Scottish photographer Chris Leslie was in Sarajevo as part of the AJB Doc festival to present his film about the Partisan cemetery in Mostar, which also serves to document important documents about this location in BiH.

Chris Leslie spoke exclusively to N1 television.

“The film is about the partisan cemetery in Mostar, which was neglected and vandalized for years and decades. And, this film is about reconsidering and understanding why it was built, its purpose, reason why Bogdan Bogdanovic, the architect, made it. To look at that and the ideas behind it, because it was built as an idea of the city of the dead that mirrors the city of the living, because of what happened in Mostar. And that was lost. I think it got lost in the nationalist politics and arguments. So I want to start with Bogdan and his original drawings, his original ideas, and then talk to people across the spectrum, people who have disregard for the necropolis, who think it's a communist relic. And then to those who are trying to save it, who are trying to understand that it is part of Bosnia and Herzegovina's cultural heritage and that it must be preserved in the long term. In my head, the end of the film is also the artist Marina, who looks at it outside of politics and looks at the space and appreciates its beauty because it is difficult to remember. This is a national monument and a beautiful architectural heritage, and people have lost that.” – said in a conversation with Ika Ferrer Gotic.

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