The usual red carpet that has become an integral part of almost every film festival in the world has been replaced with a Bosnian traditional carpet on Thursday, a day before the opening of the 25th Sarajevo Film Festival.

The new carpet rolled out in front of the National Theatre is inspired by images from Sarajevo from the 1930s.

According to the director of the festival, Mirsad Purivatra, the idea to blend Bosnian tradition with film came from Mayor Abdulah Skaka.

“We wanted to define what the film festival mostly promotes in a city and figured that photos of red carpets are the most recognisable thing in the media,” he said.