutionalized in an orphanage in Belgrade and named Haris he is diagnosed as completely lacking social abilities. He acts spontaneously on instincts and impulses and for the experts has virtually no chance to become human. As in Truffaut’s film featuring a feral boy, Haris is also slowly socialized in basic communication and skills. But it is not a professional helping him but an understanding roommate Zika who defends him against the staff and bullying children. Through the depiction of Haris becoming human, of the orphanage, and of his exploration of the outside world after he graduates Rsumovic provides a realistic understanding of the conflictual society Haris has entered. He also touches on the importance of  and individual’s personal and national identity formation.  Because he is Bosnian Haris is forced to leave the orphanage by orders of the Bosnian authorities in the early nineties and to return there though that society is now torn by civil war.  Having no place to go to he is forced to join the local militia and becomes a child soldier. Escaping he ends up lonely on the grounds in a wintery forest with a wolf observing him from the distance.  Haris the feral child has come full circle rejoining his past.  At the Venice Film Festival Rsumovic received the International Critics’ Week award for the best film and several other prices for his authentic and lucid presentation.

Tigers, Danis Tanovic, 2014

Directed by the noted film maker Tanovic, who received an Oscar for No One’s Land and a Silver Bear for An Episode in the Life of an Ironmaker, Tigers is a fact based, eye-opening, documentary-style feature film about a whistle blowing salesman who takes on the giant international Nestle corporation for selling baby formula in Pakistan. Though Nestle has consistently denied responsibility, the baby formula can be fatal if used with dirty water. In Tigers Nestle, referred to with the pseudonym Lasta in the film to avoid legal issues, is willing to engage in any and all action needed to retain and expand its markets. Given the high birth rate and the lack of access to clean water for most of the population in Pakistan and other similar countries the sale of baby formula is a deadly and incredibly lucrative undertaking. The salesman Ayan receives from Lasta cash to ingratiate himself to pediatricians and their staff through presents and scores richly rewarded high sales until a doctor shows him footage of dying and disabled infants who had taken the Lasta baby formula. As he observes this firsthand when visiting a slum and the impoverished people living there. They cannot buy clean water for the formula but are also influenced by the totally fallacious advertising that baby formula improves their children’s health. Played convincingly by the well-known Bollywood actor Emraan Hashmi, Ayan engages in a fight with Lasta, resigns his position as a salesman and prepares a documented report for the World Health Organization.  But no action is taken. To the contrary, he is advised by a military general that in Pakistan Lasta and economic interests essentially control decision making. He is briefly imprisoned, receives death threats for him and his family, has to hide, and moves his wife and child to the safer countryside. No one listens to his pleas that inaction means death for more and more infants. He is eventually forced to leave the country for Canada.  Approached by a large German television station to participate in a documentary on the deadly infant formula scandal he agrees to collaborate. His interactions with the producers provide the framework for Tigers.  Lacking moral courage German television refuses to show the documentary for fear of being sued. After living close to a decade exiled in Canada, Ayan is joined by his family and makes a living as a taxi driver. Nestle still sells baby formula in Pakistan.  This is unfortunately unsurprising given the power of large international corporations. The opening sequence of the film sets the tone. It transcribes the 1978 off screen exchange between Senator Robert Kennedy and a representative of a baby formula company. Though the consequences of the formula on infants’ death in developing countries are acknowledged by the representative any corporate responsibility is denied with the justification that providing clean water is the responsibility of local governments.

With its small selection of films the Bosnia Herzegovina festival has broadened the interest in issue oriented productions from that region meeting international standards.

Claus Mueller    filmexchange@gmail.com