Welcome to Sarajevo (1997)

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Welcome to Sarajevo (1997)directed by Michael Winterbottom is an official selection in 1997 FESTIVAL DE CANNES and was also runner up for Golden Palm. Three days ago I knew nothing about Sarajevo, except I knew a little about "SARAJEVO FILM FESTIVAL. I had a lucid dream on August 1st 2013 that, "I am in the city of SARAJEVO, This dream was as clear as real life, I was able to observe the buildings, Monuments, Restaurants, Cafes, People everything. It was an amazing experience, and above all I was able to remember everything in the same vivid form when I woke up." I did Image search on Google to verify the images from my dreams and this is how I came to know about The Film "Welcome To Sarajevo" and than I managed to watch it.The Visuals in the film penetrated my feeling and my whole existence as a human. The Film is based on Bosnian War from 1992 to 1996, During this period Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was besieged by the Army of Republika Srpska. The film exactly doesn't discuss the cause of the Bosnian war, It is more a personal interpretation of ITN reporter Henderson, his cameraman Greg and producer Jane Carson who is reporting the war in SARAJEVO. But many sequences of mass killing & ethnic cleansing in the film which i think has been grabbed form the original news footage of brutality of Serb soldiers.When we see a war film, I think there is something more important than the plot, treatment, performance of the Actors or Visual effects etc. I feel that the lessons of the dark sides of time and history it is trying to deliver us must be taken very seriously. And we must not consider it as any other ordinary film we watch in our everyday life. The Bosnian war is the most recent page written in black letters in the history of Europe. And after watching "Welcome to Sarajevo" I was able to develop a personal point of view about the design of war in human Life. I am taking this film just as an example, But I am talking in general. As humans we think that we are divided and discriminated geographically, and in cast, religion, race and In Majority or minorities. But I think it's an illusion which has been created for us from ancient times to perceive the world in this way. So, that we should never unite. In reality the world is discriminated in three parts - 1. Who has access to all the resources in the world, and owns all the muscle power. 2. The middle class people, who serve the existence of the 1st category. 3.Who only relies on the kindness of the first two category, they don't even have access to basic resources food, cloth, shelter etc. Except the first category other two hold no power or authority. They are just like puppets. They are meant to live on the mercy of the government or the extremist and they have to die with the wish of the government and the extremist. And it is like that because we have no will and we have never been able to develop the will against the government or the extremist. The war is the most lucrative business for politicians and capitalist and The news and stories of war is the most sell-able and entertaining. And while sitting in a warm comfortable room who cares about causalities of war happens in the front line.What I am trying to say that we need to develop the resistance and strength against the will of the group of people who sponsor war and causalities. Else like SARAJEVO any city in the world could become next hellish city for a while. It is time to go against the patterns we have been following. It seems completely awkward to me that The priest bless the Weapons and Soldiers and the same priest ask the people to be generous and kind and compassionate. What a contradiction ?,Yes ! People should be kind and compassionate so, they should be killed easily. We must develop our knowledge and inner understanding, So that we can understand the intent of the people who try to control everything in the world. Being the follower of extremist belief or sect will only give birth to more stories of war & brutality. By referring to the climax of "Welcome to Sarajevo"with a "concert of peace" on a hill overlooking Sarajevo, Where Harun playing his cello to hundreds of Sarajevans. I appeal to pray for peace in the world. I recommend to include this film in the film study course by all the film schools in the world because of it's original treatment and honest storytelling. And Next time whenever you watch a war film, think deeply, and think about other side of it. Don't just get yourself entertained.

