Exile in Sarajevo

The 41-year-old Bosnian/Australian actor and theatre manager Tahir Cambis was born in a German refugee camp, after his mother had fled Sarajevo in the fifties. He grew up in Australia and attempted to reach Sarajevo in 1992. However, he got injured and was forced to stay in Bosnian and Kroatian hospitals for one year. In 1995, together with cameraman Roman Baska, he made a new attempt. This time they managed to get to Sarajevo and film the siege for eight months. Alma Sahbaz, a native of the Bosnian capital, did the sound engineering and replaced cameraman and co-director Roman Baska, because he had to return to Australia. Exile in Sarajevo is a very personal account of the siege of Sarajevo. Different from the usual television reports, the fate of the civilian population is described conscientiously, in particular that of the children and youngsters. For instance, we are introduced to Nirvana, a young and talented dancer, who gets killed when she unexpectedly steps into a ‘sniper‘s’ sight. An illustrated diary of the 8-year-old Amira turns out to be a poignant reconstruction of the brutal killing of her family members and school friends. The last stages of the siege are the wider context of the story, showing impressions of the bloodbath in the market square, the UN and UNPROFOR press conferences, the NATO missions and the liberation and reunion of the different city quarters. It is remarkable that Cambis gradually dares to point the camera at himself, in search of a painful confrontation with his own past, to which his mother‘s suicide in Australia is the key. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)