The organisers of the Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF) have found themselves in an unenviable situation after a new film, which is being made in Serbia and which glorifies the Chetnik movement, was presented at this year's edition of CineLink Industry Days, held as part of the SFF. While the festival is exposed to harsh criticism for such omission, the SFF management says they are also "unpleasantly surprised" but that the film in question was actually not screened in full.

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.

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.

Different sources mention a figure of slightly more than 400 pilots and other crew members who were saved that way.

That fact was used as the basis for a revisionist approach to the history of WWII in Serbia, aimed at depicting Chetniks as freedom fighters instead of collaborationists, which they undoubtedly were.

The attempt to promote the revisionist approach in Sarajevo might have not attracted publicity if journalist Dragan Bursac had not drawn attention to it.

This prompted a response from the SFF management, which said that it, too, was unpleasantly surprised but stressed that the material shown were only excerpts and not an entire film, even though not even that had been approved or agreed on.

“In order to objectively inform the public, we would like to emphasise that the mentioned film was not screened at the festival, but inserts of the film that is in production were screened within the slots for the presentation of new, future projects. We would like to stress that the above content was not agreed upon and that the Sarajevo Film Festival will not allow it to be used to promote historical revisionism of any kind,” SFF spokesperson Andriana Copf told N1.

However, the event sparked reactions and led to political quarrels, mostly on social networks and through press releases.

Sarajevo Mayor Benjamina Karic asked that the person in charge of the selection for this programme within the festival is removed, setting it as a condition for further cooperation between the City Administration and the festival.

“It is obvious that even many among us give in today, when the revisionism is in full swing in and around our country. On behalf of the City of Sarajevo, I demand full accountability, if they want to continue the cooperation with the City Administration,” Karic stressed.

She reiterated the city's support to the festival as a cultural event, but stressed that “such attacks make immense damage to the festival and the City of Sarajevo.”

Her statements drew a response from Nenad Stevandic, the speaker of the parliament in of the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska, who used the opportunity to promote Chetniks as part of the anti-fascist coalition.

Stevandic, who is under US sanctions for threatening the stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina and violation of the Dayton Peace Agreement, said in a post on a social network that Chetnik leader Draza Mihailovic was decorated many times for Operation Halyard, suggesting others should check this with the USA, France and Poland.

Sarajevo Canton of Culture and Sports also condemned the situation, saying it goes against the European, civilisational and the values of the common sense, as well as the values that the festival was grounded on and maintained.

“The citizens of Sarajevo and Sarajevo Canton Ministry of Culture and Sports demand and expect transparency in defining the accountability for the omission in this process, a more adequate explanation than being surprised and the action plan for fixing the consequences caused by this failure,” the ministry said.

The situation was widely commented on social networks, with users expressing disbelief over such omission.

The SFF organisers called off all screening events for Wednesday, after the government of the Federation entity declared the Day of Mourning for the victims of triple murder in the northeastern town of Gradacac, and organised a public discussion on the topic of “Femicide in Film, Television, and New Media”.