Editor

Sarajevo Film Festival warmly greeted Kerry Fox and the rest of the crew of Hans Christian Schmid's “Storm. In this engaging German-Danish-Dutch drama about a prosecutor Hannah (Kerry Fox) at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague and about war atrocities during the war in Bosnia. Sarajevo hosted Fox before, on a occasion of Michael Winterbottom’s “Welcome to Sarajevo” twelve years ago. We all know Fox as an international star, after her success in Jane Campion’s “An Angel At My Table” (1990) and Danny Boyle’s “Shallow Grave” (1994) prior to winning the Best Actress Prize at the Berlinale in 2001 for Patrice Chereau’s “Intimacy.” Fox’s character in “Storm” is a key component of her performance and presents Fox as a strong and compiling actress, now, in “Storm” more mature and skilful then before.

Open Air Cinema on Sarajevo Film Festival proudly presented film crew of “Storm” directed by Hans Christian Schmid. Coffee With Program hosted Hans Christian Schmid, young Romanian actress Anamaria Marinca and Kerry Fox. The film is dealing with war crimes in Bosnia and the complicated system of proving it. The director Hans Christian Schmidt spoke very uncompromisingly about trials of war criminals in Hague. “One possible reason for that is that we do not know much about this issue. Therefore, we started from scratch. We spent 2 years reading, studying and researching everything, considering this issue. Furthermore, the fact that we do not know everything about this country and that we are not part of the people who survived this conflict perhaps gave us an opportunity to consider the fact from a different angle, while all along aiming to warn of injustice in the case of these crime or a system which finds it irrelevant whether it is injustice committed“ Wonderful Kerry Fox here is realizing the territory she taps in. She does not want to do what system demands of her, because of the compassionate feeling of a great suffer that victims going through during the process.

“Hans did not show me the script as he was changing it exactly at the time, when we talked bout it. However, talking about her, a strong woman who scares those around her with her standards and who decides to put her entire career on the line because of a victim she just met, was enough for me to accept the role. I didn’t know much about Haag Tribunal, but I have discovered a lot about Sarajevo and the events that happened here when I was first visited the city 15 years ago. “Said Fox.

Young Romania actress Anamaria Marinca had to work very hard to do her role of Bosnian victim right there. “I had to act in three foreign languages, English, German, and Bosnian while playing the role of a woman who suffered all the horrors of the war which I have not. By playing this character, I did not wish to imitate victims whom I had talked to in order to understand them better. Rather, I understood that I had to take position of my own to truly personify her. That is why I did not play this role from the position of the horrors that she suffered, but from the position of a mother and wife, who needs to put her family in risk and do all she can to contribute to justice with her testimony. " Since the war criminals in film here are Bosnian Serbs, film director Schmidt was truly worried about how Serb ethnic group in Bosnia and Serbia would accept the film, so he stressed out: "I was worried what the reaction would be and if the audience would accept what we thought was necessary for this story to tell. Today I am much more in peace. There is still concern when it comes to screenings in Banja Luka and Belgrade. However, it is not as intense. It is important to talk about victims who frequently need to face the system and institutions such as the Haag Tribunal and warm them that they need to give victims a chance. A chance for the truth to finally come to light."

Radmila Djurica