Pawel Pawlikowski HomelandThe film, starring Sandra Höller, opens the 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival.
The director will personally welcome audiences to the festive screening that will be held in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina on August 14 with the film that summarizes the Cold War trilogy.
Homeland It had its world premiere at Cannes this year, earning the Pawlikowski Prize for Best Director. The film focuses on the relationship between Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann (Hans Zischler) and his daughter Erika (Höller) – an actress, writer and rally driver. In the summer of 1949, at the height of the Cold War, a father and daughter embark on a difficult and emotional road trip in a black Buick that takes them across a devastated Germany, from US-dominated Frankfurt to Soviet-controlled Weimar. Returning to his homeland after sixteen years of exile in the United States, Mann had to face not only a divided homeland, but also a deep rift within his family.
“The film seems to be a good fit for the Sarajevo Film Festival because it is steeped in history and conflict, and in situations that are still in living memory in Bosnia,” Pawlikowski said. “It seems like a good context to show the film. I have a relationship with the Sarajevo Film Festival that goes back decades.”
His documentary Serbian epics (1992) was shown in the early days of the Sarajevo Film Festival. His feature film “Cold War” opened the 24th Sarajevo Film Festival. The following year, in 2019, Pawlikowski was honored with the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo, along with a retrospective of his works presented within the Tribute To programme.
“This festival I feel very close to. I value the relationships I made in Sarajevo [festival founder] Miro [Purivatra]with [festival director] Jovan [Marjanović]. The director continued: “It’s a kind of real connection with people who love films, but also have a sense of history. My films, especially the last three that are steeped in history, have a very good home there. I’m very happy to be back, and very happy that it’s the opening film of the festival.”
The Polish director began his career with award-winning documentaries before moving on to feature films Last resort (2000) and Summer of my love (2004), both BAFTA Award-winning films.
His movie Ida (2013) won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, the first Polish film to do so. It also won five European Film Awards, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenwriter. cold war (2018) premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where Pawlikowski received the Best Director award, and later received three Academy Award nominations, including Best Director. It also won five awards at the 2018 European Film Awards, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenwriter.
The 2026 Sarajevo Film Festival takes place from August 14 to 21.
