Sarajevo Film Festival Opens Despite Serb Barrage, Absence of Stars

An international film festival went ahead as planned in Sarajevo on Saturday despite a Serbian artillery barrage that killed 10 people and wounded at least 55.

Col. Bill Aikman, a spokesman for the U.N. Protection Force in Sarajevo, said the Serbs fired 830 artillery and tank rounds in a nine-hour bombardment that subsided just before nightfall.

Most of the Serbian shells hit government-held Zuc hill overlooking the city from the north. But rounds also crashed into the city center and residential districts around Kosevo Hospital.

Government leaders and U.N. officials were among 500 well-dressed guests who gathered at the film festival venue as the bombardment shook Sarajevo.

In a city whose residents have more than the usual need to escape their daily troubles, the next 10 days could be a treat beyond compare.

More than 100 titles are to be shown at the festival through Nov. 3, including the world premiere of “In the Name of the Father,” starring Daniel Day-Lewis.

But the event is far different from the usual star-studded festival. For one thing, most of the stars who wanted to attend were kept away. Day-Lewis, Vanessa Redgrave, Jeremy Irons and others were refused permission Friday to fly from Ancona, Italy, into Sarajevo on U.N. planes.

For another, the movies are being shown on videotape because the tape cassettes are easier to transport than film reels.

Sarajevans criticized the U.N. decision not to allow the stars to come as an example of bias against their city. Relations between residents and the U.N. Protection Force have seriously deteriorated.

“This festival is happening despite these (Serbian) fascists on the mountains around us and in Belgrade and despite UNHCR (U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees) and UNPROFOR (U.N. Protection Forces), who just pretend to protect this country,” said Mexican director Dana Rotberg.

She said she was able to attend because “I’m not famous enough.”

Maria Blaque-Belair, an official of a private French aid agency who helped organize the festival, said she had seen a letter in Ancona denying the actors passage on a U.N. flight. The letter came from British authorities, she said.

Tony Land of the UNHCR office said the group of actors approached Britain about flying on one of its planes.

Britain is one of five countries that fly aid into Sarajevo for the UNHCR, and Land said what one nation decides is usually honored by the others.

A British Foreign Office spokesman in London said he was not aware of such a letter, adding that the government considered it a UNHCR flight.

“The bottom line is it is not a British government decision,” he said.