Bosnian films like a miracle, says Tanovic

SARAJEVO - Anadolu Agency

Oscar winning director Danis Tanovic poses for photographers in the opening of the Sarajevo Film Fest. AFP Photo

Every film made in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a miracle given the unfavorable conditions for movie-making in the country, according to Oscar-winning Bosnian filmmaker Danis Tanovic, whose latest movie “An Episode in a Life of an Iron Picker” opened the 19th Sarajevo Film Festival.

“Maybe I can even say it is a double miracle if we know how hard it is to make a movie, especially with how much energy and time one needs to make a movie here in Bosnia,” Tanovic said in an interview, complaining about the political and economic situation in the country.

His 2001 debut “No Man’s Land” won him the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and this year he was awarded the Silver Bear at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival for his docudrama “An Episode in a Life of a Iron Picker” which was shot with “an extremely small budget” and screened at the opening night of the Sarajevo festival.

“There is no such thing as a formula of success. If there were, everybody would apply it. I cannot tell you what it takes to make a good movie. Some films I made are very successful, and some are not. It means that I will do my best, and then, you have to wait in some way, for something to come,” Tanovic said.

 Tanovic is also the president of this year’s jury in the competition program of the Sarajevo festival.

“Almost all Bosnian films do not have a happy ending. But, maybe life is hard here, and is it good for the art? In some strange way, hard times are what it takes for good art. At least here. No matter what, the art still exists.”

Tanovic is now working on a new movie that was shot recently in India. This year’s festival in Sarajevo will be closed with again an Indian movie Tanovic produced, “The Lunchbox.”