Bosnian War Movie

In the dead of night, a former child actor enters the forest to see if faith and flesh can withstand the lingering ghosts of war, or if fear never fades.

After more than 20 years of not acting, a former child actor ventures deep into the forest in the middle of the night, relying on the power of his faith and body to overcome collective war trauma and finally feel fearless. But is it even possible to heal after so many dead bodies in similar settings and the blurry VHS footage of executions we grew up watching on the news?

Programme section: New Talents Competition
Original title: Bosnian War Movie | Year: 2025 | Duration: 13′
Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria | Language: Bosnian | Subtitles: English
Director: Marko Lončarević | Production: Marko Lončarević | Cast: Haris Begović | Screenplay: Marko Lončarević | Cinematography: Marko Lončarević | Editing: Marko Lončarević

FESTIVALS & AWARDS (SELECTION) 

Fright Nights Horror Film Festival, Austria 2025 

DIRECTOR’S BIO 

Marko Lončarević is a Sarajevo-born filmmaker currently based in Vienna. His style of filmmaking is raw, personal, direct, and without compromise. His inspirations range from extreme cinema and the dark corners of the Internet to themes of mental and physical illness. Lončarević seeks to create a visceral and emotional connection with his audience. Unafraid to explore difficult and uncomfortable themes, his work challenges viewers to confront their own experiences of pain, trauma, and vulnerability. His latest film, “Bosnian War Movie”, follows a former child actor who ventures into the forest at night, using faith and physical endurance to confront the lingering trauma of war.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

I shot this film in the middle of the night using night vision to immerse both my actor and me in the dread of the forest. He was once a child actor in “Remake”, a famous Bosnian war film where his character died. Now, twenty years later, he returns not as a child but as a physically strong man of faith. This film became a way to resurrect him, reclaim a sense of power, and confront the fear that has grown with us since childhood. We grew up surrounded by images of war, the VHS footage of executed bodies by the road and in the woods, and that fear has never fully left us. Filming in the darkness, we wanted to confront it directly, to see if faith and flesh could withstand the lingering ghosts of the past. This is neither a war film nor a horror film. It is a meditation on survival. Even when fear never fades, facing it alone in darkness becomes its own act of resistance.