City Sarajevo Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Strange as it may seem, the Oscar for Best International Feature tends to go to movies that are universal rather than geographically specific. Last year’s winner Drive My Car spoke more about mankind’s default setting to loneliness than it did about the specifics of relationship dynamics in modern Japan, just as the Danish drunks in 2021’s Another Round got hammered in a way that was relatable to boozers in every country from Albania to Zambia. Maybe the Academy feels that real life is better left to docs, but a 2015 win for the harrowing Second World War drama Son of Saul suggests that the door is always open. And after a year that saw the whole world reeling from Vladmir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, this might be one of those years that addresses the fact.

When supervising locations manager Andrew Buckley was looking for the right location to shoot Matthew Vaughn’s third instalment of the Kingsman franchise The King’s Man, Turin sprung to mind. They were coming to the end of Kingsman: The Golden Circle, where they were shooting in Italy’s Aosta mountains in a place called Courmayeur. 

With many European countries stepping up their offerings to lure in foreign projects, the last few years Italy’s Piedmont region has been quietly becoming an attractive option for Hollywood and international productions to set up camp. In a few weeks, Universal will release the tenth instalment of the Fast and Furious franchise, Fast X, of which 10 days was shot on the streets and city center of Turin, the region’s capital city, and around 150 of its 500-strong crew were locals. Michael Mann’s long-gestating Ferrari also was hosted by the Piedmont region last year. 

The Tribeca Festival has its opening-night, closing-night and centerpiece films.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Memento International has boarded Vladimir Perisic’s Serbian film “Lost Country” which will have its world premiere at Cannes’ Critics Week. Set in Serbia in 1996, “Lost Country” unfolds during the student demonstrations against the Milosevic regime. Story follows 15-year-old Stefan who has to confront his beloved mother, spokesperson and accomplice of the corrupted government that his friends are rising against. The cast is lead by Serbian debuting actor Jovan Ginic and Jasna Djuricic, the actor of Oscar-nominated film “Quo Vadis Aida.” “Lost Country” was penned by Vladimir Perisic and celebrated French writer-director Alice Winocour, whose latest film “Revoir Paris” earned Virginie Efira the Cesar award for best actress.

Bono kicked off his spring 2023 run of his Stories of Surrender shows in New York City and we have the full set list available!

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Mariëtte Rissenbeek, who heads over the Berlin International Film Festival along with Carlo Chatrian, has decided to step down after next year’s edition. Rissenbeek’s contract expires in March 2024, and she has opted to not renew it, according to the German culture ministry, which is the main financier of the festival. German Culture Minister Claudia Roth said she regretted Rissenbeek’s decision, but praised her for prompting a “generational change” within the leadership of the cultural institution. Rissenbeek, an industry veteran who previously worked as managing director of promotion agency German Films, has reached retirement age in Germany (at 67). The executive will step down after the 74th edition of the festival which she’s due to prepare with Chatrian.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent U.S.-Lebanese actor Tony Shalhoub, who played the “defective detective” on “Monk,” is set to star as former auto mogul-turned-fugitive Carlos Ghosn in a high-profile TV series directed by Michael Winterbottom. Ghosn is the French-Lebanese-Brazilian former CEO of automakers Nissan and Renault who in 2020 jumped bail and absconded to Beirut hidden in a music case on a private jet while on trial in Japan for alleged financial misconduct. Lebanon does not have an extradition treaty with Japan. The six-part series titled “Fall of the God of Cars” is written by Winterbottom, the prolific British director of “Welcome to Sarajevo,” whose TV work comprises hit sitcom series “The Trip” and, more recently, “This is England” starring Kenneth Branagh as Boris Johnson.

Michael Winterbottom has devoted much of his filmmaking career to revisiting real-life events through works blurring the boundaries between documentary and drama to various degrees.  

