by Tina Kalinić

Since 1990s, on archive footage, live whole generations of children who either didn’t have an opportunity to grow up or didn’t manage to get away from the moments captured on that footage. Children of CNN by Aida Bukvić, deal with the second group. 

Dino is street sweeper in Zagreb. He rents an apartement from Gogo, war veteran and friend of Dino’s aunt who raised him after his mother’s death. His aunt was a saint, just like Mary Magdalen, and Dora, Dino’s new roommate, now works at her old working place. Two of Dino’s brothers and his father have been killed in Srebrenica. Dora is from Vukovar and she supports her mother and younger sister. Fahro, Dino’s childhood friend from Srebrenica, now lives in Sarajevo as a petty thief. Harun, Dino’s younger brother, whom their aunt tried to save by declaring him complete orphan and sending him away, tried committing terrorist attack. Aunt is long gone, but how will the ones who survived find a way for themselves? 

Audience in Sarajevo already had an opportunity to see Children of CNN as a theatre play in Youth Theatre for which Amir Bukvić wrote the text. Script for the film has been co-written by father Amir, and his daughter, director of the film Aida Bukvić. 

This film, although made in a bit lighter tone, without direct depiction of violence, insists on its long-term concequences. Dora and Dino met long before they fot aware of it. They were both on videos shown on CNN. She was walking in line with houndreds of people just before Vukovar fell; he was one of the children who got candies from soldiers before Srebrenice fell. In the film, Bukvić doesn’t insist on how they were filmed, she only leaves Dino with a question for Fahro: “Are they showing us on TV again?” They will stay famous forever, although nobody knows who they really are, and nobody really cares. 

If you want to find out if these characters, who were destined for a fame in connection to their biggest tragedies, manage to find their happy end, you can see the film tonight at 18:00 in Cineplexx Plaza in Mostar and tomorrow at 21:00 in Cineplexx in Sarajevo.