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Welcome To Sarajevo (1997)

Average rating

(67%)

Starring:	Woody Harrelson \| Marisa Tomei \| Kerry Fox \| Stephen Dillane \| Emily Lloyd \| Labina Mitevska \| Juliet Aubrey \| Kerry Shale \| Goran Visnjic \| James Nesbitt \| Cesir Adi \| Petar Arsovski \| Senad
Director:	Michael Winterbottom
Studio:	FILM 4
Run time:	97 mins
Genres:	Drama
Languages:	English
Hearing-impaired:	English
Subtitles:	English
Released:	May 12, 2008

Documentary footage of the horrific acts of 'ethnic cleansing' combines with the verite-styled story of a cohort of journalists torn between passively chronicling the atrocities and actively resisting them in this powerful film. An obsessive British reporter (Stephen Dillane) fights to keep the horrors of war alive in the minds of a public hungry for royal scandal, while an American colleague (Woody Harrelson) uses the conflict as a springboard to personal glory. WELCOME TO SARAJEVO, directed by Michael Winterbottom, was adapted by journalist Michael Nicholson from his memoir NATASHA'S STORY.

Rating of 3 stars out of 5

This is a vigorously unsentimental treatment of love in a time of war — the Bosnian conflict — based on a true story in which TV reporter Michael Henderson (Stephen Dillane) — Michael Nicholson of ITN — decides to smuggle a young refugee girl out to Britain. The seedy hotel-based world of foreign correspondents is expertly evoked by director Michael Winterbottom, though Woody Harrelson's tough-talking American journalist manages to upstage even the conflict itself.

Rating of 2 stars out of 5
Halliwell's Film Guide

A fierce, polemical drama of the horrors of a civil war and a lack of politicial will among the Western powers that suddenly goes soft and manipulative; it is uneven, but very watchable.

Highest rated reviews

8 out of 8 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 5 stars
A real adrenaline trip for any aspiring war correspondents.

Alex Gener from Blackheath, London, UK, 8th November, 2005

Although filled with the very real horror of war, this is the sort of film that makes you want to quit your boring (but well-paid) office job, buy a broadcast-quality video camera on ebay, and fly out to the nearest warzone to set up as a freelance journalist. This film is very similar to The Killing Fields, but the fact that it's cut with real archive footage from the Bosnian war makes it even more realistic. I was quite young when the various Bosnia conflicts were going on so at the end of my first viewing I whipped-out a few encylopedias and then watched it a second time - an exercise that I found hugely educational.

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8 out of 11 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 2 stars
A Tabloid Welcome to Sarajevo

Bill Johnson from Leamington Spa, 29th April, 2004

An ITN news reporter (Stephen Dillane) and crew are sent to cover the war between Serbia and Bosnia and are based in besieged Sarajevo. His stories are constantly being bounced from the lead story notably by what is portrayed as a frivolous one, the divorce of the Duke & Duchess of York then by a more important story of the war, the discovery of Serbian concentration camps. By this time his interest has shifted to crusading for the relocation of the children in an orphanage situated on the front line. The story then shifts to his illegal adoption of one of the children. This constantly shifting focus, on the brutality of the war, on the reporting of the war then on the fate of the children caught up in the violence and finally to the reporter?s problems with the adoption of one child means that the film never fully captures our attention and thus never engages our full sympathy.

In addition the inclusion of star players Woody Harrelson and Marissa Tomei in roles that could have been played by stick figures has an even more disastrously distracting effect. One gets the distinct feeling that the inclusion of two prominent US stars was deliberately calculated in order to increase the prominence of the film in the international market.

The script is not deep enough to give even the lead actors much to work with although James Nesbitt in a bit part makes more impact than the rather lack lustre Stephen Dillane and some of the scenes with the children are moving. There is also some clever use of actual news footage interlaced into the film which works well and is probably the film?s one redeeming feature.

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6 out of 6 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 4 stars
Welcome to Hell

lazarus from Midlothian, 10th April, 2005

This is spellbinding work. Winterbottom has made a very down to earth film, which portrays the grubby mundanities of a truly dreadful situation. The casting is spot on. Harrelson does a good version of an American Damian Day. Dillane give's a subtle performance, as the distant and professional observer who becomes embroiled in the story he's meant to be reporting.

The film makes you question the voyeuristic nature of modern reportage and asks where the line should be drawn between news and entertainment. It also makes you aware of the individual human tragedy of war. Stunning work but not for the faint hearted.

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Welcome To Sarajevo (1997)

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