The best film and winner of the Heart of Sarajevo Film Festival award this year is “Great Freedom”.
Sebastian Majze’s “Great Freedom” is a film about the real events after the Second World War and the article of the law for which spies, persecuted and imprisoned men were caught in homosexual relations.
The film centres on Hans, a man in post World War II who is imprisoned for being gay and develops a relationship with his cellmate Viktor.
Towards the end of the four-year siege of Sarajevo, in 1995, Obala Art Centar initiated the Sarajevo Film Festival with the aim of helping to reconstruct civil society and retain the cosmopolitan spirit of the city.
Today, two decades later, the Sarajevo Film Festival is the leading film festival in the region, recognized by both film professionals and the wider audience. The Sarajevo Film Festival is an international film festival with a special focus on the region of South-East Europe (Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Georgia, Hungary, Kosovo*, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey), shining an international spotlight on films, talent and future projects from the region.
High quality programming, a strong industry segment, an educational and networking platform for young filmmakers and thus generated presence of the international film industry, film authors and media representatives alongside a paying audience of over 100,000, confirm its status as the leading film festival in the region, recognised by both professionals and the wider audiences.
In an emerging territory of more than 140 million inhabitants, Sarajevo Film Festival serves as a common platform for film businesses from all over the region, setting the future standards in festival organisation, film promotion and presentation in South-East Europe.