With the two sides in the Bosnian war producing significant civilian casualties a third force enters the conflict zone. Armed with cameras and microphones, they are the eyes and ears of the West through the daily news. Among them is serious British journalist Michael Henderson and the more flamboyant American Flynn. While the latter is concerned with his ratings and manages to stay relaxed with all the violence around him, the former becomes tied up with the plight of the children in an orphanage on the front line and loses his distance from the story as he tries to force someone, anyone, to get the children out of the war zone.The film opens with a scene that sums the evil nature of the Bosnia conflict up perfectly when one of a wedding party is picked off by a sniper. It is an impacting way to open a film and the script more or less maintains this across the film in one way or another. The plot is hardly anything too original as mostly it relies on Henderson getting personally involved in his story to provide a narrative frame for the conflict but the film uses it well. Winterbottom was a good choice for director because he doesn't over-egg the emotion or push the narrative beyond what it can cope with. Instead he uses it well to tell one story without ever losing sight of the fact that it is just one story among millions. This worked well for me as I found the bigger picture to be the more engaging side of the film but appreciated the structure given the subject by the narrative; this way it remains impacting on a political level while also looking at the personal, human level.With the time the relevance of the film will fade as the conflict becomes something in the past – I don't mean this coldly but just suggest that something fresh in our collective memories will be of more relevant than something in the "past". The film retains its impact because it does shown more than the news showed but what I found more distressing was the fact that the same attacks on the media and our politicians could be launched about many conflicts since. Welcome to Dafour, Rwanda, Iraq – take your pick. How many times do we see our "leaders" quibble over the legal definition of genocide while the news footage shows us images of corpses and the suffering of civilians? Winterbottom uses news footage within his material to good effect to highlight the stupidity and hypocrisy of the world leaders in the face of such horror and few viewers will take too much issue with the lack of balance in this regard; it is a strength of the film that these points are still valid but I truly wish that they weren't.The cast take to this serious material well and produce some solid performances while also knowing their place within the bigger picture and not showboating or overdoing things. Dillane is the best example of this as he is technically the lead character but yet holds back and shows restraint to the point of keeping his story from dominating the film – it is a good show and Winterbottom also deserves credit for helping him produce this. Looking at it cynically, Harrelson and Tomei were added to sell the film and this is mostly what they do; however both are solid albeit in smaller roles than some viewers will expect. Nesbitt, Fox, Visnjic and Nusevic all produce solid support and more than stand up alongside Dillane's lead. The most important delivery is that of the conflict itself and Winterbottom does that well. Some viewers have bemoaned the lack of context or explanation of the conflict but to me this was a good call because what matters is that civilians were slaughtered and suffering, when this is the case what does it matter what the reasons for it are? Overall then a solid and impacting film. It doesn't have the most balance in the world but it is well worth a watch for what it does well and, sadly, the continuing relevance in current conflicts around the world today.

Prior to September 11th, 2001, Americans could scarcely imagine what it could be like to experience large-scale, life-threatening violence within one of its cities. The slaughtering of civilians in the World Trade Center attack brought the reality of terrorist savagery to eyes that typically preferred to remain closed to such unpleasantness. This film, released in 1997, indicts those closed eyes which placed more importance on the love lives of British royalty than on the desperation of the citizens (including many children) of a city in the throes of immense brutality. Dillane plays a reporter in Sarajevo, Bosnia, sent there to cover the strife between warring factions of Serbians and Muslims (the ultimate victims being the people on the street or the children left behind in the various skirmishes.) He is, by now, desensitized to the everyday killings and maiming brought on by the struggle, but eventually finds himself caring about the fate of one young orphan girl who he befriends during a story. He is joined by other reporters played by Harrelson, Fox, Nesbitt and Lloyd who pass their time in between events by chatting over cold coffee or developing tentative relationships between themselves. There isn't a great deal of time to kill, however, since the city is under a nearly constant state of siege with bullets flying and bombs going off at irregular intervals. The entire situation seems surreal despite the blending of actual video footage paired with scenes for this film. Even though the US was hit hard on September 11th, this is an ongoing, daily battle with danger seemingly around every corner. Visnjic plays a Sarajevo resident whom Dillane hires as a driver. Visnjic evolves from a sensitive, caring young man into a rather detached, desensitized soldier over the course of the story. His character is actually more compelling than Dillane's thought Dillane does an excellent job in his role of observer and potential participant. Appearing somewhat briefly is Tomei as a relief worker, arriving to collect some orphaned children who have relatives outside the country. She and the other more "name" actors in the film try not to draw too much attention to their celebrity and are partially successful. A cast of complete unknowns may have made the film a bit more authentic, yet also may have relegated it to a lesser amount of interest and box office income than it received. The story behind the warfare is complex and complicated (to say nothing of deep-rooted) and isn't particularly well-covered here. This is more about the role of journalists in the field and their struggles with personal interest in their stories. It tries to cover a few too many bases, but does present some striking images and some jarring (and downbeat) elements which make it worth seeing. Part of the script (involving orphan girl Nusevic) is based on a true story.

I did not read "Welcome to Sarajevo" until a year after seeing the movie. Therefore, as I watched this film for the first time, I was under the impression that Risto (played by Goran Visnjic) was the lead character. Yes, I know the opening actors' credits listed Goran Visnjic fifth in line, but as the movie unfolded, it was evident that Risto had the ONLY fascinating character and story line. When a sniper killed Risto, I was in shock and actually thought the movie was over. Everything shown afterward seemed anticlimactic and inessential.I think "Welcome to Sarajevo" would have been better served if it had focused more on the Risto's life: a peaceful intellectual finally forced to take up a gun to defend his city. While the film does give us snippets about Risto's life and character, more could have (and should have) been done to portray the effects of the siege on it's inhabitants. That would have been covering new ground for a British or American film.There are numerous movies depicting American and British journalist's point of views in war torn countries. What I wanted to see was the BEFORE as well as the AFTER in individual lives of the different ethnic groups caught in the besieged city.How do I rate this flick? Well, only a 7, but I give a 10 for Mr. Visnjic's performance.