WHAT'S THIS COUNTRY CALLED NOW? / U.S.A., BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA / LOUISIANA PREMIERE

"What’s This Country Called Now?" is based on the experiences of Aida Cerkez, a Bosnian woman who worked as a reporter throughout the Siege of Sarajevo. She spent four years enduring incessant bombing and sniper fire, and sharing Sarajevo’s story with the world.

In 1994, on the 80th anniversary of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Aida had the idea of finding a witness to that seminal event in world history. She found Ismet, a 90-year-old who was ten years old and on a school outing to see the Archduke on that fateful day in 1914. He witnessed the shot that triggered WWI, and continued to live in Sarajevo through the years of conflict that followed.

Aida interviews Ismet and in the process shares her own perspective on life during wartime. Ismet complements her wry view of the absurdity of war with a unique perspective on the long history of Sarajevo as a pivotal place in world history. Aida leaves Ismet with a deeper understanding of the Bosnian war, and her role in it.