Sarajevo Film Festival 1995 was a defiance of madness, SFF 2020 is a defiance of reason!

By: A. Čorbo-Zećo

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Sarajevo Film Festival 1995 was a defiance of madness. SFF 2020 is a defiance of reason, states Dubravko Barbarić, who best described the attitude of the Crisis Headquarters towards the film festival in the capital of BiH in two sentences.

Only a few media outlets are questioning whether we need the SFF this year, from August 14 to 21, 2020.

Why doesn't the professional community take a clearer stance on this event, which is truly the pride of BiH, but is pure madness in the time of a pandemic?

It is interesting, for example, that the director of KCUS, Sebija Izetbegović, when a guest on N1 television and answering the question about what she thinks of holding a film festival during the epidemic, said that "she is not involved in any festivals, but in KCUS." Well, we know that, but you were asked as an expert, a doctor, why did you call for more restrictive measures two days later?

The malicious would say that Dr. Izetbegović was just being mildly cautious because it concerns her son-in-law Mirsad Purivatra's festival.

Journalist Kenan Kešmer listed several good reasons why we don't need the SFF this year: The Olympics, Oktoberfest, Tour de France were cancelled... We will all agree that each of these events is very significant, but they were still cancelled.

Although the organizers explained that epidemiological measures would be respected, Raport writes that the organizers failed to mention that there would be seven sections with 100 people each.

So, 700 people will be at Metalac. According to the orders of the Crisis Headquarters of the Federation of BiH, gatherings of more than 100 people in open spaces are prohibited.

And more than enough reason for the Crisis Headquarters of KS or someone responsible to say that the SFF should be cancelled this year. We are approaching the maximum, the health system is on the verge of collapse, and the numbers are increasing.