Cinema

 
Bosnian Culture: Cinema

If the Bosnian filmmaker best known is undoubtedly Emir Kusturica (b. 1954), who, however, chose a long time to live part of the year away from the Balkans, the cinematic tradition of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the years after the Dayton agreements, has experienced a moment of great vivacity. The directors were given the task not only to make known to the international community the horrors of war, but to reflect on the causes and reasons that may be contrary to hope for the return of a peaceful interethnic coexistence. Among the names of directors Bosnian most significant to report Danis Tanović (1967), which won the Oscar for No Man's Land (2001), bitter narrative reports on the days of the disaster, and especially Pjer Zalica (b. 1964), author of Welcome Mr. President (2003), known documentary of Sarajevo who was among the most active members of the saga (Sarajevo Group of Authors), a group of intellectuals, poets and artists founded in 1990 by director Ademir Kenović (b. 1950), years of the siege. The same Kenović, along with Zelica and others, was the author of MGM Sarajevo, a long documentary sull'assedio and civil war made in 1992-94, and touching the perfect circle (1997), the first film shot in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the war ended. Finally remembered the name of Srdan Vuletic (b. 1971), author of Summer in the Golden Valley (2003).

Music

Bosnian Culture: Music

Classical music found its place of distribution, especially in Catholic churches and mosques; musician of some importance was F. Bosanac (Franciscus Bossinensis), active in sec. XVI. The Austrian occupation in 1878 led to an improvement in the musical life. In Sarajevo in 1881 he gave his first concert in 1900 was opened the first school of music. The National Theatre was built in Banja Luka in 1930 and the Sarajevo Opera was founded in 1946 by it, two years later, came the Philharmonic Orchestra. The music education and musicology has its fulcrum in the Academy of Music, founded in 1955. Among the contemporary composers remember J. Majer (1888-1965) and J. Pleciti (1901-1961). § The popular song is the characteristic ojkanje (lament), spread to Croatia and other neighboring regions, consists of a 2-part voices with alternating trills. Muslim populations sing songs reserved to men alone also prevalent in the cities, where once were executed in public places accompanied by accordion. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially in rural areas, is still very popular and listened to the music of popular tradition as the sevdalinka, a kind voice with accompaniment firsarmonica or a few other tools, which severely suffered the influence of Turkish music: among interpreters are to be reported Safet Isović (b. 1936) and Himzo Polovina (1927-1986), a psychiatrist who was one of the most acclaimed performers of this genre of popular songs. Even the musical tradition has suffered the repercussions of the civil war, and currently listening to sevdalinka is limited to the older generation and non-urbanized. Since 1960, in the early nineties, the capital has been the epicenter of the so-called "school of pop-rock of Sarajevo", which initiated the spread of the rock around the territory of Yugoslavia. Only with the end of the war the Bosnian music production has leaned on the international scene, especially in the wake of the films of Emir Kusturica, who was assisted in the soundtracks of his works, especially the musician Goran Bregovic (b. 1950), star Yugoslav rock as early as the seventies. Bregovic's music blends the rhythms of gypsy brass, the polyphonic popular Bulgarian origin to elements in the rock world. Also known in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the band Zabranjeno pušenje, in the eighties began to mix the garage rock to traditional folk sounds and rhythms, after the war, with the name of the band No smoking Orchestra has recorded the soundtrack of the film Kusturica's Black Cat, White Cat.

