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7th Sarajevo Talent Campus to be opened by the director Leos Carax                                                                                   Tribute to Cristi Puiu                                                                                   Call for entries for the 3rd edition of Docu Rough Cut Boutique                                                                                   Danis Tanović President of the Jury for Competition Programme - Feature Film                                                                                    Special Screening of "Promised Land" and Q&A With Gus Van Sant at Meeting Point                                                                                   “An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker" by Danis Tanović to Open 19th Sarajevo Film Festival                                                                                   The Shooting of the Short Films Within the Sarajevo City of Film 2013 is Finished                                                                                   Sarajevo Talent Campus 2013 Call for Entries is Open                                                                                   Sarajevo City of Film 2013 Projects Selected                                                                                    Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Will Host Workshops at 7th STC                                                                                  


Aida Begić’s “Children of Sarajevo” to Open 18th Sarajevo Film Festival

The Sarajevo Film Festival is proud to announce that CHILDREN OF SARAJEVO, a film by B&H director Aida Begić will open the 18th edition of the festival on Friday, 6 July. The screening will take place simultaneously at the National Theatre and the !hej Open Air Cinema.

This film will have its world premiere at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, as part of the Un Certain Regard official selection.

CHILDREN OF SARAJEVO is a story of Rahima (23) and Nedim (13), orphans of the Bosnian war. They live in Sarajevo, a transitional society that has lost its moral compass, including in the way it treats children of the people who were killed fighting for the freedom of their city. After crime-prone adolescent years, Rahima has found comfort in Islam and she hopes her brother will follow in her footsteps. Their life of bare survival becomes even more difficult after Nedim gets into a fistfight with the son of a local strongman and breaks his expensive mobile phone. This incident triggers a chain of events leading Rahima to the discovery that her brother leads a double life.

Marija Pikić and Ismir Gagula play the lead roles in the film, alongside Aleksandar Seksan, Nikola Đuričko, Jasna Ornela Bery ad many other young talents of B&H film like Staša Dukić and Vedran Đekić.

The Sarajevo Film Festival, as the most significant promoter of B&H film, has always used the opportunity to open the event with a domestic film.

This is the second film by Aida Begić to open the Sarajevo Film Festival. In 2008, her film SNOW opened the 14th edition of the festival. SNOW won the Grand Prix Semaine de la Critique at the Cannes Film Festival.

CHILDREN OF SARAJEVO
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, France, Turkey, 2012.
FILM HOUSE, ROHFILM, LES FILMS DE L'APRES MIDI, KAPLAN FILM

WRITEN AND DIRECTED BY Aida Begić

CAST
Marija Pikić, Ismir Gagula, Nikola Đuričko, Jasna Ornela Bery, Bojan Navojec, Staša Dukić, Aleksandar Seksan, Velibor Topić, Mirela Lambić, Sadžida Šetić, Mario Knezović, Vedran Đekić, Sanela Pepeljak, Semir Krivić, Mehmed Porča, Adnan Omerović, Ravijojla Lešić, Vedrana Seksan

PRODUCER Aida Begić
CO-PRODUCERS  Benny Drechsel, Karsten Stoter, Francois d'Artemare, Semih Kaplanoglu
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Erol Zubčević
EDITING Miralem S. Zubčević
SET DESIGN Sanda Popovac
SOUND DESIGN Igor Čamo
COSTUME DESIGN Sanja Džeba
MAKE UP Jana Schulze

Rahima (23) and Nedim (14) are orphans of the Bosnian war. They live in Sarajevo, a transitional society that has lost its moral compass, including in the way it treats children of the people who were killed fighting for the freedom of their city. After crime-prone adolescent years, Rahima has found comfort in Islam and she hopes her brother will follow in her footsteps. Their life of bare survival becomes even more difficult after Nedim gets into a fistfight with the son of a local strongman and breaks his expensive mobile phone. This incident triggers a chain of events leading Rahima to the discovery that her brother leads a double life.