As the Festival and the program are increasingly becoming the regional centers for advancement of the arts of film, it seemed important to start a conversation with the Festival:
- I love the way the audience comes to the Festival and watches movies as if it is the most important thing in the world. I love how movies are the topic of everyone’s conversation.
For Elma, Sarajevo is “a city of contrasts not readily found in other places”. She highlights Dobrinja, a neighborhood in which she grew up and lived through most of the war, as one of the two most significant places in the city. The other one is Academy of Performing Arts where she attended the war cinema, studied (today she teaches Scenario there), and worked in Obala Art Center, out of which the Festival grew.
Her favorite walking tour is from her home to downtown or precisely down the old stairway on Tepebašina Street to Alipašina, then through Danijela Ozme Street to Veliki park and on to Titova up to the Eternal Flame. Her favorite buildings are Inat kuća (House of Spite), and Academy of Fine Arts which towers Obala Maka Dizdara Street like some sort of a queen.
Elma recently discovered the view of Sarajevo from Vučija Luka which gave her a whole new perspective on the city, so she recommends it to everyone.
Her favorite coffee place is Delikatesna radnja, and considers the adjoined restaurant very good as well. For evening outings, Elma recommends restaurant Noovi for its phenomenal pizza and wine, and Dekanter for the atmosphere and steak tartar.
She frequents various exhibits, student theater plays at Academy of Performing Arts, concerts, and movies in Meeting Point cinema, and is especially fond of Jazz Fest and thinks it is getting better each year.
To visitors of Sarajevo, Elma recommends an interesting tour:
- Climb to Bistrik to the old station, eat kifle (pastries) in Veliki park, drink zova (elderberry juice) in Baščaršija, wash your face in front of Husrev Bey’s Mosque, walk through Tržnica (the meat and dairy market) and try cheese and meat, and drink coffee while watching people pass by. Dinner would have to be at Kibe’s.
And be warned: whoever comes here once becomes addicted to the city!
