Jasenko Pašić

Sarajevo is the most interesting city in the world

Sarajevo actor Jasenko Pašić is behind the idea and screenplay for Scream for Me Sarajevo, a documentary that tells the story of the concert given by Bruce Dickinson, frontman for the cult band, Iron Maiden, in besieged Sarajevo in 1994.

2018/09/01

Jasenko got the idea while reading an article of the same name by Chris Dale, who played bass in Bruce’s band.

- It’s a story about Sarajevo, a city that everyone who saw the film has wanted to visit since it was shown globally in 2018. It’s a story I had wanted to tell all my life – a story about the greatness of Sarajevo, the Siege and great music.

Jasenko is a member of the Sarajevo War Theater (SARTR) ensemble, which started in 1992, during the Siege.

- Art has the power to awaken the best in people, to restore some hope and love. SARTR put on over 2,000 plays during the Siege, and after Dickinson’s war concert at BKC, Sarajevans were even more into music.

He says the film changed the lives of the band members, who saw that problems in England were trivial, while people in a city just 90 minutes flight from London were fighting to survive.

- When they came back to Sarajevo again in 2014, they fell in love with the renovated city, where people had maintained the sincerity and cordiality they remembered from 1994. They visited three more times after that, because now they feel at home in Sarajevo.

Gastronomy and going out

 

Jasenko takes visitors to Sedef, Avlija, Sač Buregdžinica, Blind Tiger and Mala Kuhinja for lunch. He has his daily coffee at Hippy Klupa and on Radićeva St. and attends live gigs at AG, Underground, Jazzbina and Pivnica Sarajevo. He lists Summer in the Park – Hastahana, Sarajevo Holiday Market and Time Out Markale as interesting events.

This city has witnessed major historical events, as shown in the museums, arts festivals and incredible people who live here.

- Sarajevo is the most interesting city in the world. Walking along its streets takes us through different epochs, which can be seen along Ferhadija, whose architecture (from Vječna Vatra to Baščaršija) tells the story of socialist, Austro-Hungarian and Oriental periods.

Jasenko usually takes his guests to Vijećnica, Žuta Tabija, the Vraca Anti-fascism Monument-Park, the Jewish Cemetery….

Tourism boom

He believes that multicultural Sarajevo is about to experience a tourism boom.

- This city accepts every culture, and since they have often overlapped one another, they have left parts of themselves in our mentality, art and cooking. Sarajevo is in the heart of Europe, and is so exotic, with influences from Vienna, Prague, Istanbul…. The sea is close, all that’s left is to improve transit to the mountains and picnic sites, which are a stone’s throw away….

He says everyone should visit during SFF, MESS and Jazz Fest, and go to the Historical Museum, National MuseumWar Childhood Museum and theaters.