Art

Bosnian Culture: Art

Although we may find some traces of a penetration of Western architectural forms, of which the most significant example is the Benedictine basilica of Trebinje, Bosnia and Herzegovina has not developed in the medieval period, a significant Christian monumental architecture. From sec. XII established itself in the region instead Bogomil religion, inspired by Manichean, which gave life to an art form native of extraordinary originality. Of particular interest in this regard are the reliefs that adorn the steles and sarcophagi of the necropolis bogomile of Radimlje Boljuni and in particular, with geometrical designs and scenes of everyday life. Bogomil civilization are also very valuable manuscripts on parchment. § Since the end of the century. XV the region fell under the rule turkish and remained there until 1878. Of these four centuries remain important examples of civil construction, such as markets, baths and bridges, mosques, among which we highlight in particular Begova Dzamija and Ali Pašma Džamja in Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Ferhadija džamija. § During the 1992 to 1995 conflict that has bloodied Bosnia and Herzegovina proclamatasi independent Republic, the enormous loss of life were added destruction of monuments and works of art irreplaceable, as was the case with the shelling of the Old Town of Sarajevo or the destruction of the old bridge of Mostar turkish. After the end of the conflict, despite the precarious living conditions of peace, in Sarajevo, once a city of culture and culturally vibrant and resumed a certain avant-garde artistic activity, which has brought together artists of the younger generation with the international scenario. This relationship between Sarajevo, Bosnia and contemporary art is not broken even with the choice by some of these artists, a voluntary exile in other European countries. Among the names most recent examples are Anur (b. 1971), who calls himself "an operator of communication", invited to represent Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 49th Venice Biennale, and video-artists Sejla Kameric (b. 1976) and Edina Husanovic (no. 1975).

Literature

Bosnian Culture: Literature

The Bosnian literature as such was born to Serbian and Croatian identity opposed to the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia. As the Bosnian entity is more sociological and political language: before the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina had never used the term Bosnian language, and even the term "learn Bosnian" is appearing for the first time in a document of the Dayton Accords. At one time, in fact, between the language of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia were not generally perceived by the speakers, really significant differences. The first written document of the area dates back to 1189, and a letter written using the Cyrillic alphabet, other texts medieval church in the Cyrillic alphabet are stored in a dozen manuscripts. The major corpus of the Middle Ages desk of Bosnia and Herzegovina, however, had an impact on thousands of tombstones of churches and cemeteries in the area (stecci). From the sixteenth century, the Ottoman rule in the region spread Arab culture: some Slavic literary production was indeed written in Arabic characters (alhamiado). Only with the romanticism of the nineteenth century in Bosnia and walked some nationalist consciousness, which led some researchers to document and collect oral traditions and legends of the region. In the twentieth century, writers born in Bosnian territory, as Ivo Andric, have always been considered the authors of the Serb-Croat literature, a category that included the first interethnic hatred of course, the language and the works of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and only with the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, and especially with the civil war, has begun a process of radicalization of identity that has resulted in the choice of field even linguistic and literary. Not all birth Bosnian intellectuals, however, share this nationalism background, as in the case of the writer Predrag Matvejević (b. 1932), born in Mostar but for years resident in Italy, the author of essays (Mediterranean Breviary, 2004) and works of fiction that partly reflect sull'improvvisa explosion of a world that seemed settled in its peaceful coexistence. Affirm their identity in Bosnia, and then non-Serb nor Croat, albeit with soft tones free from nationalist rhetoric and sincere adherence to the secular culture, the poet Izet Sarajlic (1930-2002), author of some thirty libraries, among which The Book of goodbyes and War Diary of Sarajevo, the narrator and dramatist Abdullah Sidran (b. 1948), and the playwright and essayist Dzevad Karasahan (b. 1953) - all brought in a different way to think about the fate of Sarajevo and the end of the coping skills that had once characterized the life of their beloved Bosnia - and the poet Marko Vesović, Bosnian Serb (b. 1945).

Traditions

Bosnian Culture, Traditions

The long conflict that has engulfed Bosnia-Herzegovina and dissolved or forced to emigrate internal communities could not adversely affect the distribution and maintenance of certain traditions, related, for example, music or dance. At one time, the heritage of folk dances of Bosnia and Herzegovina was the richest and perhaps the least known of the former Yugoslavia, and currently, the repertoire is kept alive by folk groups that in socialist Yugoslavia enjoyed a rich state subsidies, and who have crossed a period of severe economic uncertainty in the years following the war. Given the divided ethnic composition of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the main religious festivals are both Catholic and Orthodox, and Muslim: the Bajram stand between them and Kurban Bajram, a three-day period that is repeated twice a year according to the lunar calendar, during which schools are closed, we organize visits to all family members and preparing the baklava, sweet typical of Turkish and Balkan (a pastry filled and covered with sugar syrup and honey). Unfortunately, the spirit of religious tolerance that once brought all Bosnians to celebrate the religious festivals of different communities is dissolved during the war years, as the destroyed mosques, synagogues and churches targeted ethnic hatred. Was maintained, but this tends to disappear, the so-called Bosanska Korrida, which sees a large crowd watching a fight between bulls. § The kitchen is similar to that of other Balkan countries, rich oriental influences arrived with the Ottoman rule: they are ubiquitous kebab, the bosanski lonac, dish similar to a stew in which the meat is mutton mixed with cabbage and paprika The burek, a cake layered with cheese and meat, and pida, a kind of flat bread stuffed with minced meat.

