Looking for esmir
TRAŽEĆI ESMIRA
OP ZOEK NAAR ESMIR
International premiere of the book "Looking for Esmir"
to mark the anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica
In the center of the Potočari Memorial Center in Srebrenica is the grave of a young man, Esmir Mujičić, who was killed in the genocide committed in July 1995. A photograph of this young man in the whirlwind of war prompted Dutch writer and artist Nick Teunissen to explore first-hand what was going on in this part of Bosnia and Herzegovina before and during the war.
"Looking for Esmir" is a non-fiction story about the human faces of the people of Srebrenica, before their lives were turned into cold numbers and metapolitical stories. In the book, I try to take the reader with me in search of a young man from Srebrenica named Esmir Mujičić", Teunissen says.
Nick Teunissen was born in 1982 in Amsterdam. He was 13 years old "when the last hours of Srebrenica appeared on Dutch news in the summer of 1995".
"Although these were penetrating shots of a European city, it was difficult for me to recognize as a child. But that changed one night more than 23 years later. My friend Serge Janssen sent me a photo of a boy smiling at the camera, in the middle of hell on earth. This face told me a completely different story. It was the opposite of many years of well-known media recordings. This was a portrait of a young man. It turned out to be a photograph of Esmir."
The book "Looking for Esmir" will be presented to the international public on Saturday, July 10 at 6 pm in a special program in English, which will be broadcast live from the Sarajevo War Theater SARTR with live coverage from the Srebrenica Memorial Center.
“Together with many people from Srebrenica, we discovered a palette of untold stories, full of anecdotes and wonderful memories of a thriving pre-war city, with springs in an enchanting mountain environment. First loves, music, theater - everything that makes us a Human. The story begins with a friendship behind barbed wire and ends with Esmir's mother seeing her child's face for the first time in a quarter of a century."
During the special program, a panel of experts will talk about the book, award-winning actress Selma Alispahić will play parts of the book together with young actor Din Hodžić. Renowned Bosnian singer Armin Muzaferija will make an impressive contribution to the adapted music program. The Srebrenica Memorial Center will join the program live with a group of 50 students from all Balkan countries.
Due to the international character of the program, a live broadcast will be provided, which can be followed worldwide via the link:
The book "Looking for Esmir" will be available in three languages: Bosnian, English and Dutch.
After the official program, writer Nick Teunissen will talk to the press.
This program was realized in cooperation with the publisher Bloemberk, the publisher Dobra knjiga, the Post-Conflict Research Center, the Srebrenica Memorial Center, the Sarajevo War Theater SARTR, the agency Produkcija, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Sarajevo, the Dayton Peace Museum (Ohio), MasterPeace, Youth Power Germany and the Platform Hero foundation.