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Watching “Kiss the Future,” a documentary about the band U2’s relationship with wartorn Sarajevo in the 1990s, it’s hard not to think: “We’ve seen this movie before.” That’s not to do with the doc itself so much as how aspects of the 30-year-old footage from Bosnia’s brutal civil war parallel what we’ve seen in the news coverage coming out of Ukraine for the past year. Both involve stranger-than-fiction (or stranger-than-fascism) scenarios of cosmopolitan cities suddenly subject to state terrorism, which makes the Matt Damon and Ben Affleck-produced film coincidentally timely, for all its belatedness. In a sense, “Kiss the Future” is the story of a long-distance romance, between a superstar rock quartet reaching its peak and a once-grand metropolis that’s bottoming out. In the early ’90s, genocidally minded Serbian president Slobodan Milošević tried to subject the happily mixed population of Sarajevo to ethnic cleansing by any means necessary. The area’s young people fought back in whatever spirit-lifting way they could — including founding underground discos, forming punk bands and otherwise keeping the arts alive as they dodged shelling and snipers. An American activist, Bill Carter, had the idea to enlist the stadium-filling U2 in publicizing their plight, which led to nightly satellite appearances by Sarajevo locals on the giant screens of the “Zoo TV” tour’s European leg.

U2 frontman Bono put in a surprise appearance at the Berlin Film Festival on Tuesday evening to pay tribute to Steven Spielberg as the film director received the event’s Honorary Golden Bear for Life Achievement.

The Irish director and musician John Carney once made a movie under the working title “Can a Song Save Your Life?,” though the name was changed before it was released. And another batch of Dublin musicians of note ask a similar question in the documentary “Kiss the Future,” which premiered on Sunday at the Berlin International Film Festival and finds U2 using music to aid the occupants of a city under siege, Sarajevo.Directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain, produced by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Sarah Anthony and written by Bill S.

Jordan Moreau SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from Episode 6 of “The Last of Us,” now streaming on HBO Max. HBO’s “The Last of Us” series just took a major leap to the video game’s sequel, “The Last of Us: Part II,” that fans are sure to recognize: The snowy Jackson, Wyoming, settlement where “Part II” begins was faithfully recreated in Episode 6 — despite not appearing in the original game. It’s the first major connection to “Part II” that the show has made. Without spoiling the events of the sequel, the wintery Jackson town is a major location in the opening hours of the game. In the original “The Last of Us,” players learn about Jackson from Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and Maria (Rutina Wesley), but they mainly stay at the hydroelectric dam encampment and see Jackson only at a distance. The section of the game also takes place during the fall, not the winter.

For almost four years of siege in the 1990s, the city of Sarajevo concussed from shelling, the rumblings of armored vehicles and the repeated pop of sniper fire.

Matt Damon revealed he is in the early stages of research in a documentary project tackling the war in Ukraine at the Berlin Film Festival on Sunday.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Matt Damon revealed he was in the “early stages” on a project about Ukraine during the press conference for “Kiss the Future” at the Berlin Film Festival. Damon is a producer on the documentary which chronicles the struggle of Sarajevo citizens during the Bosnian War. World premiering in the Berlinale Special section, the politically minded documentary is directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain and based on “Fools Rush in: A Memoir” the memoir of Bill Carter, an aid worker. It shows how his determination resulted in the enlistment of the world’s largest rock band, U2, to help shine a light. Fifth Season and WME handling worldwide sales. Asked if he was considering following the footsteps of Sean Penn with “Superpower” with a film on the war in Ukraine, he said he’s “watched as everyone has with horror that unfolded there in the last year,” and although they “don’t have anything on it right now there isn’t any doubt that we’ll be doing.”

Brent Simon There’s no shortage of movies that gauzily peddle the notion of art as a balm. Few, however, are as invested in the charged immediacy of art’s relationship to real-life pain as “Kiss the Future,” a documentary enjoying its world premiere Feb. 19 in the Berlinale Special slot, with Fifth Season and WME handling worldwide sales. Directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain, and based on American-born aid worker Bill Carter’s “Fools Rush in: A Memoir” (the pair share a screen story credit), the film is a savvy mélange of history and cultural portraiture that affectingly chronicles the struggle of Sarajevo’s besieged civilians during the Bosnian War of the 1990s.

Vicky Krieps says she suffered physically for her art on the shoot of Austrian director Marie\ Kreutzer’s Corsage, revisiting the life of the legendary 19th century Empress Elisabeth of Austria with a contemporary, emancipated eye.

