“At the beginning of May, the Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF) sent us a letter with an invitation to participate in the official program with the film “Heroes of Halyard”, for which we kindly thanked them and declined because our film was not finished yet. It’s a film we’ve been working on for five, six years, it’s not a ‘rabbit that jumped out of a bush,” said Rados Bajic regarding the media noise in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) that arose due to the screening of parts of this production at the 29th SFF as part of Telekom Srbija’s CineLink Drama Showcase program.
“So far, only 15 people have seen the film, and the premiere will be held on October 10th in Belgrade. How is it possible to attack and label something that no one has actually seen yet? It is a production that tells about one of the greatest feats in the era of warfare in these areas. It is a film about the largest rescue operation of Allied pilots in the Second World War behind enemy lines in the history of world aviation. That feat was performed by the Serbian people who were organized by the Yugoslav army in the homeland, that is the regular army, which was then supported by the United States (U.S.) and its allies,” Bajic points out.
He draws attention to the fact that there are hundreds of written texts about this in the media and that every year the Serbian government and the U.S. Embassy mark this event very solemnly.
“The film “Heroes of Halyard” neither participates in the Festival, nor is it shown in the official program, nor in any accompanying one, only a two-and-a-half-minute trailer was shown at the promotion of Telekom Srbija, which is the producer of the film with Contrast Studio. I wonder what would have happened if the entire two-hour film had actually been shown? Would war break out again in BiH because of hotheads and gross political manipulation that aims to compromise a serious film work, such as Halyard, and to deny the right of the Serbian people to their own history,” Bajic added.
He points out that he does not want to jeopardize the good reputation of SFF in any way.
“I would like to pay my respects at the grave of Hajrudin Krvavac”
“I love Sarajevo, I love BiH as well, whether it is called the Republika Srpska (RS) or the Federation. My acting career began there 50 years ago with the films “The Day That Shook the World”, “The Peaks of Zelengora”, and “Battle of the Eagles”. Unfortunately, I haven’t been to Sarajevo for almost three decades, and after this kind of pathological obsession – I wonder if my wish to pay my respects at the grave of the great Hajrudin Krvavac will ever come true,” Rados Bajic concluded, N1 reports.
E.Dz.
