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Welcome to Sarjevo Dir: Michael Winterbottom Stars: Stephen Dillane, Woody Harrelson, Marisa Tomei When the lights came up after the press screening of Welcome to Sarajevo, I couldn't help but feel small. When I get home tonight, I might have to write a check I can't cover yet, my car could break down, or I might get into an argument over the phone. I can trust, however, that I won't be shot at by snipers on the way from my car to the front door, I won't be stopped at a roadblock by hardcore nationalists, and I'll have food and electricity waiting for me. Welcome to Sarajevo is a shocking movie, to say the least. We've been inundated with pictures and horror stories from the war in the former Yugoslavia, but director Michael Winterbottom puts us right there on the front line. The story is cut with stock news footage, bringing us one step further into the conflict through the window we usually look through. The war is thrown right in our laps, and it's hard to ignore. The story follows British journalist Michael Henderson (Stephen Dillane) through the carnage of Sarajevo as his film crew jockeys for the best coverage, competing for airtime with the royal family. Footage from the Winter Olympics cuts to a wedding party on its way to church. All seems normal, except for the deserted streets, until snipers open fire, killing the lead member of the party. In that one moment, any quiet dignity and sense of tranquility is shattered. As the title says, welcome to Sarajevo. Before the woman hits the ground, the press starts filming, trying to find a good vantage point from behind the burned-out cars and in the stoops of blackened buildings. This scene is just the latest in a long line for these reporters. Every few hours, they go out to film more of the same. Everyone tries to keep their distance. At one point, Henderson even says, "We're not here to help, we're here to report." Still, Henderson can't hold on to that feeling forever. When he visits an orphanage on the front line, he is moved to make it his pet project, sending in his pieces every night from the same place and vowing to continue to do so until the place is evacuated. As the Bosnians hold to their stance that evacuation is collaboration, the orphanage languishes in the crossfire. Henderson sees that he can help, and can't find a reason why he shouldn't. He ends up trying to adopt one of the children himself to get her out of the country. His dilemma is palpable as he manages the details of getting Emira, his newfound daughter, to London. Dillane plays Henderson with a quiet intensity necessary to show how his character is affected without seeming overly dramatic. Woody Harrelson also stands out as Flynn, Henderson's friend and rival reporter. The story and Henderson's character are loosely based on the experiences of Michael Nicholson, who reported from the front and adopted a child from Bosnia. "Loosely based" is always a dubious proposition, but you'd have to be made of stone not to be moved by this story. Many critics will no doubt say this film is one-sided and maybe even a bit unfair in its portrayal of international leadership in the Bosnian crisis. After all, it's easy to work up righteous indignation over children dying in the streets and ethnic cleansing, and juxtaposing world leaders talking about how they can't help with images of bloodied civilians and crying children is a pretty strong statement for director Winterborne to make. Even so, to dismiss Welcome to Sarajevo as mere rhetoric is to miss Winterbottom's point. Somewhere in between the flickering images we're all looking at and all the political malarkey being tossed about, real people have died and are still dying. Who can ignore that? -Nick |
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