Tonight at the Coca-Cola Open Air Cinema, ahead of the screening of the film PALESTINE 36, the Director of the Sarajevo Film Festival, Jovan Marjanović, addressed the audience to announce the presentation of the prestigious Katrin Cartlidge Foundation Award. Following his remarks, producer Cat Villiers presented the award to this year’s winner, director Lana Daher.
“It is my great pleasure to be here tonight with someone who really needs very little introduction in Sarajevo. Cat Villiers is a recipient of the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo, a great friend of this Festival, and a producer whose relationship with Sarajevo goes back many years. And actually, Cat has two films connected to tonight’s Open Air programme. We are about to see PALESTINE 36, and of course she was also one of the producers of No Man’s Land, which will close the Festival in two days. But first, I am particularly happy that tonight we are returning to a tradition that has been very important to us over the years, presenting the Katrin Cartlidge Foundation Award here at the Sarajevo Film Festival. The Foundation’s work has continued, and after a period in which circumstances made it difficult for us to celebrate the award together here in Sarajevo, tonight it really feels as though this tradition is back in full. And I cannot think of anyone better to take it from here,” said Marjanović.
Lana Daher also addressed the audience. “Thank you to the Katrin Foundation, to Cat and the entire team and friends and founders of the foundation. I am very thankful to receive this award here in Sarajevo, especially tonight, before the screening of PALESTINE 36. My film DO YOU LOVE ME opened the Dealing with the Past section a couple of days ago here, and it was a huge privilege and honor to share the film with the local audience. Sarajevo is not just another city. Sarajevo is a place that understands Beirut. That was very clear to me also from the moment I got here. This is a city that understands what a war is, what it is to lose loved ones, to be displaced, to lose homes. And despite all of that, to still create and choose life. That’s the power of this place and this festival that brings people and stories together. And that is also the power of where I come from, Beirut.” said Daher.
Before the screening, the director of the film PALESTINE ’36, Annemarie Jacir, spoke to the audience as well. “Every time I come here, the people of this city welcome me. They understand films in a way no other audience does, because they know from experience, and from inherited trauma, the psychological experience of losing your home, family members, community, security, and a sense of belonging. I look at your beautiful faces tonight, and I feel so much emotion and hope. You tell me that a population can survive even after a part of it has been destroyed forever. This festival was born to tell us there is survival after mass violence, occupation, and genocide. In our darkest moments, there is survival and there is beauty. We love you, Sarajevo.” said Jacir.
The film is set in Palestine in 1936. As the British Empire tightens its grip, Yusuf is caught between his village home and his work in Jerusalem. Amidst an anti-colonial revolt and a wave of Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Europe, all sides converge in a decisive moment for the entire region.