"The Crown" has resumed filming after the Netflix series paused production on Thursday, the day Queen Elizabeth II died at 96 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Elizabeth Debicki, the 32-year-old actress who portrays Princess Diana, was seen on a set in a small town near Barcelona, Spain dressed as the late princess.The scene is set during Diana’s trip to Bosnia in 1997 where she met with children and landmine victims. Debicki was seen in a pink button down, with black slacks and gold studded earrings, a spitting image of the late princess.  Elizabeth Debicki was seen on set of "The Crown," dressed as Princess Diana from 1997.

The Crown has resumed production after a one-day pause in its filming schedule observed out of respect for the late Queen Elizabeth II.WATCH: Behind the scenes of The CrownThe show was filming its sixth season for Netflix when news broke of the Queen’s sudden death on September 8, 2022 prompting questions about the royal drama’s future.Some fans feared the show would be cancelled in the wake of the monumental royal loss, while others insisted there was no reason Her Majesty’s death should affect the series.Showrunner Peter Morgan put speculation to rest soon after when he told Deadline: "The Crown is a love letter to her and I've nothing to add for now, just silence and respect.

took a break in production “out of respect” for Queen Elizabeth II, but the hiatus came to an end.Following the death of the queen, writer of the Netflix show Peter Morgan told Deadline on Thursday that he expected filming would stop “out of respect” for Her Majesty.Producers confirmed to CNN that production was halted for the day Friday, Sept. 9.“As a mark of respect, filming on ‘The Crown’ was suspended today.

EXCLUSIVE: Tunisia has submitted Erige Sehiri’s bucolic coming-of-age tale Under The Fig Trees, about a group of teenagers working as fig pickers over the summer, as its entry for the best international film Oscar.

Christopher Vourlias Dubai-based sales agent Cercamon has acquired world sales rights for Juraj Lerotić’s “Safe Place,” which won three awards after its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival and was named best film at Sarajevo. The Croatian director’s feature debut is the emotional story of a family reeling in the wake of a suicide attempt that centers on a man’s struggle to save his younger brother, creating a rift in the family’s everyday life.  “Safe Place” plays on Lerotić’s own pained family history, with the Croatian multihyphenate taking on the lead role in his deeply personal story – a performance that also earned him the award for best actor in Sarajevo. “The film is reduced to the most acute, to a short time span and a clear situation that can be put in a nutshell: save the loved one,” the filmmaker said in a statement.

Naman Ramachandran The BFI London Film Festival has revealed eight titles that will be in official competition. The films include Santiago Mitre’s political drama “Argentina, 1985” (Argentina); Clement Virgo’s brotherly love tale “Brother” (Canada); Marie Kreutzer’s irreverent period drama “Corsage” (Austria-Luxembourg-Germany-France); Fyzal Boulifa’s atmospheric domestic drama “The Damned Don’t Cry” (France-Belgium-Morocco); Mark Jenkin’s folk horror tale “Enys Men” (U.K.); Hlynur Palmason’s historical epic “Godland” (Denmark-Iceland-France-Sweden); Soudade Kaadan’s poignant family film “Nezouh” (U.K.-Syria-France); and Alice Diop’s courtroom drama “Saint Omer.”

Jesse Eisenberg is taking on an unexpected role.

Marta Balaga Slovenian director Dominik Mencej will put the motorbikes aside after his 90s-set road movie “Riders,” focusing on a female protagonist next. Once again set in the past, his new project “Aberrant Bride” will revolve around an “imported” young wife from Croatia, coming into a new environment and a new family, led by her husband’s domineering mother.“It’s similar but different,” says Mencej.“There is no open road, just a forest next to the house, but it’s also about this sense of belonging. I guess I can’t figure out how to tell a story with cellphones and social media.

Marta Balaga Dina Duma’s upcoming feature “Skateboarding Is Not for Girls” turned heads at Sarajevo Film Festival’s industry section CineLink this year. The story about a Romani Muslim girl from Skopje, Adela, trying to save her sister from being sold to the bridal market and dreaming of joining a group of female skaters, received the Film Center Serbia and the Female Voices awards.