Bosnian Culture

Bosnian Culture: General

The cultural life of the country has grown more closely linked to that of the Slavs of neighboring Serbia, and during the Middle Ages, both in the years following the end of the Ottoman Empire. It was only with the outbreak of the civil war that coexistence apparently no major diversification has resulted in fierce opposition also cultural, creating a sense of pride in belonging to Bosnian own identity as separate from the Serbian and Croatian. The years of conflict, with a long and painful siege of Sarajevo, marked indelibly in the experience of two generations of intellectuals, after the Dayton Accords (1995), the economic and political conditions did not allow for a long time that the cultural life of the country assestasse standards comparable to those in Europe. However, Bosnia and Herzegovina has great intellectual resources, the experience of the war and partly that of exile, forced or chosen in the first person, have paradoxically made more lives; intellectual resistance, indeed, was a source of pride during the war and is the basis of the resilience shown by the country over the following years. In Bosnia and Herzegovina there are four universities: in addition to the capital, Tuzla, Mostar and Banja Luka. In Sarajevo held since 1994 an important film festival, the Sarajevo Film Festival, which was for years the only connection the besieged city with the outside world. In 2005, finally, the old town and the bridge of Mostar, partially rebuilt after the destruction occurred during the civil war has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as for their artistic value, as well as a symbol of capacity of coexistence between different cultures and ethnicities. § For Entertainment and Traditions see also item Yugoslavia (former European state).

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina
(Bosna i Hercegovina). State of the Balkan Peninsula (51,209 km ²). Capital: Sarajevo. Administrative division: Muslim-Croat Federation (FCM), divided into 10 cantons, and the Republic of Serbia, consisting of 7 regions. Population: 4,377,033 inhabitants. (estimate 2009). Language: Bosnian language, Serbian and Croatian (official). Religion: Sunni Muslim (43%), Orthodox (29.9%), Catholics (18%), other (9.1%). Currency: Convertible Mark (tied to a fixed exchange rate to the euro). Human Development Index: 0.812 (76th place). Borders: Serbia (E) and Croatia (NW-S). Member of: CEFTA, EBRD, UN and OSCE, EU associated.

Generality

The territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the heart of the Western Balkans, including Bosnia N itself, crossed by a number of tributaries of the Sava and therefore belonging to the Danube basin, the S and Herzegovina, including in the Mediterranean watershed. Both regions are predominantly mountainous, even if the first, more rich in water, is largely covered with woods, while the latter appears more arid. The country derives its name from two historical regions that compose it: Bosnia after the river that runs through most of the territory, Herzegovina from herceg (in Serbian "Duke"), having had a period of autonomy as a duchy in sec . XV. Bosnia and Herzegovina has been characterized over the centuries to the ethnic homogeneity of the population, of Slavic origin and united by the same language, as opposed to a religious differentiation, given the coexistence of Islam, Orthodox Christianity, and Catholicism - to the forties of the century . XX - Judaism. In an independent Bosnia in the Middle Ages followed the centuries-old Ottoman-turkish domination lasted from sec. XV in 1878, the Habsburg for forty years until 1918, the region's integration into the Serbian monarchy in Belgrade, then in the Croatian Ustasha State during the Second World War, and then in Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1992, the proclamation of independence. That same year, in conjunction with the international recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a sovereign state, among other national and religious components of the country is a war in which they participated indirectly neighboring countries and featured speeches UN, NATO and then the action of the United States which required the cessation of hostilities in 1995. This was followed by a peace settlement in which, leaving unchanged the external borders of the country, took place an institutional reconfiguration of the state and a new partition of the territory between the warring entities. Already at the time of Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina was one of the most economically backward republics. Subsequently, the transition from a planned to a free market, the destruction of the war years of 1992-1995 and the poor function of the spatial organization of the postwar period, prevented - despite international aid - the economic recovery of the country, which is among the poorest in Europe. In fact, the production activities, which collapsed during the conflict, not recovered to some extent in the next decade due to both the absence of the system in which Bosnia supplemented its economy with the other republics of the Yugoslav federation, is also protective barriers that impede the free Bosnian movement of goods within the EU. The consequences of this situation are very low per capita incomes, high unemployment, development of a "black" for the most part controlled by organized crime, as well as a propensity to emigrate abroad in search of better living conditions. The components of Croatian and Serbian population feel respectively Croatia and Serbia as their true home countries, thus establishing preferential relations with these countries, all the people, regardless of national identity, aims at integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina the EU, although in 2005 there were still negotiations for his association, a preliminary step to a full membership.

