Synopsis
Beyond the End of the World is the untold story of a 10-day international film festival that was staged in Sarajevo during the brutal 4-year siege and how the films helped us to survive the siege of Sarajevo when everything was lost.
Haris Pašović and the other heroes of this war story aren’t soldiers, they’re artists - people who used ingenuity and humor to battle the nationalism and bloodshed that raged around them. Today those same artists struggle in war’s aftermath.
In 1993, Haris was 32 and already a successful theater director. A determined romantic with a dry sense of humor, he showed surprising depths of courage by leaving the safety of Antwerp to sneak back into Sarajevo so he could play his part in the war. Once arrived, he saw something unrecognizable. People were living in isolation and fear, hiding from the shelling and snipers that had plagued the city for over a year. For centuries Sarajevo had been a cultural melting pot, but Yugoslavia's disintegration was dividing neighbors and families along ethnic lines. In the face of this destruction, Haris and his friends banded together to create a cultural resistance. Against enormous odds, they made films, put on concerts, and produced plays in an effort to hold the city together. And then Haris had an audacious thought: like any other European city, Sarajevo should host an international film festival. Cutting back and forth between Sarajevo’s past and current struggles, the film raises question: How does the role of an artist change in times of war and peace?
Using animation, archival footage, interviews and verité footage, Beyond the End of the World brings to life an incredible effort that involved Hollywood celebrities, international smuggling, and ordinary citizens risking their lives to go to the movies.
Haris Pašović and the other heroes of this war story aren’t soldiers, they’re artists - people who used ingenuity and humor to battle the nationalism and bloodshed that raged around them. Today those same artists struggle in war’s aftermath.
In 1993, Haris was 32 and already a successful theater director. A determined romantic with a dry sense of humor, he showed surprising depths of courage by leaving the safety of Antwerp to sneak back into Sarajevo so he could play his part in the war. Once arrived, he saw something unrecognizable. People were living in isolation and fear, hiding from the shelling and snipers that had plagued the city for over a year. For centuries Sarajevo had been a cultural melting pot, but Yugoslavia's disintegration was dividing neighbors and families along ethnic lines. In the face of this destruction, Haris and his friends banded together to create a cultural resistance. Against enormous odds, they made films, put on concerts, and produced plays in an effort to hold the city together. And then Haris had an audacious thought: like any other European city, Sarajevo should host an international film festival. Cutting back and forth between Sarajevo’s past and current struggles, the film raises question: How does the role of an artist change in times of war and peace?
Using animation, archival footage, interviews and verité footage, Beyond the End of the World brings to life an incredible effort that involved Hollywood celebrities, international smuggling, and ordinary citizens risking their lives to go to the movies.
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