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 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.

 

 

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.

 

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.

 

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. 

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

The 31st Sarajevo Film Festival will take place from August 15 to 22, 2025.