Fisher - Sarajevo

Sarajevo is the capital city of Bosnia. It was known to be a beautiful city with much culture and happy inhabitants. However, during the years of 1992-1996 the city was under siege during the Bosnian War. The siege of Sarajevo was muffled by the media during these years and little news about the on-goings in the area was heard. I was familiar with this terrible event at a young age as a grew up with an evacuee of Bosnia. My friend Amar and I grew up and went to school together since the tender age of 5. I knew he was from Europe, particularly a place called Bosnia, which I figured to be Eastern European. Sadly, this was the extent of my knowledge of his situation at the time. It was not until I entered high school that my mother explained his situation to me. She made me aware of the war and atrocity that he and his parents had fled from. Had I known this when we had gone to school together I don't know if I would have acted any differently toward him, or if I could have even grasped the concept of what his family (in US and Bosnia) was going through. Whatever the case would have been, we are still friends today and he returns to Bosnia quite often to visit his family there. Lucky for him, Sarajevo is the fastest growing city in Bosnia, and a bustling capital with a vibrant culture. I would love to visit with him next time he returns.

With that in mind, the discussion this week is on the book The Cellist of Sarajevo and the movie Welcome to Sarajevo. They show different perspectives of what went on in the city during the siege. The book follows three separate people who are linked by the appearance of a cellist whom played everyday for 22 days in the streets of Sarajevo. He was playing for the 22 innocent lives lost during a bombing. The cellist inspired thousands who heard of his cause and how he continued to play everyday despite threats to his life and proximity to constant danger. This was his way of standing up to oppression, and showing his resolve in the face of a "never-ending" siege upon his city and his people. The people in turn mimicked his resolve, and protected him when he played. The Cellist of Sarajevo gives the reader an image of the victim's standpoint during the siege of Sarajevo.

The movie, Welcome to Sarajevo, follows different groups of reporters who were in the city during the siege. There are those who seek fame, focus on a small section, or try to capture the entire tale. Either way, their efforts were to expose to the world what was happening in the streets of Sarajevo. Regardless of whether this was done for fame, the story, or to save lives, it needed to be done. People need to see what is happening to their fellow man, across the world or in their backyard. Every nation should be aware of what was happening in there, and these were the people to make sure that everyone knew. Yet, despite their efforts, the media turned a blind eye to what was happening in Bosnia. No one interceded on the innocent's behalf or stopped the mass killings. I suppose the world assumed things would work themselves out in 1992... 93.. 94... and so on. The truth must be told, the world cannot ignore the lives of countless innocents lost. We must pave the way the a new future, one where we are aware of the atrocities that mankind is capable of. We must have the knowledge and intelligence to choose other options, or crush ignorance before it rears its ugly head.

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.