USA: BOSNIAN WAR FILM, "WELCOME TO SARAJEVO", DIRECTED BY MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM HAS ITS U.S. PREMIERE

Record ID: 387377

  • Title: USA: BOSNIAN WAR FILM, "WELCOME TO SARAJEVO", DIRECTED BY MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM HAS ITS U.S. PREMIERE
  • Date: 16th November 1997
  • Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (NOVEMBER 16, 1997) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) (SOUNDBITE ENGLISH) MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM SAYING, "THE FIRST TIME WE WENT THERE, WE WALKED AROUND THE CITY TO ALL OF THE PLACES THE FILM SHOULD TAKE PLACE. SO IN TERMS OF FINDING LOCATIONS, IT WAS VERY STRAIGHTFORWARD, AND THE PROBLEM WAS REALLY LIKE, SOME AREAS, WE HAD TO CLEAR LANDMINES FROM THE AREAS SO WE HAD TO BE VERY SPECIFIC ABOUT, OKAY, WE WILL FILM ON THIS SIDE OF THE STREET BUT NOT THAT SIDE OF THE STREET AND YOU WOULD KNOW THAT THAT SIDE OF THE STREET HADN'T BEEN CLEARED AND SO YOU WEREN'T ALLOWED TO WALK ON IT LET ALONE FILM ON IT." (SOUNDBITE ENGLISH) ITN JOURNALIST MICHAEL NICHOLSON SAYING, "HERE, WE WERE AT THE RECIEVING END OF IT ALL, WE WERE GETTING THE MORTARS WITH THE PEOPLE. WE WERE IN THE STREETS DODGING THE SNIPER FIRE. I THINK THAT CORRESPONDENTS THERE BECAME VERY CLOSE TO THE PEOPLE AND THEREFORE VERY CLOSE TO THE STORY WHICH IS WHY SO MANY EMOTIONAL REPORTS CAME OUT OF THAT PLACE." (SOUNDBITE ENGLISH) STEPHEN DILLANE SAYING, "THERE IS SUCH A THING AS THE SPIRIT OF SARAJEVO, ALWAYS WAS AN EXTRAORDINARY TOWN AND IN A WAY THAT'S THE REASON IT WAS TARGETED."
  • Embargoed: 1st December 1997 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK AND LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES/ FILM lOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Reuters ID: LVAAMFRD3H4JE7VC44CJJYMX1FMB
  • Story Text: - Hollywood was confronted with the Bosnian war in the premiere of Michael Winterbottom's hard-hitting movie "Welcome to Sarajevo".

    Hollywood veterans Woody Harrelson and Marisa Tomei join British actors Stephen Dillane and Emily Lloyd and Croatian actor Goran Visnjic in the film which tells the story of journalists covering the conflict.

    Speaking at the film's premiere on November 19, Visnjic said he hoped the movie would give people insight into the war.

    Winterbottom said he wanted his film to explain more about the situation in Sarajevo during the unrest thantelevision news reports had ever been able to portray.

    "It has more emotional impact, it makes people feel more like they understand a little bit the emotional side of what it must be like to be in Sarajevo during the war," he said.

    In the film, Dillane stars as journailst Michael Henderson, who, despite being an experienced war correspondent, is still unprepared for the carnage which confronts him in Bosnia's besieged capital.

    The film opens in 1992, at the beginning of the siege which went on to become the longest in modern history.

    The cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic city that once hosted the winter Olympics is under attack from Bosnian Serbs fighting to overturn Bosnian independence. Where cafes and boutiques once stood, there are now snipers and landmines.

    No-one is safe in the city - especially the world's press corps, who are camped out in the middle of it all.

    As well as Henderson, there's star American reporter Flynn, played by Woody Harrelson; Annie McGee, a freelance correspondant new to war coverage played by Emily Lloyd; and Risto, a Sarajevo resident played by Goran Visnjic who is hired to serve as a driver and guide to the journalists.

    In real life Visnjic was a member of the Yugoslav Army and fought the Serbs in his native Croatia while defending his home village.

    The characters in the film lead complicated lives.

    Besides dodging sniper bullets and mortar shells to get their stories, they also must fight with their editors back in London and Washington to secure air time. It seems the West has grown bored of the conflict, and stories from Sarajevo are starting to take second place to other corners of the globe.

    Henderson's objective news reporting style undergoes a shift when he becomes obsessed with the plight of a group of children trapped at the Ljubica Ivezic orphanage.

    In the course of doing stories about attempts to get these children out of Sarajevo, Henderson makes a promise to one young orphan, Emira. He unwittingly makes a guarantee that he will get her out of Sarajevo.

    His chance comes when American humanitarian aid worker Nina, played by Marisa Tomei, organizes a convoy of buses delivering the children to safety. When she realizes Emira can't join the rescue because she doesn't have a sponsor, Henderson offers to adopt her and bring her back to his home and family in England.

    "Welcome to Sarajevo" is based on the real-life experiences of Michale Nicholson, a journalist for Britain's Independent Television News (ITN).

    Nicholson smuggled a child out of Bosnia and later wrote a book about the experience called "Natasha's Story." His actions opened him up to much criticism from fellow journalists who argued he should have stayed objective in his coverage of the war. He countered their attacks by saying there was no way for anyone involved in the seige to remain objective and without passion.

    "Correspondents there became very close to the people and therefore very close to the story which is why so many emotional reports came out of that place," he said.

    Director Michael Winterbottom took the unorthodox and risky step of shooting his film on location in Sarajevo, a shelled-out city that is only now beginning to get back on its feet.

    The hotel where the cast and crew stayed was one of only a handful operating and it had no running water or heat. Rockets had blasted large holes through many of the hotel's walls.

    There was literally no infrastructure in the city. Power and communications were still sporadic, mail service and telephones were not fully operational. And chillingly every location had to be checked for land mines before filming could begin.

    But Winterbottom contends that the chance to film in the city with residents serving as crew and extras far outweighed any risks or logistical difficulties.

    Dillane said he felt it was important that filming took place in the city: "If we hadn't gone there I'm just not sure whether we'd have got the stress levels and the sense of anger and the permanence of death all around you." Tomei said she felt the people of Sarajevo had real depth and heart, "I think it was there before the war, but it became more profound having gone through it together."
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