A film about one Bosnian and one Serbian immigrant to the United States was chosen on Saturday as the best movie at the 14th Sarajevo Film Festival.The jury, chaired by Turkish film director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, awarded “Buick Riviera” by Croatian film director Goran Rusinovic and based on a novel by Miljenko Jergovic with the 25,000 Euro (US$37,160) Heart of Sarajevo Award.
The film tells the story of a Bosnian and a Serbian who meet on a deserted road in the United States. They spend the next 24 hours together, engaging in a psychological game of mutual accusations which will change their lives for good, just like the war they had both fled.
“To receive this award is a great honor both for the crew and the festival itself,” Rusinovic said.
“Buick Riviera” was selected from 10 films from Austria, Bosnia, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey which competed at the southeastern European largest film festival.
Leon Lucev and Slavko Stimac were chosen as best actors for their role in the film. The best actress award went to Ayca Damagaci for her role in “My Marlon and Brando” by Turkish director Huseyin Karabey.
The nine-day festival showed 174 films and documentaries. The Sarajevo Film Festival was launched near the end of the 1992-1995 Serbian, Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia and grew into the biggest regional film festival and one of the top ten in Europe.