Exhibition Opening │ 25 years of No Man’s Land at  Zgrada Crvenog krsta/križa BiH
Monday 1 June at 19:00

25 Years of No Man’s Land was created slowly, carefully, and with a great deal of emotion. For almost six months, we searched through private archives, boxes, forgotten negatives, contact sheets, photographs and memories, often feeling as though we were not only preparing an exhibition, but reopening a shared chapter of collective memory.

Some of the photographs presented here have never been seen publicly before. Certain materials spent decades untouched in personal archives, while some film rolls remained undeveloped until now, finally seeing the light of day after twenty-five years. The process of gathering these materials became a story of its own. Everyone contributed something: photographs, objects, memories, anecdotes, small details from the set and moments that survived somewhere between cinema and real life.

Revisiting No Man’s Land also meant revisiting the atmosphere in which the most awarded film in Bosnian and Herzegovinian cinematography was created. A film all of us have watched, quoted, laughed with and carried with us for years. Even today, its lines continue to live their own life, while its universal message about the absurdity of war remains painfully relevant.

More than an exhibition about a film, this became a space for remembering people, moments, and the emotional traces that cinema leaves behind. It is also a tribute to everyone who helped create No Man’s Land, and to the feeling that, somehow, this film belongs to all of us.

“In the visual world of film, photography and film as media share the same category in thinking about the image – establishing and defining the frame. In the framework of this exhibition, photography is not a supporting element of the film plot, but an autonomous medium that opens up the question of perspective: how we see war, how the frame produces meaning, and how landscape photography becomes the bearer of human relationships.

The visual structure of the film „No Man’s Land“ is based on the space of ‘no man’s land’, which functions as a frozen scene between life and death. Mud, trenches, burnt grass and fog are not just elements of set design; they become photographic motifs reminiscent of documentary war photography in the nineties. The camera often remains still, insisting on long shots and a limited horizon, which creates a feeling of being trapped and unable to get out. It is precisely this static that underlines the importance of photography in film: each frame can be viewed as an independent image, as a fragment of the archive of collective memory. The photograph within the film frame here documents neither victory nor defeat; it captures the state of waiting, tension and fragility of human relations. 

This exhibition does not attempt to reconstruct the film, but rather to single out its visual memory in the process of creation of the film, all the way to winning the Oscar®. On that trip, we follow the decisions of the director, the moves of the film producer, and remember the film workers who contributed to the creation of the film as an homage to a country. In its segments, the exhibition shows photographs by Tina Šubić and Dejan Vekić, as well as objects from the collection of producer Čedomir Kolar, which record the pulsating moments of life in the tranquility of a film set, as well as the grandiosity and unrepeatability of the moment.

Through reading photographic materials created during the production of the film „No Man’s Land“, photography is emphasized as a medium that not only documents, but also builds the history of a film process, preserving layers that have not been available to the public audience until now. This reaffirms the power of the image, but also of photography, to overcome immediacy and become a permanent record of collective memory. In this exhibition space, we are brought together by the same sense of belonging to a land, and the sense of pride that the film crew has created for us, such as that „No Man’s Land“ belongs to everyone.” 

– Armin Ćosić, Exhibition Designer

We extend thanks to the Red Cross Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina for providing the space of the former Cinema Sutjeska for the realization of this exhibition, which was chosen with the aim of affirming the idea of reviving this iconic cultural venue. 

Exhibited materials are courtesy of: Danis Tanović, Čedomir Kolar, Cat Villiers, Brian Shingles – The Film Consortium, Tina Šubić, Dejan Vekić, Amra Bakšić-Čamo, Dževad Mujan, Sarajevo Film Festival.