Baudot- Week 6: Sarajevo

Welcome to Sarajevo 

The longest, modern siege known to history can be seen in the battle that Sarajevo underwent during the late 1900s. In Welcome to Sarajevo, we are introduced to Michael Henderson and Jimmy Flynn, a UK reporter and journalist who travels to Sarajevo to report on the brutality and mass murder and the siege that is occurring in the city and an American journalist who is on the hunt for the best stories and most highly sought after news topics in the "14th worst place on earth" (as the city of Sarajevo is named in the film. In the way in which the film is put together, we are able to get a very wide perspective of the different ideas and viewpoints of everyone involved in the siege, the emotional ties and frustrations that come along with being involved in the city during this terrible time of mass killing and devastation, and how the world might be viewing what is happening in Sarajevo at that time. It is by no chance that the film's producer chooses to have 2 of main characters be journalists, because they are, in this way, given special "access" to be up close and personal with the death and destruction in the city along with the orphanage, which comes to be one of the most important aspects of the film. As one of our blackboard articles states,"As a professional soldier, Galie would have known that throughout time, there have been five tried and true methods, used alone or in combination, for effectively laying siege to a fortified position. Successful prosecution of such warfare relies on any or all of the tactics of assault, bombardment, starvation, trickery, and terror (Riordan 158)."    

This quote truly resonates within the film most importantly in the orphanage but also in other aspects of the city and how families were raised, etc. There is a striking scene in the film where they show a small, young, blonde girl eating a piece of food after they have been taken on the bus to Italy and she is sitting by herself. There is a wind blowing, she gently wipes the hair off of her face, and the background behind her is filled with water, peace, and serenity. This, to me, embodied the type of rigor that was being placed upon these children in terms of the living conditions. Their homes were being sieged, and there was never a time that they did not have to worry about their safety. One of the worst "tactics of assault" that was placed in these children's lives was the notion that they weren't being fed properly, they were deceived  and worried about being pulled away from their families. The scenes get more graphic as the movie goes on, and we begin to see deceased babies that were innocently killed because of a home siege. These images seem to embody the total, unnecessary loss that occurred through the Serb sieges. How does this affect the people within the city? Not only is the killing and being torn away from their family members a tragic thing to endure, there is enough evidence in the film to support the idea that people began to be immune to what was going on around then. In the beginning of the film, Flynn and Henderson discuss how the older woman was shot down in the middle of the street for no reason, and nobody came to do anything for her until after several minutes, when the small boy and the priest come to take her body inside. People continue to pass by or just watch from a distance without getting involved, and this is, arguably, what became a "new reality" for the people of Sarajevo. 

As other countries and cities watch what is going on in the city at that time, I think it would be most interesting to look towards Flynn's character to see how it was not only being portrayed in the media, but also in terms of the question of morality. Flynn is much more lackadaisical than Henderson when it comes to seeing the death and witnessing it first hand. He only seeks what will bring the most benefit for his company, and opposed to Henderson to even tries to rescue the children himself. Perhaps it is indifference; perhaps it is ignorance; perhaps it is a refusal to confront the reality he is being placed into. But regardless of how the world seems to be reacting to what is going on in Sarajevo, the citizens themselves seem to be a point of desperation. There is a line in the film that states, "Would it be safe to try to get to Italy on these buses? Is there even an option to stay where we are now?" People are willing to do something possibly dangerous for their lives in order to get to a "better reality" so to speak. The movie also shows how once internalized and organized crime begins to take place and also the scene where Risto is shot in his home, the outlook for Sarajevo begins to look very dim and unhopeful for improvement. 

When it comes to The Cellist of Sarajevo, much of the similar themes can be found in the text in comparison to the film. As the quote mentions earlier, the Serbs knew what was best in order to bring down the city most. The methods used were inhumane and cruel and blind to the innocence of its victims. There is a "new reality" that becomes very real for the people of the city, and many people do not know how they will ever be able to go back to how the city and their way of lives once were. They are unwilling to come to terms with this "new reality." In the book, we meet Kenan, Dragan, Arrow, and the unkown Cellist himself. Kenan, Dragan, and Arrow are all just trying to survive, while the Cellist is not actually one of the main characters of the text. Ultimately, he seems to be the hope at the end of all of the destruction that there will be hope for the city and its future. His music and attentiveness to each death seems to ultimately suggest this notion. Many of the characters struggle with their new reality. The text states, "Every day the Sarajevo he thinks he thinks he remembers slips away from him a little at a time, like water cupped in the palms of his hands, and when it's gone he wonders what will be left... But as time went on he began to see things as they now were, and then one day he knew that he was no longer fighting the city's disappearance, even in his mind. What he saw around him was his only reality." 

The text is another perfect example of how the loss and devastation within the city was viewed by its own citizens. It was something that has permanently altered their lives forever.  Dragan seems to suffer with the notion of this reality the most, especially when he could potentially lose his wife and son. Yet he chooses to remain true to his city and where he is from, which makes you wonder why he would choose to pledge an allegiance to such a horror-ridden place. This is an aspect of the text that makes it a bit different than Welcome to Sarajevo. In the film, we do not see such allegiance to the city, and we are much more inclined to just hope for the survival of the oppressed as opposed to the struggle to maintain Sarajevo allegiance from its citizens. Ultimately, however, the concept of perception (mainly in this sense being able to perceive and comprehend the totality of what is going on around you) is what is most important in both the film and the text.