The State

Already Union Republic within the Yugoslav Federation, declared its independence in 1992, an act that is at the root of the conflict between the three ethnic groups in the area to the control of the State, which degenerated into one of the bloodiest wars occurring in the European territory in sec. XX. With the Dayton Agreement (1995), the country has enshrined its integrity in a new and original form of political-territorial units: single state divided into two entities, each with its own parliament and government, one Muslim-Croat (Muslim-Croat Federation, 51% of the territory), the other Serb (Republika Srpska, 48% approx. territory), in addition to the Brčko District in northeastern Bosnia, formerly assigned to the Republic of Serbia and became independent in 1999 following international arbitration. The Muslim-Croat Federation is led by a president and a vice alternately Croatian and Muslim, and the legislative power lies with Parliament, composed of the House of Representatives (140 members) and the Chamber popular (74 members). The Republic of Serbia is led by a president and vice-president and the National Assembly consists of 140 members. The central presidency of the republic consists of three members, elected by universal suffrage for two years, representing the three ethnic groups (a Muslim, a Serb, a Croat) presides over first, the one who received the majority of votes, then rotates every eight months. The central Parliament consists of two chambers: the House of Representatives (42 members elected by direct popular vote, two-thirds Muslim-Croat and Serb third), based in Sarajevo, and the House of Representatives (5 delegates for each ethnic group ), which meets in Lukavica. The central executive is made up of a Council of Ministers appointed by the president; under his guidance there are two co-prime ministers (Muslim and Serbian), supported by a Deputy Prime Minister (Croatian). In December 1997, following pressure from the International Council for the respect of the Dayton Agreement, representatives of the three ethnic groups have signed an agreement on joint Bosnian passport, citizenship and functioning of the Council of Ministers. The territory of the Federation is divided into ten cantons, each with its own constitution and administrative organization, in turn divided into a total of 85 municipalities: Unsko-Sanski (1), Tuzlanski (3), Zeničko-Dobojski (4), Bosansko-Podrinjski ( 5) and Sarajevo (9) that are Bosniaks, Posavski (2), Zapadno-Hercegovački (8) and Herceg-Bosanski (10) Croats, Srednjobosanski (6) and Hercegovačko-Neretvanski (7) that are mixed Bosniak and Croat. The Republic of Serbia consists of 7 regions, subdivided into 64 municipalities: Banja Luka, Doboj, Bijeljina, Vlasenica, Sokolac, Srbinje (ex Foča), Trebinje. The judicial system, in the process of adaptation to European standards, is not yet definitively structured. The only armed force, this is the army, organized independently by each of the two entities. Bosnia and Herzegovina, at first under the military control of NATO, from December 2, 2004 is guarded by contingents of the EU (EUFOR - European Stabilisation Force) and a High Representative of the international community. Compulsory schooling lasts 11 years, divided in primary education (8 years) and medium. The rate of illiteracy, in 2008 was 2.4%.