Sarajevo Songs of Woe | Javier H. Estrada, Filmadrid, Madrid / Spain, June 2017
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This is a filmic triptych containing two tales: "Blue Ballad for Lovers" and "Blue Rondo for Survivors" and the documentary middle part "Blue Psalm for Wolves". They flow into each other and so build up a universal mosaic of fragmented life situated in the town of Sarajevo.

Fred Kelemen's comeback to feature-length films after 11 years of silence is a deep immersion into the catacombs of existence, a work that is consistent with the author's themes and style and which also leads into new territories. The film is composed of three episodes which set out radically different aesthetic approaches and focus on creatures of a very diverse nature. Its tone keeps a painful understanding of life which becomes more and more agonizing in each episode. "Sarajevo Songs of Woe" is first and foremost the portrait of a city whose present has been kidnapped by the tragedies of the past, an extraordinary representation of the physical and ethical ruins of a whole civilization. The Bosnian capital serves as the greatest and most punished exponent of the abyss of European culture.
The first section is a romantic story, the second one a truly unbelievable and devastating reflection on the idea of community represented by a goup of stray dogs and the third one is a biographical sketch of a war criminal who bears the weight not only of his guilt but also of his destructive instinct.
Three vibrant songs of survival, the new zenith of one of the great geniuses of our time.

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