Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50482 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-04-29
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English, Serbo-Croatian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 97 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Whether as a subject for historical investigation or social drama, the war in the former Yugoslavia is made for film, as 1997's Welcome to Sarajevo demonstrates. Inspired by the book Natasha's Story by ITN reporter Michael Nicholson, this takes very much a human-interest angle on the conflict. Stephen Dillane plays a journalist whose involvement moves from the professional to the personal as he faces up to marauding Serbian mercenaries, then family ties, to get the apparently orphaned Emira out of Sarajevo and back to the security of his own family in the UK.

It could have been awash with journalists-are-good-guys-really sentiment, but director Michael Winterbottom is mindful to present the story in the context of the siege--some of the filming here is harrowingly realistic--and draws responsive performances from a cast including Woody Harrelson as a hard-living American reporter and Marisa Tomei as an aid worker determined to save children's lives at all costs. As a film about the "why" of the Yugoslavian war, Pretty Village, Pretty Flame is unsurpassed, but Welcome to Sarajevo is a potent look into the "how".

On the DVD: Welcome to Sarajevo comes to DVD with a decent 16:9 anamorphic picture and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound that has the necessary immediacy. English subtitles are included, rightly so in a film of this nature. Special features include 30 minutes of interview snippets with cast and crew, "on location" sequences and three theatrical/TV trailers. --Richard Whitehouse

DVD Description
DVD Features:

Cast and Crew Interviews
On Location
Theatrical Trailers
TV Spot

Language: English, Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English for the hard of hearing

Synopsis
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.

Customer Reviews

Shows Nothing But The Truth
This movie shows the truth of the agression by the serbian forces, it isn't a biased movie by any stretch of the imagination, rather it doesn't take a political viewpoint, it instead focuses on combining real life footage with a strong true to life story.

If you can't believe that serbs really planed this attack, and don't want to believe they are guilty for mass murder, you should find a more fictional movie or book, but history has what happend and this movie shows a large part of that history.

by the way it's actually an excellent piece of film making and it takes you on an informing and very good emotional journey.

A masterly piece of editing
This film, based on fact, is one of the most moving docu-dramas I have ever seen. The editing between drama and news clips was masterly and the acting was superb. If you took no notice of the events in Bosnia when it was going on (and lets face it our news bulletins were dumbed down) watch this and prepare to be shocked! The political comments used in the film had me gasping with horror and the open air concert moved me to tears. I felt ashamed that I never took much notice of the events in the Balkans at the time all this was happening. This film never got the recognition it deserved. Why? Perhaps we just didn't want to know what was going on!

Unforgetable.... and you wouldn't want to.
This film is an amazing, shocking, and original.

If, like myself, you've ever looked deep into the war in Bosnia-Herzigovina, then this film is a hard-hitting reminder. If, like many, you paid little attention, then this film is a hard-hitting eye-opener.

All the acting is impeccable. Special commendation goes to Goran Visnjic (from TV's ER), for his role as the reporters' driver and translater- his performance was captivating.

The recognisable events I know happened, and the real footage carefully woven in added to an already for a compelling tale.

Gut-wrenching stuff- but wholey unmissable.