EXILE IN SARAJEVO
1996 / 91 min
Directors: Tahir Cambis and Alma Sahbaz
Bosnian-Australian Tahir Cambis travelled to the city of Sarajevo in 1995 three years into its siege by Bosnian Serb forces. This poignant and moving observational documentary covers the last six months of conflict, and focuses on the impact of the war on the civilian population in Sarajevo, particularly its children. Cambis is both insider and outsider in this story and the film unfolds like a visual diary as he meets the city’s people, learns of the personal impacts of the war and comes to terms with his own cultural history
STILLS
MY DIRECTOR’S NOTES
I met Tahir at Bar Italia. He was sitting at a back table. He joked with me that he always had a habit of sitting with the wall behind him, because you could never leave your rear unattended, a habit he got into on his last trip to Sarajevo two years earlier. Tahir had a limp caused by a bullet wound he incurred on that trip which landed in hospital for several months. He narrowly escaped death, he told me – as if to prove to me that he was totally fearless.
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RESOURCES
REVIEWS
AWARDS
Emmy for Best International Documentary, Emmy Awards 1996
Australian Film Critics Circle Award for Best Documentary
Melbourne International Film Festival - Audience vote for most popular documentary.
Played at over 40 international film festivals.