The Perfect Circle

In besieged and chaotic Sarajevo, the only question is: should one try to get away or stay? The wife and daughter of a the poet Hamza have left. Two boys, Adis and Kerim, respectively seven and nine, have lost their whole family, except an aunt who is a refugee in Germany. When they knock on Hamza’s door, he can’t leave them to their own resorts and feels it is his duty to find their aunt. As the days pass in the devastated city, the three get to know each other and find the love they need to survive the everyday misery. Eventually the poet hears that Aunt Aïcha has been found. They start to prepare for the dangerous trip to Hranisca, from whence the children can travel to Germany.Kenovic: ‘I saw horrors, murders and torture. My way to combat all of this was to make a warm, simple and stimulating film: not a documentary but a feature with its own logic.’Perfect Circle starts and ends with a picture of an overcrowded cemetery; there is no room for fresh corpses. Yet they keep arriving. The next one could be the crazy Hamza, who stands and recites poetry in Snipers’ Alley. He survives, but a woman who is standing watching around the corner is killed.