Bosnian Sevdah Star Amira Presents Damar: Real World Class
As a siren entices sailors to a watery grave, an expressive soul can lure strangers to get giddy on its intoxicating tales of love, loss and sorrow.
Sarajevo-born sevdah singer Amira Medunjanin calls on genuine emotional depth to deliver songs that tell of the allure of the heart and the grip of sorrow, as put to good use on her latest release, Damar.
Like Portuguese fado, Judeo-Spanish ladino and flamenco from Spain, the rich Sevdah songbook of the Balkans is loaded with passion, sorrow, bloodlust and feuds, as well as romance, humour and, naturally, a heavy dose of dark melancholia.
Amira has refined the art of storytelling through song. When she sings, it is as if she is speaking to us only.
Like a voice in our head, a lover speaking softly close to our ear, the acclaimed Bosnian singer conjures emotions that are personal and real, and their appeal is inescapable.
The Promise of Wine, Feuds and Passion in Rural Serbia
Even hardened teetotallers would be moved by The Promise, a character driven documentary of passion and determination to unleash dormant potential in a proud people and their fertile land.
Vineyards in the village of Rogljevo in Eastern Serbia once sent wine around Europe and were exhibited in Bordeaux and Paris.
Those days are long gone and this region close to the Romanian border is run down and neglected: wineries are in ruins, tourism is negligible, and the less than 200 villagers still living there struggle to make ends meet.
The Promise is a stunningly filmed documentary that follows the trials and tribulations of a French couple who relocate to a remote Serbian village with a vision to revive the lost traditions of a forgotten wine-making region.
Belgrade director Filip Kovačević delivers stylish Serbian action film Incarnation
With his debut feature, Incarnation, young Serbian director Filip Kovačević has crafted a visually striking thriller that can stand proud among Hollywood equals.
Incarnation, which premieres to an international audience at London’s Raindance Film Festival (28 September), is a fast-paced actioner that poses universal questions about identity, accountability and our perception of reality.
The story starts with a disoriented young man (Stojan Djordjević) waking up on a city bench, and immediately being set upon and killed by four masked assassins.
Repeatedly waking up on the same bench, he stretches the loop ever further, as he battles to outrun the anonymous killers, recover his identity and discover who has set him up.
Serbian heartthrob Slaven Doslo thrills in Panama
In an age when quantity trumps quality and lives can be judged on the number of Facebook likes, commitment-averse teens have reduced sex to a numbers game.
That is a premise for Panama, the debut feature from Serbian director Pavle Vucković, starring Serbia’s hottest screen star Slaven Došlo.
The film, which screened to positive reviews at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and has attracted attention for its steamy sex scenes, receives its premiere in Belgrade, this week (Wednesday, 21 October).
Slaven, aged 24, takes the lead in this dark look at a hedonistic whirl of porn-fuelled experiences and no-ties sex replacing genuine interest in other people.
But while social media can be the conduit to these self-gratifying hook-ups, it can also waken age-old vices such as jealousy, pride and greed.
