Sarajevo Roses

My wife is from Slovenia. My memories of the Balkan war were the nightmarish scenes which were on the news and in newspapers. Her memories were of being on vacation with her parents at age 13 in Croatia when Slovenia declared independence. Slovenia was able to secure independence rather quickly while the remaining parts of Yugoslavia descended into war. I've visited Europe twice and in particular Slovenia. The war is still spoken about in mostly off hand terms. My understanding is Bosnia-Herzogovina is still very war scarred. The movie delves into the chaos of war in a modern atmosphere where many people never expected to be caught up in war zone. Given our current political atmosphere, I found myself a bit frightened. The people interviewed in the movie describe some very dire situations where innocent people were openly killed. I realized this could happen anywhere.

I saw this beautiful and poignant film at the Sarajevo Film Festival, where it created so much interest that an additional screening was organised. The five stories which take us through the course of the siege underline the message that such terrible things can indeed happen anywhere – under the appropriate conditions. A timely reminder.

SARAJEVO ROSES

The terrible siege of Sarajevo lasted the best part of four years, from April 1992 to March 1996 and is calculated to have resulted in 5434 civilian deaths. An American photo- journalist, Roger M. Richards, arrived in the city early on in the conflict equipped with a pair of cameras and 30 reels of film, and stayed for the duration of the war, in the course of which he recorded many iconic images.

Now he has returned to the spot to make a documentary about the siege, seen through the eyes of three principle witnesses: a surgeon-turned-psychiatrist called Asim Haracic; an immensely engaging musician named Vedran Smailovic; and a bank worker, Sanda Skrabic, who was the subject of one of Richards's celebrated photographs of the time – snapped in color and in mid-air stride (so to speak) as she leaps forward towards the camera, valiantly dodging snipers' bullets.

The quality of the documentary is intimately linked to the articulacy and thoughtfulness of these very well-chosen talking heads. All three are amazing personalities. Haracic, the doctor, is serious, kind and modest. He has wise words to say about the depth of the trauma suffered by the city's inhabitants, and about how art-based therapy (he is an artist himself) can slowly bring healing. An inspiring humanist, in short. So is his colleague, Smailovic, the musician. An eyewitness to one of the conflict's first big civilian massacres (27 May 1992: twenty-two people killed by a single shell), he took his cello to the spot of the mass killing the next day, where he played, in mourning, an adagio by Albinoni . His friends urged him to repeat his performance the following day – and the day after that, and the day after that. His daily performances, lasting many months, became a symbol of the city's resistance. In September 1993 this man accepted an offer to leave Sarajevo - first to London, then to Northern Ireland (where he became a biker). Now he has come back to tell us what he remembers about the siege. The nightmare of that initial explosion still lives with him and has made him an ardent pacifist. "Believe me, walking on a street where blood has been spread is so much harder than walking on ice. Nothing in the world is more slippery!"

The third witness, Sanda Skrabic, received her fame only accidentally, you could say, through the wide dissemination of Richard's "road runner" photograph. Yet, having been tracked down by the filmmakers, she turns out to be just as engaging as the other two – just as brave, modest and eloquent. She reminisces about her happy middle-class childhood, and chides herself about being nostalgic for Tito's days. Her assessment of the hardship of the siege has not a shred of self-pity about it. And yet she is able to say about the whole experience in summary: "They {the besiegers} ruined the life I was supposed to have. What happened can never be erased."

Two other witnesses have smaller but equally affecting parts in the film: Amin Oprasic, and Sanela Tasic. Married now, they were orphaned street children at the time of the troubles, and they tell their story with simple unaffected dignity.

Films like this remind us how fragile are society's bonds, and how easily and carelessly civic life can become shattered. One moment, Sarajevo was a peaceful, prosperous provincial capital city, where different nationalities and religions lived together, in harmony; then, suddenly, almost for no reason at all, people found they were at war with each other.

An epilogue shows the recent peace-giving visit to Sarajevo of Pope Francis (June 2015); and the movie ends with a medley of children's voices, their young faces speaking directly to camera, sweetly telling us their hopes for the future.

I am a Member of the European Parliament and I watched the film at a special screening before the Parliament in December 2016. I personally lived in Sarajevo for a year during the siege. I've seen so many films about the war, and none has succeeded in describing the war experience as well as this one. If you want to know what it was really like to live in Sarajevo during the war, go and see this movie.

Normally, as part of any movie analysis, I would describe a scene that exemplifies the message and feel of a film. But in this case I will make an exception. My ideal scene was not the one I saw on the screen, but the one beside me. As I watched Sarajevo Roses I couldn't help but glance at a couple sitting nearby. Their sadness and tears as they observed each and every scene made me realize the effects on everyday citizens who survived the siege of Sarajevo and how the Sarajevo Roses can help this beautiful city heal its own wounds.