SUMMER IN THE GOLDEN VALLEY

Bosnia, 2003, 104 minutes, Colour.
Haris Sijaric, Kamel Cebo.
Directed by Srdgan Vuletic.

Summer in the Golden Valley is a story of post-Balkan conflict Sarajevo. The title indicates a wonderful time and a wonderful place. However, the point of the title is quite ironic, the comment on Sarajevo and its seeming to be a derelict city, the aftermath of bombings, the aftermath on people's characters, struggling to survive. There is a motif of a plane flying over the city throughout the film, the flight attendant telling the people that they will soon be far away from this city. From the outside, the young hero indicates to his girlfriend and to the girl that he abducts how the plane glows in the sun but casts a shadow over the city.

The director made the film in his early thirties. His comments indicate that the 90s were not only a terrible time but left the next generation a legacy of destroyed cities, chaos and a loss of principle. His generation wants to forget about the past and make new beginnings. He was in his early thirties at the time he made this film.

The film focuses on a sixteen-year-old, a rather nondescript-looking boy who idles his time away, is grieved with the death of his father, finds that his father owed a huge debt and tries to find a way to pay it back, which includes being the pawn of a corrupt policeman and his participation, with his glue-sniffing friend, in an abduction. In many ways, the abduction goes wrong but enables him to repay the debt which, he discovers, was a fiction of the man who demanded it. Left to himself, he has the option to give up or to make new decisions. It is of interest that the central characters are Muslim - but, apart from the funeral, show little indication of the kind of devotion to religion that Muslims have in other cultures.

1. The impact of the film? Grim? The Balkans in the 90s? The aftermath of the war, the physical destruction of Sarajevo and Bosnia? The destruction of society? The destruction of morale and morality?

2. The Sarajevo settings, the city itself, the hills overlooking the city? The aerial shots from the plane? The strong musical score? The irony of the title?

3. The loss of principle, young people, the glue-sniffing, the preoccupation with sex and boasting? Family relationships? The Islamic background - seen explicitly only in the funeral and the boy's wanting the man demanding the debt money to honour his father at the cemetery?

4. The theme of the plane flying over the city, the young man and his pointing it out to his girlfriend, the flight attendant and the passengers, her comments? Her tear at the end? The boy in the shadow of the plane?

5. The boy himself, his looking at the audience, his appearance, his large friend? Their sniffing glue? At school, fighting in the yards? With his girlfriend and wanting to kiss her? His showing her the plane and the sunset? The shadow of the plane? His mother, the death of his father, his sniffing glue and going home? The funeral and his grief, his prayer? The clashes with the policeman? His wanting to find the money to pay the debt? The policeman and the abduction plan, his participation? His relationship with the girl, their discussions, sex? His wanting her to be free? The finale of the plot, the policeman with the gun, the shock of him shooting himself? His friend being shot in the leg? The girl putting the money in his hood? His finding it, telling his mother not to sell the apartment? Going to the casino, giving the money, watching the man gamble it away, the truth about there being no debt? Demanding that the man go to the cemetery and honour his father? His meeting with the policeman's daughter, kissing her - what future? Moral decisions and a future?

6. His friend, glue-sniffing, the talk about sex, the man in the schoolyard and his incessant talking about sex? The young boy's listening to him? The young boy and his being a friend, the news of his father's death? The large friend and their participation in the abduction? His being shot in the leg?

7. The corrupt policeman, meeting with the drug dealer, the plan for turning him in or protection? The plan going wrong, the shooting? The policeman and his lack of principle, his persuading his partner to join in? The partner and his lack of principle? The abduction plan, the father with the daughter? The case of money, the morning, the confrontation, the girl escaping from the car? The policeman and his shooting the boy in the leg, his ranting, his exasperation, shooting himself?

8. The girl, the abduction, her relationship with the boy, their discussions, the handcuffs, sex, his saying she had no heart, her leaving him the money?

9. The gambler, his interruption of the funeral? The money back, his gambling it away, the truth and the humiliation at the cemetery?

10. Audience experience of these people, their experience of war, the brutality, the aftermath and the loss of moral? What future in Bosnia?