A movie story about Bowie from Srebrenica

A few days ago, a documentary film was broadcast at the Srebrenica Memorial Center Samir Mehic Bowie – Letters from Srebrenica. It is true about the musician who created music in the besieged enclava and let me know that then Srebrenica It was not only a place of death, pain and suffering, but also a place of culture, hope, creative spirit. Such remains today, except that it is also a place of guarding collective memory.

Film Samir Mehic Bowie – Letters from Srebrenica is in collaboration with Memorial Center Srebrenica recorded a Balkan BiH Investigation Networks journalist Lami ridge. The frame of the film consists of the public a lesser -known story of the Srebrenica rock and roll scene, which was in early 90s. Very developed. The director shows her through the eyes of a young guitarist Samir Mehicwho, one of the first in Srebrenica, listened to music David Bowie.

The war separated Mehic from the friends and members of the Inat Music Group; drummer Faruk Smajlovic He left Srebrenica while his best friend Samir remained because of his parents. In the letters they sent to each other, they dreamed of reuniting.

Their dreams, together with Samir, were buried in July 1995, when Serbian soldiers committed genocide over the population of the enclave. Monument to Samir and his father Fuadu Mehic He is one of many in the Potočari cemetery. The guitarist’s baptism had number 501 – life apparently had a sense of symbolism at the time, as Levi 501 Samir’s favorite jeans were.

The story of a different Srebrenica

The 34-minute documentary, which is one of the main protagonists of music (then time), was premiered in August last year at the 30th Sarajevo Film Festival.

But as the director Lami said to the portal Bosnainfobears a screening in a city where it all started and for thousands of it ended, a completely different meaning. The film was watched on Friday by people who knew Samir and other musicians, many still remember their concerts and a time in which the war has not yet indelibly cut into the hearts and souls.

“The screening in Srebrenica was perhaps the most important so far, because the film was broadcast in Samir’s city, in the Cultural Center in which he played with his group and where it all began. It was extremely emotional, the audience received us perfectly. His family, friends, people from the community they knew, had only commendable words after the screening. They emphasized how the film returned them to the time before the war, when concerts were in the same place, and they also remembered concerts during the war, which were a kind of symbol of resistance and need for normal life, ”the director said.

Drummer Faruk Smajlovic left the city, guitarist Samir Mehic remained. Photo: Birn Bosnia and Herzegovina

The genre itself was not important to me in the creation, but that the film sees and feel as many people as possible, otherwise the team of Slovenian journalists who visited Bosnia and Herzegovina at the invitation and organized by the Muslim Cultural Center Ljubljana, said Lami Gebo. She wanted the Srebrenico audience as a place full of life, culture, history, traditions – children were playing in the meadows before the war, young people danced in clubs – and she succeeded with the film.

In the elderly, she revived the memory of the former better times, and in the younger ones, who may not know much about genocide, he starred Iskra, who requires behavior and nurturing memory. « I wanted to tell the story of Samir and a different Srebrenica, the one in which there was a living rock and roll scene, » said Greblova, « at the same time reminding him and other victims. »

The director is with the team – the film was mounted Elvedin Zorlakproduced Denis Džidićin play scenes, Samir played Igor Skvaricawho participated in Friday’s screening in Srebrenica – created a hero who really turns out to be a tragic character, but still remains a hero today.

The screening of the film in Srebrenica was extremely emotional, said director Lami Gebo. Photo: Birn Bosnia and Herzegovina

“Even the younger generations have affected the war, but many do not see themselves as victims. They survived, continuing their lives. With the film, I wanted to emphasize, among other things, that art is one of the ways to fight against the denial of genocide, to glorify convicted war criminals. There was a lot of talk about the perpetrators, the whole world knows about them, and we forgot about the victims of genocide. There are thousands of faces like Samir’s, « said the director, thinking of the faces of the war.

Samir Mehic, said Lami Geba, devoted his life to music and things that made him happy, not politicians, but was captured by politics and death before the age of 30. The notebook with texts and some photos, when they broke up just before the massacre in Srebrenica, gave his wife Nermini Mehic. The conclusion of a film in which the viewer constantly senses or feels the sad fate of Samir is surprising, as he reveals that the Srebrenica Bowie remains alive. Even today. Not just through music and verses.