Kako sam zapalio Simona Bolivara
The Fuse: Or How I Burned Simon Bolivar
Igor Drljača, Canada 2011, 9 Min. OV with english subtitles
As a young boy, filmmaker Igor Drljača believed he had caused the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992 with a prayer that he no longer wished to go to school. Told from a child’s point of view and interwoven with amateur footage, The Fuse: Or How I Burned Simon Bolivar is a profound story about lasting trauma, the absurdity of war, and human surrender to its power.
My Own Private War
Lidija Zelović, Netherlands 2016, 57 Min. OV with english subtitles
Whilst living in exile in Holland, filmmaker and journalist Lidija Zelović sets out to make a “truthful and honest film” about the Yugoslav war of the 1990s: “I need to stop the war inside of my head.” She returns to Bosnia where, confronted with conflict once more, she undertakes endless discussions with family members, childhood friends and work colleagues, those who stayed behind and who, after “50 years of brotherhood and unity”, became perpetrators in the dynamics of war. Her dark voice becomes shrill when visiting the former apartment where her children’s books are still gathering dust, and a former sniper describes how he took up arms with an unnerving twitch. The speechlessness, the rift between the two sides, becomes increasingly clear: “You are not my enemy. - I'm starting to feel like one.” Splitscreens point out simultaneities and illustrate chasmic ruptures.
Lidija Zelovic studied Yugoslav literature at the University of Sarajevo and worked as a TV presenter. After the war broke out in 1992, she started studying film at the University of Amsterdam. She worked as a journalist in various war zones and directed and produced documentary films for Dutch, British and German public broadcasters.