A Little Bit of Soul

An alcoholic Bosnian poet sends his wife and daughter away from Sarajevo so they can avoid the troubles there. However, he is soon descended upon by a pair of orphaned brothers. The brothers have escaped a massacre in their own village and have come to the Bosnian capital in search of a long lost Aunt. The poet befriends the boys and together they try to survive the horror of the siege of Sarajevo.

Isabel and Clara are growing up in a time of terror. It is 1492, and Spain has decreed that all Jews must either convert to Catholicism, go into exile or face trial and execution. Although forcibly baptized, the sisters are chased through Christendom until they arrive in Venice. It is in this great maritime empire, where opulence rhymes with tolerance, that Isabel organizes secret passages for refugees fleeing the Inquisition while Clara falls in love with a Venetian noble, Paolo Zane. Isabel intends for her family to go to Istanbul, the only place where Jews can live freely, but Clara is reluctant to leave. She challenges Isabel's authority and is prepared to break her family ties and sacrifice her faith for love. Caught in this battle of wills is Clara's daughter, Victoria, who finds she is about to be married into the same faith that murdered her father.

After the release from prison, small-time criminal is marrying his girlfriend and lives a straight and poor, but happy life with her and her daughter. However, his happiness is shattered by wife's infidelity. Driven mad by jealousy, he kills her and her lover and runs into mountains, thus escaping law for years. This film is based on the true story about Junuz Kečo, last Bosnian outlaw.

A compilation of vignettes of daily life in Sarajevo and the people who fight to survive the war that tears the city apart. In November 1993 BBC2 TV began to broadcast 'Sarajevo: A Street Under Siege', a 2-minute film shown every night before the 22.30 Newsnight programme. It was bringing a day-by-day account of how the siege was affecting a group of ordinary citizens. The authors were Ademir Kenovic, a graduate of the Sarajevo Film and Theater Academy, and Patrice Barrat, a director from an independent French production company. The full version of the film was broadcast on BBC2 on 20 March 1994. Later on in 1994 the film 'Sarajevo: A Street Under Siege', ('Chaque jour pour Sarajevo') received a BAFTA (British Academy Award of Film & TV Arts) award and the Jury Award at the Locarno Film Festival.