Sarajevo siege film takes home Al Jazeera Documentary event prize

Cinema Under Siege from filmmaker Srđan Šarenac (photo: AJB DOC Industry Days)

A documentary about the launch of the Sarajevo Film Festival during the siege of the city in 1993 has won the top coproduction prize at Al Jazeera Documentary (AJD) Channel’s inaugural Industry Days event, held in Sarajevo.

Cinema Under Siege (1×80’/52’), by filmmaker Srđan Šarenac from Bosnia & Herzegovina, was awarded the Main Pitch coproduction prize worth US$25,000, beating 31 other finalists from 21 countries across South-east Europe, the Caucasus and MENA.

The film tells the story of the first festival and how its organisers managed to launch the event amid the siege, which took place during the Bosnian War and lasted 1,425 days.

Produced by Novi Film, in coproduction with Croatia and Serbia, the film is currently at the development stage and is seeking €100,000 (US$100,357) to complete its €250,000 budget.

The three-day AJD Channel Industry Days event, overseen by head of industry Adel Ksiksi, also programming manager at AJD Channel, was held within the annual Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film festival.

Its arrival has added a new pitching and coproduction forum for independent documentary filmmakers in three main categories: Main Pitch, Work In Progress and Balkan Stars. A particular focus of the new event has been to create opportunities for underrepresented voices from across the Caucasus, Balkans and MENA.

The winner of Work in Progress was Friday at the Window, from Iranian filmmaker Atieh Zare, which was awarded US$15,000 in copro funding by AJD Channel. The 75-minute film, produced by Belgian prodco Associate Directors, in coproduction with Norway, is at the post-production stage.

The third category, Balkan Stars, showcased local filmmakers from the region and carried a prize worth US$10,000. It was won by Woman of God, a Slovenian film from Maja Prettner, Iza Strehar and Boštjan Virc. Produced by Studio Virc, the film focuses on an evangelical protestant pastor working in a rural area and is currently in post-production.

Rudy Buttignol

Canadian broadcast industry veteran Rudy Buttignol, who moderated at the event, has hailed Industry Days as “a breath of fresh air for the whole industry,” in terms of the opportunities it has opened up for underrepresented documentary filmmakers and new voices. “Basically, nobody’s done this [before], and Al Jazeera is exactly the right place for starting something as meaningful as this,” he said.

“[The event] is bringing a whole spectrum of stories from countries we haven’t heard from before,” said Buttignol, flagging up films from countries like Azerbaijan and Algeria. “These are the stories we need to hear to be able to understand the world better.”

Sister network Al Jazeera Balkans, which co-hosted the event, also awarded coproduction prizes under the same three categories.

The Main Pitch award, worth €8,000, went to Last Letters From My Grandma, a film by Moldovan filmmaker Olga Lucovnicova; the Work in Progress prize of €7,000 went to North Macedonian project Land of Sar by Petra Seliškar; and Hvar League, by Emina Kujundžić from Bosnia and Herzegovina took home the Balkan Stars copro award, worth €5,000.

Other awards included a BH Telecom Award of €2,500, which went to Assassination of Hakija Turajlić by Mirza Pašić.