Re-Thinking Border Politics at the Sarajevo Film Festival: Alternative Imaginaries of Conflict Transformation and Cross-Border Encounters

Abstract

ABSTRACTEU peacebuilding efforts in Bosnia-Herzegovina have largely contributed to further cement stark geopolitical imaginaries that, on the one hand, crystallise belonging along exclusionary and fixed notions of ethnonational identity and, on the other, reify civilisational differences between the EU and the post-Yugoslav space. The kaleidoscopic lens of the borderscape opens opportunities to move beyond this impasse by highlighting alternative narratives and sites of border politics that are often overlooked in institutionalised approaches. At the interface between aesthetics, cultural politics and post-conflict transformations, the Sarajevo Film Festival provides a privileged vantage point to explore border negotiations and harness opportunities for conflict transformation through the medium of cinema.