Facing Darkness

A searing account of the four-year siege of Sarajevo, which lasted from April 1992 to February 1996. Renowned French documentary filmmaker Jean-Gabriel Périot takes two different approaches to his film. First, he works exclusively with archival footage, letting us see the street fighting through the lenses of young filmmakers who defended the city with weapon and camera in hand. In the second part, the same people look back on the past a quarter century later. A sketch of the traumatic experiences of the civil war is thus transformed into a portrait of a wounded creative spirit. Facing Darkness is film as document and film as therapy; it asks whether, face to face with cruelty, we can escape the darkness. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)