1395 Days Without Red

In 1395 Days Without Red, the camera follows a musician through besieged Sarajevo as she braves danger to join her orchestra for a day. Staccato images of her walking across intersections are interspersed with those of the orchestra beginning to rehearse the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique symphony. The young woman's breathing and humming and the orchestra’s playing merge into a single tune. The title refers to the four-year siege during which the Bosnian capital’s residents did not wear red in order to avoid being shot by snipers. 

In this contemporary fable, Anri Sala and Šejla Kamerić choose not to depict the tragedy of war head-on. Only the mad, hesitant running of the protagonist, constantly exposed to danger, suggests the hardship of daily life. Shot in 2011 in a city that is now at peace, the film recreates in the present the traumas of a past that have left their mark on the body and emotions forever. 

1395 Days Without Red was screened for the first time at the 2019 "Luogo e Segni" ("Place and Signs") show at the Punta della Dogana in Venice.