Themes: Orphans, Members of the Press, Fighting the System
Main Cast: Stephen Dillane, Woody Harrelson, Marisa Tomei
Release Year: 1997
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 101 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A startling examination of the Bosnian war of the mid-1990s and the role of journalists in covering it, this film was based on real-life journalist Michael Nicholson's book Natasha's Story. Like Nicholson, cynical journalist Henderson (Stephen Dillane) is one of the rat pack of reporters looking for gore in the streets of besieged Sarajevo. He is outraged when grandstanding reporter Flynn (Woody Harrelson) helps local citizens remove the corpse of a mother gunned down on a family outing. But the next day, Henderson is among the journalist vultures at a grisly scene, and he has to tell a little girl that both her parents were killed. When his story is demoted by his television network in favor of a celebrity puff piece, Henderson is angry. At the behest of his producer, Jane Carson (Kerry Fox), he visits a local orphanage. Henderson becomes deeply involved with the plight of the children and starts documenting their individual stories even as his employers express increasing disinterest. Henderson campaigns to get the kids out of Yugoslavia, with the help of an American aid worker, Nina (Marisa Tomei). He promises a girl named Emira (Emira Nusevic) that he'll take her back to his home in England. To make good on his vow, he must risk both his career and his life. He adopts the child and she is happy in England. But he must return to war-torn Sarajevo when her birth mother, who had abandoned her, demands her daughter back. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
Kerry Fox - Jane Carson; Emily Lloyd - Annie McGee; James Nesbitt - Gregg; Juliet Aubrey - Helen Henderson; Igor Dzambazov - Jacket; Gordana Gadzic - Mrs. Savic; Davor Janjic - Dragon; Emira Nusevic - Emira; Vesna Orel - Munira; Drazen Sivak - Zeljko; Goran Visnjic - Risto
Credit
David Minty - Art Director, Simone Ireland - Casting, Vanessa Pereira - Casting, Janty Yates - Costume Designer, Mary Soan - First Assistant Director, Michael Winterbottom - Director, Trevor Waite - Editor, Paul Sarony - Line Producer, Adrian Johnston - Composer (Music Score), Mark Geraghty - Production Designer, Daf Hobson - Cinematographer, Damian Jones - Producer, Graham Broadbent - Producer, Martin Trevis - Sound/Sound Designer, Frank Cottrell Boyce - Screenwriter, Michael Nicholson - Book Author
In 1992, ITN reporter Michael Henderson (Stephen Dillane) travels to Sarajevo, the besieged capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina or, in the words of a UN soldier, "the 14th worst place on earth". He meets American star journalist Jimmy Flynn (Woody Harrelson) on the chase for the most exciting stories and pictures. Their work permits them blunt and unobstructed views of the suffering of the people of Sarajevo. The situation changes when Henderson makes a report from an orphanage in which two hundred children live in desperate conditions.
With the help of American aid worker Nina (Marisa Tomei), Henderson tries to get the children into a shelter. At first, the getaway is threatened with failure when the bus with the children is stopped by Serbian militiamen and all the Muslim children are taken away. However, in the end, Henderson manages to smuggle the Bosniak girl, Emira (Emira Nušević), out of the country and adopts her.
Michael Winterbottom portrays the events with brutal realism. In the opening sequence, there is a shooting at a wedding party. Other shocking sequences include the stopping of a bus, the kidnapping of orphaned children by the Serbian forces and the sniping of the interpreter and driver, Risto Bavić (Goran Višnjić).
Welcome to Sarajevo was the first feature film about the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Shot just a few months after the war on locations in Sarajevo and Croatia, the film uses real ruins and war debris to give the film a feeling of authenticity.
Soundtrack
Two widely known pieces of music were used in the film, among the others. The first one is Don't Worry Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin. It was used in ironical sense, since in the background, real scenes of the siege of Sarajevo were shown, with people being wounded by bombs, blood everywhere on the streets etc. The second widely known piece is Adagio in G minor by Remo Giazotto, which is based on a fragment from a Sonata in G minor by Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni and has been used in many films and advertisements. House of Love's "Shine On" (Creation, 1987) and Stone Roses' "I Wanna Be Adored" (Silvertone, 1989) were among the hip and colorful English independent rock classics that contrasted sharply with the dark barbarism affecting the people of Sarajevo, in a sense continuing the use of the song in a war movie the way 1960s rock anthems were employed in such Vietnam War movies as Apocalypse Now or Platoon, but updating the anthems to those closer to the era the film is portrayed in.
Forget About Me (1990) ·Love Lies Bleeding (1993) ·Under the Sun (1994) ·Butterfly Kiss (1995) ·Go Now (1995) ·Jude (1996) ·Welcome to Sarajevo (1997) ·I Want You (1998) ·With or Without You (1999) ·Wonderland (1999)
