Sarajevo, 20 August 2010
When one thinks of cities associated with the early days of film, Sarajevo probably does not immediately spring to mind. Yet on July 27th, 1897 only a year and a half after the first film debuted in Paris and only one year after the first film debuted in New York, audiences in Sarajevo enjoyed a thirteen day film festival at Tornik Square, the site of the Skender Pasha Tekke under the Ottomans.
Edison’s Cinematographer traveling show was brought to Sarajevo from Austria by a Frenchman by the name of Kirel. Other traveling motion picture shows soon followed: the Cinematograph, Electro-Cinema, Cosmographer, Grand-Electro-Cinema Bachmier, Cinematograph Edison.
In 1912, with the opening of the city’s first cinema, the Kino Apolo, Sarajevans no longer had to wait for the next visit by one of the traveling movie companies to enjoy the movies. The manager of Kino Apolo was one Antun Valic, who was also the first filmmaker from Sarajevo. The Kino Apolo was a profitable business, for three years later Valic opened Kino Imperijal. Both cinemas (the Kino damaged during siege between 1992-1995) are still in existence today.
The very first film made in Sarajevo was “Fat Ladies Leave Sarajevo”, (why do I have Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls” in my head right now?) which premiered at the National Theater on August 24th 1906. Sarajevo was a natural film destination for European directors in the early 20th century. With the background of the Bascarsija, the fezes on some of the men and the veils on some of the women, a scene that supposedly takes place in Damascus, Baghdad or some anonymous town in the Near East, would just as often be shot in a few hours a way in Sarajevo.
Nowadays, with the new cinema complex, all the old cinemas are dying. The only option for their survivor is publishing an art program, such as French, Turkish, Pakistani, Indian or domestic movies. Some strange nostalgia says that some cinemas will survive, in spite of modern technologies and much more confortable cinema city's chairs. You just should turn on some music from 50's or 60's and enjoy. Imagine that you are waiting for the Marylin Monroe's movie.
This is great post. I like it! We have problem with dying old cinemas too. It’s too bad. There is great atmosphere. This is our oldest cinemas in Czech republic http://www.bonsaiklub.cz/xmedia/lucerna09/1.jpg
I like it as well. I just would like to know what dou you mean as “the first film debuted in Paris”. As I rember for my studies it is not so clear.
Iwona and Jan, thank you for the comments. In this year the first movie was broadcasted (is it a right word) in Paris’s cinemas, after that it happened also in my city.
Jan, I like the photo, but unfortunately all these cinemas are dying every day. I will try to find a photo of the most famous cinema in Sarajevo, which is already closed.