Tanovic’s deft and dizzying thriller satirically illuminates the conflicts that have torn the Balkans apart for a century. On the centenary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, the event that precipitated the First World War, dignitaries have arrived at the luxe Hotel Europa to commemorate. But the hotel is in chaos. The staff is about to strike, and the manager is courting gangsters at the hotel nightclub for strong-arm help. Everywhere else, tensions of all sorts seem to be reaching climax. 

Tanovic's ability to distill the personal from the global, as he did in his 2001 Academy Award–winning No Man's Land, makes for a compelling statement about the individual's ability to propel — or derail — the path of history.

Death in Sarajevo will be followed by a discussion with Dr Jelena Vlajic, Queen’s Management School, Minister Colin Hall-Thompson, Remembering Sebrenica Group and Dr Gul Kacmaz Erk, School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen’s University.

This event is part of Walled Cities 3: Divided Communities, bringing QFT audiences and academics/experts together via the screening of three films in which political conflict is in the foreground in diverse parts of the world. A discussion, with refreshments, will accompany each screening. 

This is a Cinema and Architecture in the City collaborative research group (www.cacity.org) event series funded by Queen's SNBE Culture and Society research cluster.