Beneath the colourful clouds mainly created by the Zenica Steelworks, the city and its inhabitants are hidden. To see the sky, they leave the city and enter jokes about people you treat with exhaust gasses in clean air. It all works in a joke, but what happens when it comes to real people?
Bosnian documentaries are obsessed with the past. Trying to understand the incomprehensible, the authors go back in time, digging through old wounds. Memories are our curse and our comfort. In trying to heal from the past, we’ve pushed the present aside, creating the impression that we don’t have global problems right now. The Sky Above Zenica by Zlatko Pranjić and Nanna Frank Møller roughly brings us back to reality. With mathematical precision, the directors turn their gaze to the present and the problems that are gradually turning into future traumas.
The setup of The Sky Above Zenica seems the simplest in the world—experts are certain that the coking plant of the Steelworks does not meet ecological standards. This shouldn’t be a problem: either they start meeting them or close it down. Still, Zenica lives off the Steelworks. Also, Zenica is the first to enter the EBRD Green Cities program. It can’t be that bad…
This complex approach to the problem is also visible through the directorial approach. The film starts in a chamber, almost claustrophobic atmosphere, as under the clouds of black, brown, and grey smoke, two women gather data on the number of seriously ill people in their neighbourhood. In this post-apocalyptic world, cancer is like a viral infection; everyone seems to have it. And while viewers are trying to come to terms with the fact that this is indeed the reality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the story slowly expands. We meet Samir Lemeš, a mechanical engineer and professor at the Polytechnic Faculty in Zenica, who through the “Eko Forum Zenica” association fights for citizens’ rights to “acceptable pollution” levels. After Lemeš, the directors also include ministers, international organizations, and even, indirectly, representatives of ArcelorMittal in the film. As the film expands, it becomes increasingly unclear whether a solution for Zenica exists and what it might be.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, where ecological crises and the danger of them becoming constant news have become almost routine, films like The Sky Above Zenica could play a crucial role. If you want to learn something about the air we breathe and how we can fight for it, as well as better understand the consequences of neglecting ecology and current problems, this is the film for you.
The Sky Above Zenica will be screened in the BH Film program on Monday, August 19th, at 6:00 PM in Hall 3 of Cineplexx Sarajevo.
