An elegant young woman makes her way through an empty city. At every crossing she stops, looks and listens. Should she wait or should she run? Should she wait for others or take the risk on her own?
The city is Sarajevo, and the route the woman takes became known as Sniper Alley during the siege of the city endured by its citizens for 1,395 days between 1992 and 1996. The woman, played by Spanish actress Maribel Verdú, is reliving her individual journey through the collective memory of the city, and the trauma of the siege.
Throughout the siege, the Sarajevo Symphony Orchestra continued to play. In Kamerić and Sala’s films, the Orchestra rehearses Tchaikovsky’s 6th symphony, the Pathetique. The musicians stop and start, repeating different sections of the symphony, just as the woman stops and starts in the city. Hearing the music in her head, she finds the courage to carry on…
The Siege of Sarajevo lasted for 1,395 days. The citizens didn’t wear bright colors, for fear of alerting their movements to the snipers watching from the hills above.
