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“Hold Me Right,” a documentary by first-time Serbian director Danijela Stajnfeld, is certain to shake this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival with its exploration of sexual assault and its impact on survivors.

Stajnfeld, a celebrated actress in Serbia, left the country for the U.S. a few years ago after she was sexually assaulted by a powerful and well-known industry figure. The attack left her traumatized and unable to speak about it for a long time.

She ultimately made “Hold Me Right” about the experience and those of other victims of sexual assault who she met in the U.S. The film, which screens in Sarajevo’s documentary competition section, highlights the plight of survivors whose voices still go unheard even in today’s post-#MeToo era.

Still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder when she arrived in the U.S., Stajnfeld says she slowly recovered with the help of friends.

The 26th Sarajevo Film Festival has revealed a lineup of 49 films which will compete for the Heart of Sarajevo awards, whose main competition jury is being overseen by The Artist director Michel Hazanavicius. Scroll down for full lineup.

Set to take place from August 14-21, the Balkan event will be the biggest physical festival to take place in Europe since the coronavirus shut down most film and TV gatherings after Berlin in March.

Cinemas in Bosnia re-opened May 28 with numerous protocols including cleaning footwear before entering auditoria. International travel is permitted to the country, though in a limited form and providing travelers are tested for coronavirus. The event traditionally attracts tens of thousands of visitors and a couple of hundred films, but this year’s lineup is reduced and international attendance is likely to be significantly down.

Sarajevo’s four competition sections – for feature, documentary, short and student film – will comprise 29 world premieres,...

Festival will world premiere 12 features across its dramatic and documentary competitions.

Eight features have been selected for the main competition of the Sarajevo Film Festival, which is taking place as a physical event from August 14-21.

They include the world premieres of More Raça’s Andromeda Galaxy; Fatih Özcan’s Mavzer; Ruxandra Ghițescu’s Otto The Barbarian; and Ru Hasanov’s The Island Within. A further three films played in the Berlinale’s Panorama section earlier this year: Visar Morina’s Exile; Andrea Staka’s Mare; and Georgis Grigorakis’ Digger, which won the strand’s Cicae Award.

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Cash Only Nickname Projects, Bardha Productions Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: B+ Director: Malik Bader Written by: Nickola Shreli Cast: Nickola Shreli, Stivi Paskoski, Danijela Stajnfeld Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 5/6/16 Opens: May 13, 2016 In today’s America too many people are going down a treacherous path of debt. One debt leads to another until a poor guy just can’t get clear even when he begins accumulating the bucks by stealth or honest work. Once in debt, the burden increases as banks—and loan sharks—charge burdensome interest on borrowers. And in a Detroit neighborhood dominated by Albanian-Americans, if you’re in hock in the section covered by Malik Bader’s [ Read More ]

The post Cash Only Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

An arson insurance scam attempt gone tragically wrong leaves low-rent criminal Elvis Martini (Nickola Shreli) with little to hold onto besides his young daughter Lena (Ava Simony) in Cash Only. Unfortunately, he also has little to provide her despite two years having passed since the incident. Money woes mount as Albanian bookies who’ve given him the benefit of the doubt for too long seek what’s owed and the bank threatens to foreclose on his five-unit apartment complex—his only means of income (when his tenants pay). He and Lena have four weeks to procure funds before they’re on the streets so the drive to squeeze his squatters for rent intensifies until Elvis’ surveillance cameras expose how one resident is stashing more than enough cash to ease his struggle for good.

You’d think one petty criminal would know that stealing from another inevitably means the bigger, badder...