Sarajevo — The 31st Sarajevo Film Festival will open on 15 August with the world premiere of Dino Mustafić’s dark comedy “The Pavilion,” the story of retirement-home residents who launch an armed revolt after years of mistreatment.
Festival organisers say the screening marks the award-winning theatre and documentary director’s first fiction feature in two decades, following his 2003 hit Remake. Mustafić called presenting the film at his hometown festival “no greater excitement or privilege,” adding that it unites “a large regional cast of well-known actors” to ask how “the oldest generation choose to act according to conscience in today’s world.”
The ensemble pairs Balkan icons Rade Šerbedžija, Mirjana Karanović, Zijah Sokolović and Meto Jovanovski with rising names such as Ermin Bravo and Alban Ukaj. International outlets, including Variety, billed the project as a “dark retirement-home comedy” when the line-up was revealed. Ivančić and Emir Imamović Pirke penned the script, while six production companies from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia share financing.
Montenegrin-born actor Lidija Kordić, 29, recently selected as a European Shooting Star for her Venice-premiered role in Diva Futura, will host the red-carpet ceremony that precedes the screening. “It was at the Sarajevo Film Festival that I experienced my first premiere, and closing that circle as host is the most beautiful way possible,” she said, calling the week-long event “the most magical time in Sarajevo—streets full of people, ideas, style, languages and emotions.”
Founded in 1995 during the city’s siege, the festival has grown into Southeast Europe’s largest film gathering and is now an Oscar-qualifying event for short films. Current director Jovan Marjanović, who succeeded founder Mirsad Purivatra in 2022, frames the opening-night choice as evidence of “championing Balkan storytelling while courting international industry attention.”
Observers note that The Pavilion positions Sarajevo to continue its tradition of mixing auteur work with audience-friendly fare; a full programme is expected next month, but ScreenDaily and IMDb’s industry feed report brisk market interest following Wednesday’s announcement.