Christopher Vourlias Croatian writer-director Juraj Lerotić’s “Safe Place,” an emotional story of a family reeling in the wake of a suicide attempt, took the top prize at the Sarajevo Film Festival, which wrapped a record-setting 2022 edition in the Bosnian capital on Friday night.The Heart of Sarajevo Award for best feature film was given by a jury headed by Austrian filmmaker Sebastian Meise (“The Great Freedom”), which included French filmmaker Lucile Hadžihalilović (“Earwig”), Croatian writer-director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović (“Murina”), Serbian actor Milan Marić (“Dovlatov”) and Israeli producer and consultant Katriel Schory.“Safe Place” plays on Lerotić’s own pained family history, with the Croatian multihyphenate taking on the lead role in his deeply personal story — a performance that also earned him the award for best actor in Sarajevo. Fresh off a triumphant world premiere in Locarno, where the film won three awards including best first feature, “Safe Place” was described by Variety’s Guy Lodge as a “supremely poised and moving first feature” and a “shattering” debut, “with a long trail of further festival bookings surely ahead.”Ukrainian director Maryina Er Gorbach was named best director for “Klondike,” which portrays the brutal realities of the war unfolding in Ukraine’s Donbass region through the lens of a pregnant farmstead owner whose life and home fall apart.

Eight films battled it out in competition at the 28th Sarajevo Film Festival, but Austrian director Sebastian Meise’s jury—including French director Lucile Hadžihalilović , Croatian director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, Serbian actor Milan Marić and Israeli producer Katriel Schory—spread the love quite widely.

Marta Balaga Following the world premiere of “Six Weeks” at Sarajevo Film Festival, about a teenage mother who decides to give her child up for adoption, but still has some time to change her mind, director Noémi Veronika Szakonyi will continue to explore the subject in “Little Ones.” In the documentary, which she will produce, the focus will shift to the complicated workings of international adoption.“We have been working on it for eight years now; we will shoot for four more,” she says. Her husband and frequent collaborator Máté Vincze will direct.“I have a subconscious connection to this topic, which I have realized only later.

Alissa Simon Film CriticThe long shadow of the war and its ravages continue to haunt a group of late middle-aged Sarajevan friends in the low-budget, tonally uneven dramedy “May Labor Day” from Bosnian multi-hyphenate Pjer Žalica. Although the material is both a little thin and a tad familiar, the script ticks off a range of contemporary social problems and issues such as the brain drain to Europe of the educated younger generation, junkie no-hopers who get clean through faith, the orphan kids kept off the street through charitable ventures and the nagging dissatisfaction felt by the ordinary men who fought for their country, but feel that it has lost its way.Serving as the closing night attraction of this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival, “May Labor Day” is a co-production of all the territories of former Yugoslavia and features an ensemble of the region’s best-known actors, who appear to take great pleasure in performing together.

When it was announced that Michael Winterbottom would be making a series about the first pandemic lockdown in the spring of 2022, many assumed—or perhaps hoped—that the politically committed director would be holding the British government to account. However, speaking to Deadline at the 38th Sarajevo Film Festival, 25 years after his acclaimed war drama Welcome To Sarajevo screened there, Winterbottom revealed that, in common with many of his fictionalized but factual feature films, the six-part Sky series This England , which debuts 21 September, will be an ensemble piece, taking a bird’s-eye view of the British authorities’ initial response to COVID.

Guy Lodge Film CriticIf Maria von Trapp found Austrian convent life a little suffocating in “The Sound of Music,” she would have been fully asphyxiated — possibly by someone else’s hand — in the austere Catholic spirit-prison that houses “Serviam – I Will Serve,” where any green hills are from view, pain is a holy priority, and perceived problematic flibbertigibbets are solved by rather more ruthless means than a jaunty sing-song. Only the third fiction feature in 20 years from accomplished Austrian formalist Ruth Mader, this supremely well-made chiller announces itself upfront as a cut above your average nunsploitation exercise with its stark, stringent mise-en-scène and jabs of religious inquiry via surreal, Bible-based animated interludes.

Good Afternoon International Insider team, Max Goldbart here with your mid-August dose of headlines, analysis and silly emojis. We’re taking a break next week but will be back with your favourite Friday lunchtime newsletter in a fortnight on September 2. For now, read on.

Guy Lodge Film CriticAbout halfway through “Safe Place,” a film already not given to taking it easy on viewers’ emotions, the meek, honest delivery of a single word — “Sorry” — shatters the heart irreparably into a million small shards. It comes from Damir (Goran Marković), a quiet, bearish but child-eyed man who has just attempted to take his own life.

Mads Mikkelsen has revealed some news that Johnny Depp fans will be happy to hear.