BOSNIAN FILM DIRECTOR AIDA BEGIC HOPING TO SEE "SNOW" ONSCREEN IN IRAN

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (August 19,2008) - Aida Begic, Bosnian film director of the debut feature “Snow” that opened at the 14th Sarajevo Film Festival on Friday, said that she is proud that Iran is one of the sponsors of the movie and that she is hoping to see it onscreen in Iran’s cinema halls soon.

Iran’s Experimental and Documentary Film Center (EDFC) is among the sponsors of the movie. “Snow” is a joint production of Bosnia, Germany, France, and Iran.

The film is about a group of Bosnian villagers, most of them women, returning to their remote village after the 1992-1995 Serbian,Montenegrin and Croatian aggressions against Bosnia.

In an interview with EDFC Public Relations Office,Begic talked about the primary idea of the movie.

She remarked, “The major idea came to my mind when filmmaker Faruk Sabanovic and I were talking about our dreams for our country and both of us were wondering whether there were any dreams at all? We believe in the country of Bosnia and that its people are very special. They have experienced horrible events during the war but nonetheless remained human.”

“Unfortunately, there remain many people who are living under dire conditions. We must live with this painful fact that the war criminals continue to live free and there is no one to speak about the war and for its victims any more,” she went on to say.

She also stated that she believes people must talk about the past and its hardships at length so that they might have a better and healthier future.

She concluded by saying that she is now working on a new project in which she will depict the problems of Bosnian women.

“Snow” is set in the small isolated village of Slavno four years after the war in Bosnia. A government delegation comes to Slavno, offering the villagers money to leave the village. But, the villagers, mostly women, find it hard to abandon their home and decide to fight for their freedom and the survival of Slavno.

The film was awarded the International Critics Week Grand Prize at the Cannes Festival in May.
.