The Reed Trains | Vozovi Svirači

2009 | Digital Video | TRT: 10 min

An essay film that examines the aftermath of violence and displacement in Bosnia-Herzegovina through the prism of railway travel. Once a complex network that provided connections to many European cities, Bosnia’s railroad suffered an intense period of destruction in the 1990s war. The demolition of thousands of kilometers of rail tracks has left many small towns and villages virtually isolated from the rest of the world. Driven by a largely autobiographical text from one the country’s most prominent writers of the newer generation, Nihad Hasanović, the film blends the personal and political in a story about trains and coming of age in a city under siege.

• Screenings (select): Sarajevo Film Festival, Bosnia-Herzegovina (2010) | Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Missoula, MT (2010) | NewFilmmakers / Anthology Film Archives, New York, US (2011), MOCAD Detroit (2011), Cinemateca Distrital, Bogota, Colombia (2017)