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In Focus Programme of the 28th Sarajevo Film Festival

The 28th Sarajevo Film Festival’s In Focus programme brings the best achievements of regional cinematography from the past and this year. It is a selection of strong achievements of both already established artists and debutants that gained success at prestigious film festivals around the world or in the domestic market.

“This year, I think viewers will enjoy a program that features other important regional films alongside the films of Ulrich Seidl and Cristian Mungiu. There is also director Stefan Arsenijević with his film AS FAR AS I CAN WALK, which is a little regional surprise, but there are also interesting debut films such as GENTLE, BROADWAY and BUTTERFLY VISION. Regional cinema has been at the very top of world cinema with its authors, both male and female, for several years now, with a strong presence at A category festivals,” said Elma Tataragić, the programmer of In Focus.

Tickets
Online tickets for the films in the program of the 28th Sarajevo Film Festival can be purchased via tickets.sff.ba and the Sarajevo Film Festival website, www.sff.ba. By paying for tickets with UniCredit Mastercard® cards via the online platform, you get a 30% discount. Individual tickets are available starting from August 8, 2022 at 10:00 a.m., at the Main Box Office (Bosanski kulturni centar, Branilaca Sarajeva 24).

IN FOCUS PROGRAMME OF THE 28TH SARAJEVO FILM FESTIVAL:

AS FAR AS I CAN WALK / STRAHINJA BANOVIĆ
Serbia, France, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Lithuania, 2021, 92 min.
Director: Stefan Arsenijević
Cast: Ibrahim Koma, Nancy Mensah-Offei, Maxim Khalil, Rami Farah, Nebojša Dugalić

A reimagining of the medieval Serbian epic poem "Banovich Strahinya," in which contemporary African migrants take the place of Serbian national heroes. After being deported from Germany to Serbia, Ghanaian couple Strahinja and Ababuo cope differently with their new circumstances. While Strahinja is content building his football career, passionate Ababuo does not get the same opportunities to make her ambitions come true, so she joins a group of Syrian refugees on their way to Western Europe. Left alone, Strahinja embarks on an odyssey along the Balkan route to find her.

BROADWAY
Greece, France, Romania, 2021, 97 min.
Director: Christos Massalas
Cast: Elsa Lekakou, Foivos Papadopoulos, Stathis Apostolou, Rafael Papad, Salim Talbi, Christos Politis

Nelly has escaped from her wealthy and controlling family. As a dancer in a strip club, she meets Markos, a minor yet charismatic gangster, who helps her run away from her stepfather’s henchmen. Markos soon becomes Nelly's protector and lover. He brings her to Broadway, Athens, an abandoned entertainment complex squatted by a small community of dancers, tramps, thieves, and a captive monkey. For a while, everything goes well, even when Broadway hosts a mysterious man, injured, covered in bandages, and wanted dead by the most dangerous mafiosi in Athens. However, when Markos is arrested and imprisoned, this newcomer will take an unexpectedly important place in the gang.

BUTTERFLY VISION / BACHENNYA METELYKA
Ukraine, Czech Republic, Croatia, Sweden, 2022, 107 min.
Director: Maksym Nakonechnyi
Cast: Rita Burkovska, Liubomyr Valivots, Myroslava Vytrykhovska-Makar, Natalka Vorozhbyt

After spending months as a prisoner in Donbas, Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance expert Lilia returns home to her family. The trauma of captivity, however, continues to torment her, and it surfaces in dreamlike ways. Something growing deep within Lilia will not allow her to forget, yet she refuses to identify as a victim and will fight to liberate herself. BUTTERFLY VISION is a harsh and all-too-timely testimony to the warriors of Ukraine and the women fighting for their integrity, their freedom, and their future.

GENTLE / SZELÍD
Hungary, Germany, 2022, 92 min.
Director: Anna Eszter Nemes, László Csuja
Cast: Eszter Csonka, György Turós, Csaba Krisztik, Éva Kerekes, János Papp, Gábor Ferenczi, Máté Vörös, Ferenc Gerlóczy, Viktória Szorcsik, Balázs Czukor

Edina, a female bodybuilder, is ready to sacrifice everything for the dream she shares with her life partner and trainer Adam: to win the world championship. Expensive steroids and supplements force Edina to take a side gig as an escort. New forms of desire and the odd love she finds on her way make her see the difference between her dreams and her true self.

MIRACLE / MIRACOL
Romania, Czech Republic, Latvia, 2022, 118 min.
Director: Bogdan George Apetri
Cast: Ioana Bugarin, Emanuel Pârvu, Cezar Antal, Ovidiu Crișan, Valeriu Andriuță

In the first of its two chapters, MIRACLE follows Cristina, a young nun, as she sneaks out of her isolated convent to attend to an urgent matter. Her enigmatic journey takes her all around town but she is seemingly unable to solve her problem or find the man she is looking for. Out of options, she meets an unexpected fate in the evening on her way back to the convent. The second part of the film deals with Marius Preda, a determined police detective who is trying to determine what happened to Cristina. He retraces her journey through all the places she visited, step by step. His investigation uncovers clues and revelations that lead not only to the unfathomable truth behind Cristina’s mysterious actions but also, possibly, to an actual miracle.

RIMINI
Austria, France, Germany, 2022, 114 min.
Director: Ulrich Seidl
Cast: Michael Thomas, Tessa Göttlicher, Hans-Michael Rehberg, Inge Maux, Claudia Martini, Georg Friedrich

Once a successful pop star, Richie Bravo chases after his faded fame in wintry Rimini. He funds his dissolute lifestyle and gambling addiction with concerts for busloads of tourists and sexual favours for female fans. His world starts to collapse when his adult daughter suddenly breaks into his life and demands money from him; meanwhile, Richie's elderly father, who suffers from dementia, goes round in circles in an Austrian nursing home.

R.M.N.
Romania, France, Belgium, Sweden, 2022, 125 min.
Director: Cristian Mungiu
Cast: Marin Grigore, Judith State, Macrina Bârlădeanu, Orsolya Moldován, Andrei Finți, Mark Blenyesi, Ovidiu Crișan

A few days before Christmas, having quit his job in Germany, Matthias returns to his multi-ethnic Transylvanian village. He wishes to involve himself more in the education of his son, who he feels has been left for too long in the care of his wife Ana, and to rid the boy of the unresolved fears that have taken hold of him. Matthias is preoccupied with his elderly father and eager to see his ex-lover, Csilla. When a few new workers are hired at the small factory Csilla manages, the peace of the community is disturbed, underlying fears grip the adults, and frustration, conflict, and passion erupt through a thin veneer of apparent understanding and calm.

The 28th Sarajevo Film Festival will be held from the 12th to the 19th of August, 2022.