Sarajevo Film Festival Director Jovan Marjanovic said, commenting on a controversial business presentation of a project in post-production, that the festival emerged as a resistance to the siege of Sarajevo and that there is no place for the Chetnik rehabilitation projects in it. He denied the allegations that the festival management was previously informed about the presentation content.

“We already published the facts on this topic. That film was not screened at the festival, but was a part of the presentation of future projects that Telekom Srbija is bringing for its audience. Our team had no chance to see what is the content of the presentation,” Marjanovic said in an interview with N1.

The explanation comes days after the ‘Heroes of Halyard’, a film being made by Serbian actor and director Rados Bajic, was presented as part of CineLink Industry Days, an event showcasing projects under preparation and connecting film professionals from the region.

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The film glorifies Chetniks for their role in saving Allied pilots whose planes were shot down in combat missions in the area of Yugoslavia during World War II.

During the presentation of the film, to be finalised in the autumn, excerpts were screened that show Chetniks as “good guys” and friends to Allied pilots.

Operation Halyard was a 1944 mission launched by the USA to organise the evacuation of US and British pilots shot down over Serbia, and in doing so, the Allies relied on the logistic support of Chetniks, led by Draza Mihailovic, who controlled a part of the territory suitable for building a runway.

In a statement, SFF management clarified that the controversial film was not screened at the 29th SFF and that the content of the presentation, when the film was announced, was “under the sole responsibility of Telekom Srbija,” Serbia's state-owned telecommunciations operator.

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“As part of a business presentation by Telekom Srbija at the festival's industry forum, among their other new projects, an upcoming film still in post-production – ‘Heroes of Halyard’ – was announced. Basic information about the project was provided, and three excerpts of filmed material were shown to around 70 attendees. The content of the presentation was under the sole responsibility of Telekom Srbija,” said the SFF management.

Marjanovic said that the information had a “bad echo” and the festival was caught in a “negative cycle of what happened.”

“We received huge support from all those who realised what had happened. I think that everything will be cleared with Telekom Srbija as well. I think we clearly said that as of now we will introduce controls for the content that is not under our control,” he stressed.

“This festival emerged as a resistance to the siege of the city. We have a programme that focuses on the dealing with the past, and that is not revisionism,” he underlined.

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He denied allegations of Telekom Srbija that the SFF management knew about the film presentation.

“Of course, that's not true. SFF is following films and projects that are funded across the region regularly. All productions that get support in all countries get SFF's circular letter. We didn't know about the content. We will change that. This was a business forum with companies doing presentations. A lot has been taken out of the context,” said SFF Director.

Marjanovic also said he was not a fan of conspiracy theories and that this was about the lack of understanding.

“Unfortunately, the Chetnik rehabilitation has been in force in Serbia for some time. It has to be thought about, we won't allow it because there is no room for such projects here. We got a lot of support from all sides and I would like to thank to all those who stayed with us. This is a proof how social networks are inflammatory and people easily do judgements without knowing facts,” he added.

According to Marjanovic, this was the greatest festival edition so far and will likely cross the line of 120,000 sold tickets.