A mother on her way to her daughter's wedding is gunned down in the street by a sniper in the opening scene of this heartbreaking drama about the agonies of the Bosnian war. Set during the murderous ravages of 1992, this competition entry is a powerful and lucid depiction of mankind's callousness and brutality, as well as a gripping example of survival under the most hellish conditions. While the film is most eloquent and powerful in its docu-style segments, and indeed somewhat overreaches in attempting to put the slaughter into movie-style narrative, this presentation will win admirers on the select-site circuit. It should win festival approval here as well and be a serious contender for festival prize recognition.
"Welcome to Sarajevo" centers around a "M*A*S*H" unit-type pack of foreign correspondents whose dark humor masks their ravaged emotions. Scurrying daily to new sites of slaughter, the broadcast journalists self-deprecatingly refer to themselves as "vultures" for professionally feeding on such human suffering. But their hearts are anything but opportunistic, especially that of British foreign correspondent Michael Henderson (Stephen Dillane), who is so overcome by the war's ravages that he decides to adopt an orphan and bring the child back to England, far away from the shelling.
Even those viewers who have followed the Bosnian war closely will be horrified by the footage director Michael Winterbottom has assembled here: mass graves, bloodied bodies, heinous sadism and, not least, the gaunt faces and protruding rib cages of Muslims incarcerated in concentration camps.
While these images jar our senses and sicken our sensibilities, the film is less sure and compelling when it ventures into standard movie-plot terrain. Indeed, Winterbottom uses some devices that have almost become movie cliches when dealing with such devastating subject matter. The baleful violins, the snappy Rolling Stones music and the buddy bonding all tend, at times, to diminish the power of the document and the suffering. Still, despite its aesthetic artifices, "Welcome to Sarajevo" is a haunting, impressive piece of filmmaking, with Frank Cottrell Boyce's sobering scenario pulling us into a world we can't imagine.
Highest praise to the players, especially Dillane and Woody Harrelson as the bantering, Hawkeye and B.J.-style pair of TV correspondents. Dillane's portrayal of a man whose cynicism is undercoated with a sweet integrity is perfectly modulated, while Harrelson invigorates his role with a similar mix of sweet-and-sass.
Technical credits are vividly realized. Cinematographer Daf Hobson has etched in our memories images of intense horror, while editor Trevor Waite has clipped them to a most chilling and sad dimension.
WELCOME TO SARAJEVO
In competition
Channel Four Films
and Miramax Films
A Dragon Pictures Production
Producers Graham Broadbent, Damian Jones
Director Michael Winterbottom
Screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce
Director of photography Daf Hobson
Production designer Mark Geraghty
Music Adrian Johnston
Editor Trevor Waite
Costume designer Janty Yates
Cast:
Michael Henderson Stephen Dillane
Flynn Woody Harrelson
Nina Marisa Tomei
Emira Emira Nusevic
Risto Goran Visnjic
Jane Carson Kerry Fox
Running time -- 100 minutes
No MPAA rating...
"Welcome to Sarajevo" centers around a "M*A*S*H" unit-type pack of foreign correspondents whose dark humor masks their ravaged emotions. Scurrying daily to new sites of slaughter, the broadcast journalists self-deprecatingly refer to themselves as "vultures" for professionally feeding on such human suffering. But their hearts are anything but opportunistic, especially that of British foreign correspondent Michael Henderson (Stephen Dillane), who is so overcome by the war's ravages that he decides to adopt an orphan and bring the child back to England, far away from the shelling.
Even those viewers who have followed the Bosnian war closely will be horrified by the footage director Michael Winterbottom has assembled here: mass graves, bloodied bodies, heinous sadism and, not least, the gaunt faces and protruding rib cages of Muslims incarcerated in concentration camps.
While these images jar our senses and sicken our sensibilities, the film is less sure and compelling when it ventures into standard movie-plot terrain. Indeed, Winterbottom uses some devices that have almost become movie cliches when dealing with such devastating subject matter. The baleful violins, the snappy Rolling Stones music and the buddy bonding all tend, at times, to diminish the power of the document and the suffering. Still, despite its aesthetic artifices, "Welcome to Sarajevo" is a haunting, impressive piece of filmmaking, with Frank Cottrell Boyce's sobering scenario pulling us into a world we can't imagine.
Highest praise to the players, especially Dillane and Woody Harrelson as the bantering, Hawkeye and B.J.-style pair of TV correspondents. Dillane's portrayal of a man whose cynicism is undercoated with a sweet integrity is perfectly modulated, while Harrelson invigorates his role with a similar mix of sweet-and-sass.
Technical credits are vividly realized. Cinematographer Daf Hobson has etched in our memories images of intense horror, while editor Trevor Waite has clipped them to a most chilling and sad dimension.
WELCOME TO SARAJEVO
In competition
Channel Four Films
and Miramax Films
A Dragon Pictures Production
Producers Graham Broadbent, Damian Jones
Director Michael Winterbottom
Screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce
Director of photography Daf Hobson
Production designer Mark Geraghty
Music Adrian Johnston
Editor Trevor Waite
Costume designer Janty Yates
Cast:
Michael Henderson Stephen Dillane
Flynn Woody Harrelson
Nina Marisa Tomei
Emira Emira Nusevic
Risto Goran Visnjic
Jane Carson Kerry Fox
Running time -- 100 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 5/12/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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