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The
Sarajevo Film Festival, which was founded towards the end of the
Bosnian war by a group of film enthusiasts, has become
southeastern Europe's largest such event, showcasing 235 films
this year.
Produced by Hollywood stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, "Kiss
the Future" depicts the determination of young Sarajevo
musicians to find an escape from the horrors of war by putting
on rock concerts in the basement of the Academy of Performing
Arts.
U2 - one of the world's most popular bands at the time - became
involved after an aid worker persuaded them to carry live
satellite link-ups with Sarajevo during their European concert
tour in 1993.
After the end of the Bosnian war, in 1997, U2 staged a huge
concert in Sarajevo, which Bono ended by urging the crowd to
"Kiss the Future".
The basement of the drama academy was also used as an impromptu
wartime cinema, showing films smuggled into the city by foreign
visitors and with details of upcoming screenings spread by word
of mouth.
Anxious to keep moviegoers safe, organizers dug a hole in the
wall for the audience to enter the basement without being
exposed to snipers.
"Culture was one of the main things that gave us the power to
survive that period," said Mirsad Purivatra, a founder of both
the wartime cinema and the Sarajevo Film Festival.
He described how people would pack into the basement to attend
cultural events and meet friends, rushing home before curfew.
Images of filmgoers and the underground rock shows by
photographer Milomir Kovacevic Strasni are being displayed for
an exhibition taking place to mark the 30th anniversary of the
Apollo wartime cinema as part of the film festival.
"These photographs are, of course, witnesses of the time and
about those people and the friendship," he told Reuters.
"You can't tag a price on it, it's precious."
(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Helen Popper)
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