Fuhrer: The Siege of Sarajevo

On April 5^th 1992, the Siege of Sarajevo began in the now broken up nation of Yugoslavia. The Serbs who believed that they should be in control of the city began the attack in order to counter the newly elected government which had been formed by both the ethnically Slavic and Muslim population who resided in the city. The Siege not only utilized military attacks such as bombings but also surrounded the entire city making it incredibly dangerous for the people of the city to leave their homes even though they had to as the Serbs stopped food convoys from entering the city to feed the population in order to starve out the population. These kinds of all out attacks while absolutely atrocious was not the first instances of these types of tactics. WW2 with its increased weaponry technology, military tactical formations and policies brought on a much fiercer brutality than with its predecessor which paved the way to many acts of dehumanization to come.

In the film Welcome to Sarajevo and the novel The Cellist of Sarajevo by Stephen Galloway we see two very different perspectives on the siege and although both have been dramatized for effect theses two works help bring one insight in to the everyday lives of the people trying to survive in the Siege.

The Cellist of Sarajevo is a fictional rendition of the true story of Vedran Smajlovic a Cellist for the Sarejevo opera and Symphony (Sarajevo itself had been a thriving metropolis for art and culture before the Siege) who upon learning of a bombing on a breadline during the early days of the siege decides to play Adagio in G Minor for 22 days, each day representing a victim of the assault. His role therefore as the main character shifts to almost a symbol of hope to the people of Sarajevo encouraging them to not give up. After the first chapter we are then introduced in to the lives of three more characters. Dragan a man in his mid sixties who becomes separated from his family because he chooses to stay and look after his apartment, Kennan a man in his forties who is forced to leave his home and risk his life in order to find water and Arrow a female sniper who protects the Cellist while he plays. All three of these characters introduce us to the hardships, which must have been faced but also indicates the reactions of Smajlovic’s music as all three become positively influenced by it.

Welcome to Sarajevo while being completely fictional is set in the style of a documentary and follows reporters as they cover the Siege. Since it is a movie, it is afforded all the advantages of dramatic story telling that is harder to capture with a novel and while I preferred the novel over the film. Its impersonal style gives one a broader outlook on all the citizens rather than points of view of a few key character as with the book. It does also indicate how people who had no personal ties to the siege itself reacted to it and brings up the question of how long can one hide behind a camera before they find it necessary to intercede?The reporter's struggle to get their story heard becomes their personal oppression which they must overcome same as the the citizens of Sarajevo.