During the nearly four-year siege in the 1990s, the city of Sarajevo suffered a concussion from shelling, the roar of armored vehicles and repeated sniper fire.
But in stolen moments, other, more hopeful sounds broke through: music from underground clubs and from television sets when the power wasn’t turned off. Songs like “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “One” by U2. The documentary is based on the human need for enjoyment and liberation through music kiss the future, tells how Bono and band took up Sarajevo’s case. The documentary, produced by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Sarah Anthony and Drew Vinton and directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain, had its world premiere tonight at the Berlin Film Festival.
The film (Berlinale sales title) takes us back to 1992, when Serbia, under the barbaric leadership of President Slobodan Milošević, launched a campaign of territorial expansion and ethnic cleansing after the dissolution of the state of Yugoslavia.
“It was ready for trouble,” says former president. Bill Clinton in a new interview in which he describes the unstable situation in the Balkans. Another useful history commentator in the film is CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, who made her reputation as a Bosnian war correspondent. She explains why the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina – a place known for the peaceful coexistence of Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats – became the target of Milošević’s destruction.
“It was a very bright light, Sarajevo,” notes Amanpour, “and they had to kill it.”
To the historical background kiss the future comes down to the real priority – to show how the people of Sarajevo responded to the extreme hardship and constant threat of death. As in Ukraine last year, the people of Sarajevo needed not only shelter, water and food, but also some reprieve from the war, even if only for a short time, and the energy to continue to to resist. They found inspiration in music, especially in the songs of U2, the biggest rock band in the world at the time.
“It was a bit like teleporting to another place,” recalls Enes Zlatár, frontman of the band Sikter, of what it was like to play and listen to music. “That’s what kept us sane the whole time.”
In a startling piece of archive, Sikter’s drummer, who lost an arm to grenades, is seen furiously banging on a drum kit at a concert, with a drumstick duct taped to the stump of his right arm. It tells you how important music is.
Enes vividly remembers: “Our punk rock was our weapon to tell them: ‘Fuck you!’
MTV, at the time the strongest force in pop music, was on television in Bosnia. As we learn, Sarajevanians revered U2 for their exciting music and outspoken stance on political issues. Written about the worst atrocity in the Northern Ireland conflict, when British troops slaughtered unarmed civilians in 1972, the Irish unit’s blaring “Sunday Bloody Sunday” resonated deeply with the Bosnians who faced annihilation.
“I thought they were a force for good,” says Bill S. Carter of U2. He wrote the documentary and plays an important role in it. He recalls his trip as a young American to besieged Sarajevo in the early 1990s, where he came into contact with an unorthodox NGO. He only wanted to stay for a short time, but fell in love with the people, he says. The central part of the film revolves around Carter’s attempts to contact U2 and Bono and enlist their help in raising awareness of the plight of Sarajevo’s abused residents.
U2 then played their massive Zoo TV Tour in support of the album Attention baby. Remarkably, Carter overcame numerous hurdles and layers of security to meet U2 on the Italian leg of their tour; He interviewed Bono, who sent a message of solidarity to the people of Sarajevo. And at their next concert, U2 dedicated a performance of “One” to the city.
“We thought the whole world had abandoned us,” recalls a Sarajevo resident of U2’s hopes. “[It was] Can’t believe someone took care of that.
Bono, The Edge and other members of U2 and their touring staff and management teams are interviewed kiss the future. Bono recalls suggesting that U2 go to Sarajevo immediately to do a live concert, but the idea was ultimately deemed too risky. But during their Zoo TV tour stops in Copenhagen, Stockholm, London and elsewhere, they used a satellite link to beam Carter and young Sarajevans for a live chat in front of large stadium audiences. This exchange left Bono visibly moved, but once on the band’s live feed, a Bosnian woman bluntly said despite the gesture of solidarity: “You guys really don’t do anything for us.”
It was a reality check that, despite some feel-good moments, the West paid lip service at best to the fate of Bosnia and Sarajevo. Milošević got away with a bloody murder.
After this public rebuke, U2 dropped the “Live from Sarajevo” intermissions from the tour dates. “It didn’t create a tidal wave,” says Bono, saying it’s become a tired “reality TV” exchange “using people’s pain as entertainment.”
However, they were not done with Sarajevo. They then co-wrote the song “Miss Sarajevo” with Brian Eno, inspired by a beauty contest in the center of the city during the siege, where young contestants in bathing suits held up a banner that read “Don’t Let Them Kill Us . Luciano Pavarotti sang an operatic part of the tune.
The film shows that the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, when Serbian forces executed more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys, prompted Western retaliation. A four-day NATO bombing raid changed everything. Amanpour says of Milošević’s forces: “They collapsed in a second.” The siege of Sarajevo soon came to an end.
kiss the future succeeds on several levels – as an important reminder of a terrible war of genocide that has been largely forgotten, and as a kind of time capsule commemorating a time when the “news feed” satellite link U2 implemented for the Zoo TV tour , was a first, and MTV reigned as the supreme arbiter of youth culture. But it speaks critically to this day, when civilians in Ukraine are attacked as mercilessly and brutally as the people of Sarajevo. Citizens of Ukraine, competing for food and warmth in a cold winter, continue to make art and need music, similar to the exciting scenes in Cisin-Sain’s film. Ukraine’s classical musicians played in underground bunkers, a gesture of hope and resilience, a humane and uplifting act that stands in stark contrast to Putin’s enterprise of destruction.
The documentary builds on U2’s triumphant arrival in Sarajevo after the siege was broken. They play in front of tens of thousands of adoring fans in an arena; One man recalled almost 30 years later: “The war ended the moment they went on stage.”
Bono, temporarily losing the exceptional tenor voice that made him one of rock music’s greatest singers, manages to shout to the crowd, “Viva Sarajevo!” He shouts: “Fuck the past! Kiss the future!”
Source: Deadline
Bernice Bonaparte is an author and entertainment journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a passion for pop culture and a talent for staying up-to-date on the latest entertainment news, Bernice has become a trusted source for information on the entertainment industry.
