DVDMovie / TVReviews

Scream for me Sarajevo

1 hr 35 min / documentary / Director: Tarik Hodzic / English language

The alliance of good, a motley crew of super heroes, gathering to defy evil, resist despair, spit in the face of certain death and thus inspiring people, giving them hope to survive and prevail…
Nope, I’m not commenting the wrong movie. The difference to Avengers: Infinity War I happened to watch a few hours earlier is just the fact that this is a documentary. This actually happened, involving real life super heroes. Ok they need airplanes to fly and cannot provide electricity by sheer will power – but super heroes nevertheless:

“Sarajevo in 1994 was a city under siege. Mortars and grenades rained down on the city, killing indiscriminately every day. Amongst the madness, would it be possible to persuade a global rock star to come and play a show for local fans?
Scream for Me Sarajevo is the amazing and astonishing story of the most unlikely of rock concerts, performed by Bruce Dickinson and his band Skunkworks in 1994, in the midst of the Siege of Sarajevo. This is a film about extraordinary people defying the horrors of war, and the musicians who risked their lives to play a show for them.
Featuring footage from the historic gig, the film also meets those that made it to the show and made the show happen; determined to keep living their lives despite the atrocities going on around them. Interviews with the band, crew and security bring home the reality of the situation that was not only dangerous, it was barbaric.”

Watch it, no matter whether you are a fan of Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson or not. This transcends a “mere documentary about a gig”. I had my heart ripped out several times during the screening, barely avoiding bursting into tears. It was not only witnessing the deep emotions of everybody being interviewed and being deeply touched, it also triggered some of my memories of this siege, living not so far away from Sarajevo, sort-of-safe behind the border of another country. A few flashbacks:

Austrian Army camping & training next to our house, you wake up to machine gun fire, a helicopter landing in the back yard, tanks rolling by your house – got a taste what war “for real” could be like … (then a few days later war reaches Austrian borders, the army just moves a few Kilometers further South, “war game” shit gets real)

Bosnian mate at University tells you he’s the only one still alive from his high school graduation class, because he got a scholarship and got out in the nick of time (he later finds another survivor who also managed to escape in Vienna)

Another Bosnian class mate wants to go back to sieged Sarajevo to get her parents out. We try to persuade her “this is madness”, she still does it (they made it, luckily) …

The agony of powerlessness – WTF can I do? – when following official news and not-so-official ones that were confirmed officially later (Srebrenica, rape camps) … friends evacuating from their houses near the border as they hear planes & bombings every night, just from across the river, as this is the border …

The agony of “why isn’t anybody doing anything to stop that”, news of UN soldiers and journalists being murdered systematically, 2 Austrian journalists assassinated at the airport of Ljubljana …

… and the list could still go on …

Hence for me a heart-breaking docu, and in my eyes everybody involved – people organizing the gig, musicians determined to play, people attending the show despite the danger, and of course the people making this documentary – is a real life super hero.

For me it’s more than a documentary, it’s a manifest to the power of music, the encouraging power, the power of healing. Hence, especially for Metal fans, one of the most important documentaries you can watch.

Go and watch. Recommend it further. Buy the DVD.

Cast: Bruce Dickinson (Himself) · Alen Ajanovic (Himself) · Esad Bratovic (Himself) · Mirza Coric (Himself) · Fedja Stukan (Himself) · Samir Culic (Himself) · Chris Dale (Himself) · Alessandro Alex Elena (Himself) · Erol Gagula (Himself) · Trevor Gibson (Himself) · Meldin Hota (Himself) · Neso Kovac (Himself) · Milomir Kovacevic (Himself) · Jim Marshall (Himself) · Martin Morris (Himself) · Nenad Kovacevic (Himself)

The documentary can now be watched in selected movie Theaters followed by an exclusive Q&A with Bruce Dickinson (about 25 min), before the DVD will be released June 29th. You can get tickets and pre-order the DVD, Blu-Ray and Soundtrack at http://www.screamformesarajevo.com

SCREAM FOR ME SARAJEVO Trailer

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Klaudia Weber

reckless and merciless dictator, so KNEEL! In other words, editor-in-chief, translator, website and ad admin, "Jane of all trades" - - - addicted to books (everything between Lord Of The Rings & quantum physics) and music, mainly Metal made in Finland. Furthermore, there's painting, drawing, movies, theater... so you can expect some variety on this website too. MA Master of Arts, English and American studies & Media communication = completed two full studies parallel within 5 years; very proud of my achievement - a bit later in life thanks to a scholarship - as a working class girl in a highlyconservative-romancatholic nation...