Following the release of “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” and “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” AMC Theaters, the world’s largest cinema chain, will release Nenad Sesin Saen’s documentary “Kiss of the Future” on February 23.
The exclusive screening of the 102-minute documentary, which premiered in February 2023 at the Berlin Film Festival, is a major achievement for the film, which tells the story of the 1990s Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War. Although the film features a stunning performance by U2 during a post-war 1997 concert celebrating the city’s hard-fought victory over ethnic nationalism, Kiss of the Future is not a glossy, cheery pop documentary. Instead, it is a documentary chronicling the breakup of Yugoslavia and the beginning of the war in Bosnia. In the film, citizens struggle to survive the Siege of Sarajevo and eventually turn to rock and punk music for inspiration and distraction from the daily nightmare of Serbian bombers and snipers.
Sesen Saen, who has a Serbian mother and a Croat father, spent his early childhood in Yugoslavia and lived with his father in Croatia, neighboring Bosnia, during the war.
“It was as if the southern United States went to war with the north — today, not 200 years ago,” he says. “Something that seemed impossible.”
In 2020, while writing a script for Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s Pearl Street Films, Cicin-Sain pitched the idea for “Kiss the Future” to the production company. Damon, Affleck, and Drew Fenton joined Pearl Street immediately as producers, and Season 5 financed the film. Sisin Sign, with help from Damon and Affleck, not only interviewed Bosnians who lived through the war, but also interviewed members of U2, such as Bill Clinton, who was US president at the time of the war, and Christiane Amanpour, who covered the war. conflict. The director also managed to obtain and use video from a 1997 U2 Sarajevo concert which the band recorded but never released.
diverse He spoke to Damon ahead of the film’s AMC theatrical release.
I started filming this documentary around the time Russia invaded Ukraine. What was that like?
The similarities between what happened in the former Yugoslavia and what is happening in Ukraine now are striking and somewhat chilling. Both have political bullies as instigators. Both have innocent civilian populations as victims. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had a major impact on the people we interviewed in Sarajevo. It gave them PTSD. So, not only were we asking them to give us their memories of what was perhaps the most horrific moment in their lives, we were asking them to do so at the moment when the same thing was happening a few hundred miles away. It was a kind of “past is prologue” of the worst kind. I’m so grateful to them for letting us in, and opening our doors to tell their stories.
Did you help bring U2 into this project?
Yes. To do it properly, we needed not only their autograph, but also footage of the concerts in which they conducted satellite interviews with Bill Carter (the siege relief worker who delivered U2 to Sarajevo) as well as footage of the concert they performed. It was performed in Sarajevo – something no one had ever seen before. Without it, we simply wouldn’t be able to tell the story. I was lucky to know Bono, Edge, Adam and Larry for some time and we became friends. So, I think there was a degree of trust that helped us bring them into this project.
Did the band have any concerns about being part of this doc?
Yeah, they didn’t want it to be another U2 concert movie. They didn’t want to be the primary focus. This actually suited Nenad quite well, as his whole goal was to focus on Bill Carter and the local Sarajevan residents. He wanted to present their stories of what happened as a kind of collective memory of the time. As soon as the band heard that, they joined us just as quickly as we did.
What prompted you to include Bill Clinton and Christiane Amanpour in the document?
The fact that they lent their voices to this actually gives it a certain gravitas. Christiane was already there during the siege. This is where she really came into her own as a reporter. Bill Clinton was president at the time, and he sent planes to expel the Serbs from the hills around Sarajevo, which ended the war. These were great and knowledgeable perspectives to add to the mix.
Why do you think the world needs to see this movie?
Aside from reminding us all that this kind of thing, stupid, senseless war, can happen anywhere, it also shows the power of the human spirit in a truly uplifting way. These wonderful people have lived under siege for four long years. Yet somehow they have managed to survive, even thrive, because they have focused their energies on the things that connect us rather than divide us. Music, art and other elements of creativity are things that can bring us together. And if we are together, nothing can truly defeat us. So, I guess I want people to see that – to remind them that we can defeat anything, even the darkest threats, as long as we’re together.
When it comes to producing documentaries, what do you look for?
I think the best documentaries are entertaining, challenging, informative and inspiring at the same time. The docs I want to be a part of have these layers so they appeal to a wider audience, while also offering something urgent and personal. This is the spirit in which I will be embarking on documentation, and it is something Ben and I are excited to do more of in the documentation department of our new company, Artists Equity.
“Kiss the Future” will stream on Paramount+ later this year.