Sarajevo during the Bosnian War. British reporter Michael Henderson, working for ITN, after completing the coverage for Battle of Vukovar, travels to Sarajevo and joins other foreign correspondents there covering the siege, including American Jimmy Flynn, Jane and Nina, who travel with Bosniak interpreter Risto. They film war crimes by the Serb paramilitary and snipers, shooting at civilians from the hills. Michael discovers an abandoned building used as a shelter by over fifty orphans, and decides to help organize a UN convoy out of Sarajevo, but along their way, a Serb paramilitary unit stops them and takes the Serb children from the bus, before leaving. Michael feels pity on one orphaned Bosniak girl, Emira, and decides to adopt her in England. Risto is shot by a sniper in his house. Before Michael leaves, he attends a concert by a cellist, out in the open, on a Sarajevo hill, for peace.
Michael Winterbottom is one of the most agile and prolific directors covering uncomfortable social issues which are ignored by the mainstream cinema, thereby giving them a spotlight, and his film "Welcome to Sarajevo" could play in a double-bill with the Bosnian film "The Perfect Circle", released that same year, in 1997—while the former shows a foreigner's perspective on the Siege of Sarajevo, the latter depicts the local perspective from within. What is remarkable about "Welcome to Sarajevo" is that it is based on real life account of British ITN reporter Michael Nicholson, which gives the movie authenticity, as opposed to many other war movies where directors or screenwriters would often make stuff up to fill in the gaps of their knowledge on the subject—but also that it intertwines and mixes his staged footage with real life archive footage of several incidents in the Bosnian War, thereby giving the viewers a "reference" point to reality. For instance, when the reporters arrive to cover a mortar massacre, modern actors covered in blood, lying on the street, are shown, but also archive footage of the real event is also shown, including a man carrying a woman whose lower part of her leg is half-detached and hanging from the mortar explosion. Had these foreign reporters not been on the scene of the crime, would the world even remember it or believe it?
After handing over such shocking footage for editing, Michael is surprised to hear from a co-worker that it will not be the main headline news: "What is the lead story? The second coming of Christ?" - "The Duke and Duchess of York are getting divorced". Later, even real-life footage of Omarska concentration camp is shown. Woody Harrelson is consistently the best among the cast as the cynical, flamboyant American reporter Jimmy who gives several comical wisecracks about the madness they are witnessing. In one sequence, as the international community finally decided to act, and UNPROFOR soldiers arrive posing for the cameras, Jimmy comments with: "My God, I don't think I've ever seen such clean looking people". In another sequence, when Jimmy and Michael are talking inside a building and a loud explosion is heard outside, Jimmy stands up and shouts at the wall: "Get a job!" Winterbottom improvises, or at least gives a feeling as if scenes are improvised, which might turn off a part of the viewers, since there is no story structure, it is all just random episodes happening here and there across Sarajevo which the reporters cover, which makes it more like a docudrama, and less like a cinematic achievement. However, of the foreign movies covering post-Yugoslav Wars, this one is among the best, showing meticulous care in reconstructing the events.
Grade:+++
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