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Introducing the Open Air Premiere Programme of the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival

The Open Air Programme of the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival this year consists of two sections: Open Air and Open Air Premiere.

The Open Air Programme of the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival this year consists of two sections: Open Air and Open Air Premiere
 
The new Open Air Premiere programme will showcase films from the former Yugoslav region in the unique setting of the UNIQA Open Air Cinema Stari Grad, with seven films featured in this year’s programme.
 
OPEN AIR PREMIERE PROGRAMME:
 
BOSNIAN KNIGHT / BOSANSKI VITEZ
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, 2025, 79 min.
Director: Tarik Hodžić
 
During the Bosnian War, Sead Delić escaped to the free territory of Srebrenica, where he served as a soldier and survived the 1995 genocide. After the war, he moved to the United States and fulfilled his childhood dream of becoming a truck driver. Despite his new life, the past continued to haunt him. Seeking answers about his identity, he immersed himself in the history of medieval Bosnia, visiting fortresses, towns, and stećak tombstones. This passion gave his life new meaning and became his mission to honour Bosnia’s heritage.
 
CAT’S CRY / MAČIJI KRIK
Serbia, Canada, Croatia, 2024, 94 min.
Director: Sanja Živković
Cast: Jasmin Geljo, Andrijana Đorđević, Sanja Mikitišin, Marija Škaričić, Denis Murić
 
In a small Serbian town, Milena dreams of fame and independence, drawn by the allure of a Serbian music channel. Her aspirations and plans for the future are challenged when she gives birth to a baby with a rare genetic condition called cat’s cry syndrome. While her partner Igor and his family refuse to take responsibility for the baby, Milena's father Stamen, a retired factory worker, urges her to leave Igor and return home, offering to raise the child with her. Overwhelmed and fearful of her future, Milena disappears. Now, Stamen and his new wife must fight a flawed social system for custody of their granddaughter while Milena struggles to find her own way forward.
 
RADIO RAMBO AMADEUS
Serbia, 2025, 73 min.
Director: Dušan Varda
 
International music superstar Rambo Amadeus is among the most popular personalities in the Balkans. A unique performer with a forty-year-long career, he gained importance in this part of Europe in the fields of music, poetry, sailing, philosophy, marketing, and political history. This film traces his thinking about, testing and developing an idea to launch his own radio programme in 2022. 
 
SURVIVING EARTH
United Kingdom, 2025, 100 min.
Director: Thea Gajić
Cast: Slavko Sobin, Olive Gray, Stuart Martin, Peter Coonan, Toni Gojanović, Ann Ogbomo
 
A Yugoslav refugee and harmonica player in Bristol builds a new life and forms a Balkan music band, but past trauma threatens to destroy his relationships and the delicate peace he's found with his daughter.
 
THE LOST DREAM TEAM / IZGUBLJENI DREAM TEAM
Croatia, Serbia, Italy, Slovenia, 2025, 82 min.
Director: Jure Pavlović
 
THE LOST DREAM TEAM tells the story of the last Yugoslav basketball team and their quest for a gold medal at the 1991 European Championships amid political turmoil and impending war. It serves as a psychological study of the players, the trials of their camaraderie, and the extraordinary experience of belonging to a unique team in sports history—the only team to win gold, stand on the podium, and watch their flag rise for the glory of a country that had ceased to exist three days earlier.
 
THE TRACK
Canada, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2025, 92 min. 
Director: Ryan Sidhoo
 
THE TRACK is a contemporary coming-of-age story that follows three teenagers—Mirza, Zlatan, and Hamza —as they chase their Olympic dreams in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. Training on their bullet-riddled luge track, a relic of the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Games, the boys are guided by their resilient coach, Senad. His unwavering commitment to rebuilding the neglected track mirrors his struggle to secure a future for the boys in a country burdened with one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the world.
 
WHITES WASH AT NINETY / BELO SE PERE NA DEVETDESET
Slovenia, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, 2025, 142 min.
Director: Marko Naberšnik
Cast: Lea Cok, Anica Dobra, Jurij Zrnec, Tjaša Železnik, Žiga Šorli, Mei Rabič, Jaka Mehle, Vladimir Tintor, Iva Krajnc Bagola, Saša Tabaković, Jure Rajšp, Polona Juh, Blaž Dolenc
 
The life of young Bronja, growing up in the 1980s, changes when her mother dies of cancer. After a childhood marked by this loss, her life is again interrupted by tragic events, which she overcomes with optimism.
Introducing the Open Air Premiere Programme of the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival
Introducing the Open Air Programme of the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival
Screening of Bosnian-Herzegovinian premiere of the film DIE BEFORE DEATH
Screened film YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE by Lynne Ramsay, recipient of the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo
Introducing the Open Air Programme of the 29th Sarajevo Film Festival