What does a Bosnian do when he, or she, wants to see a good film? Just go out and make it!! All the visitors of the third in a row Bosnia and Herzegovina Film Festival BHFF, held at the end of May of this year at the Antology Film Archives in New York, could testify that every joke has at least a trace of truth in it. The common denominator of the eight documentaries, two long features, seven short features and seven animated films presented at the BHFF was to be found in the subjects of identity, survival and justice in war-time and post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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First Pay-Check
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The Festival was opened by the short feature The First Pay Check, by Alen Drljevic, 2005 nominee for best European short film. Its 13 minutes hold the whole story of the realities in post-war Bosnia in which a young man from Sarajavo earns his first pay-check on some sort of "Bosnian Roulette" – he drives a motorbike around minefields.
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Go West
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Go West, a long feature by Ahmed Imamovic and winner of BHFF Long Feature Award, deals with the sufferrings of war in B&H, presented from an unique angle. This is a story about two homosexuals, Kenan and Milan, and their attempts to escape to the West. In addition to the lead roles, played by Mario Drmac and Tarik Filipovic, notable performances were given by Mirjana Karanovic and Rade Serbedjija.
The audience selected I See You My Friend, a 23-minute long documentary by Cazim Dervisevic, as the Best Documentary at this years BHFF. The film is a story about the unbreakable friendship between Halid and Robert, students at the school for children with impaired vision, who help each other overcome the problems of daily living.
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Totally Personal
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Among others, the Festival also presented Blind Justice, a documentary by Aldin Arnautovic and Refik Hodzic, which critically, but with much humour, deals witht he role of the Hague Tribunal, 11 years and 830 million US Dollar later; Totally Personal, by Nedzad Begovic, a documentary on the survival of the author's family during the war.
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If I Wasn't Muslim
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The audience – mostly members of ex-Yugoslav diaspora, their guests and notable number of Americans (whichever way one looks at it, all of them "our folks") – saved the biggest laughs for Damir Niksic's If I wasn't Muslim, a short feature that is best described as combination of A Fiddler on the Roof and Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Finally, we should add that the festival hall was filled with people every day, that the festival won positive reviews from all major NYC media, and that the organizers – two non-profit organizations working in New York City area: Radio Voice of B&H and Academy B&H, treated all visitors to cevapcici, burek and Russian Sallad.
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