Bosnia currently has only two regions listed: Sarajevo and Jahorina, with one pool each; I doubt if the info is even correct. If you have swum or known any pool from other cities especially major ones like Mostar and Banja Luka, please add them to the database.

At the end of the 1980s La Banda were one of the best known bands on Sarajevo’s alternative rock scene. The musicians were just about to complete their debut album when their plans were dramatically changed by war. This personal documentary by the journalist and director Sergej Kreso, La Banda’s bass guitarist, records a reunion of members of the group after more than 15 years. The old friends return to Sarajevo from five different countries in order to complete two last songs and therefore finish the album they began before the war. However, Graffiti Street is not just a documentary about a meeting of musicians after a separation caused by war. Kreso, who has come back to Sarajevo from his new home in the Netherlands, attempts to find out how much the war affected the city and its burgeoning music scene. The spellbinding final concert of the reformed La Banda in a small Sarajevo club allows the happy years before the war to be remembered for one night at least.

This film is neither exciting nor interesting. I chose it over more famous films simply for its connection to Sarajevo. Native speakers might enjoy a few hilarious moments, but for foreigners it was a “Lost in Translation.”

I have left Sarajevo long ago but I seem to have brought away with me its sense of ethnical division, for example figuring out Bosnian names to discover their identities. A neutral, objective observer would have cared less whether the people in the movie are Serbs, Croats or Muslims; he would have directed his attention to the music-making and the reunion of the band. But me no! I had to “This guy is a Croat because he rather does nothing in Split than in Doboj.” “This must be a Serb band because the backup singer’s name is Ceca.” “This probably is a Croat band because the Croats have the best taste among the three ethnic groups, so this jazzy, blue underground music has to be from them.” “Oh no, this band is popular in Sarajevo, a city populated by Muslims and Serbs, so they have to Serbs.” My friend’s sister words once again rings truth: “Before the war, people didn’t pay attention to the name. Tanja or Ermina, it did not matter.”

One of my favorite scene was a band member commented about expecting a bus from hell from the direction of Poland as he was nervously prepared for the band’s first public performance in Sarajevo after a 15-year hiatus. I didn’t understand the connection right away and kept turning to my boyfriend “Do you understand why he brought up Poland?” Then finally it dawned on me. At a Turkish coffee shop in Sarajevo, a friend of mine Me. and I were discussing craps, among which was the up-and-down of the former Yugoslavia. “You know we were very rich. Our Tito Communism was different. We could travel freely. The other Eastern Europeans for example the Poles, whenever they traveled here, they carried with them bags of food on the buses. They used to be way poorer.”

Could this be the explanation for “the bus from hell?”

Trailer

Production Company
Boris T. Mati? ; PROPELER FILM - Sc–Savska 25 - Zagreb, 10000 Croatia; tel: +385 14 829 477; fax: +385 14 593 691; btm@propelerfilm.com; WWW.PROPELERFILM.COM

Resource

• Website of La Banda member, the pianist from Sweden. He started a website to connect people who had any connection with the band, and eventually everybody did.
• Film director, drummer, Sergej Kreso’s site.
• Graffiti Street’s official website

Jeden Svet Documentary Film Festival in Prague.

I had not had a fainted idea of Seselj before arriving at the trial. He made a good impression on me with his composure and his dominating of the invisible witness by his line of questioning. The witness kept saying “yes” and “i also heard that” and “i read that” to the majority of Seselj’s questions regarding Serb civilians being discriminated and oppressed under Tujdman’s regime.

Seselj studied law with my friend N.’s uncle at Sarajevo University and visited her grandparents’ house during the good old days when he was a “normal” man. “He was extremely smart and polite before he became crazy with his ideology.” She said. “You saw how he kept looking at me from the inside. He hates that he’s in there, and I’m out here.” “Why is that so?” I asked. “Uh, ’cause he and his men tried to kill people like me.”  (My friend N. wears a head-scalf.) 

Neither did I have paper and pen to jot down keywords nor I was allowed to take notes. Only visitors with press badges, who sit on the left side, can do this. For a complete transcript of the trial and video feeds of the courtroom, please check out the links below.

Notes: The trials are open to the public for free. You get a visitor ticket from the security-guarded reception, and then you can proceed to the courtrooms after leaving all electronics and dangerous objects in a locker.

Resources

• Website
• Transcript (only on the day I was there)
• Charges against him

[BBC]

Frenchman, a Cuban, a Bosnian and an American are stranded in a lifeboat fighting to survive after their ship has gone down. They are trying to show bravado in the middle of a bad situation.

The Frenchman pops open a bottle of French wine he’s saved from their sinking sink, takes a few sips and throws the bottle into the sea. “In Paris when we arrive, we’ll find many more!” he says.

The Cuban pulls a big cigar out of his pocket, takes a few puffs and likewise tosses it overboard. “In Havanna” he says, “We’ll find many more!”

The Bosnian threw the American overboard.

(Note: Bosnians are sick of all the international aid wokers in their country telling them what they should do.)

[Source]

H’s review
Basically it is a small hostel for backpackers that has 14 beds in 3 rooms, and 2 bathrooms that everyone
shares. It’s up on a hill so it’s a bit of a hike but Haris who runs the hostel will pick you up from the
station. Haris is young, really nice and friendly. He will tell you a bit about the history of Sarajevo, take you out at night on the weekends, and you can join his personal tours of the city which are really good. Plus since the hostel is so small you will get to meet a lot of the other backpackers and it makes it really fun.

Book a hostel in Sarajevo

Four astronauts land on the moon. An American, a German and two Serbs.

The American jumps out and plants a flag on the surface exclaiming that US derring-do and money made their mission possible so the moon will belong to America.

The German pulled out the flag and stuck in a flag from his country proclaiming that it was German scientific knowledge and technological precision that made the landing possible, so the moon was Germany’s.

One of the Serbs reached into his pocket and pulled out not a flag but a gun and he shot the other Serb. Then he proclaimed: “Serbian blood has been spilled here, so the moon will be Serbian now forever.”

(explanatory note for Mom: In the
14th century Serbs died in a battle in Kosovo and now Serbs still claim
ownership of that province even though it’s like 98 percent Albanian.)

[Source]