Bosnian writer Abdulah Sidran, also author of screenplays, notably for award-winning Serbian director Emir Kusturica, died in Sarajevo late Saturday at the age of 79, local media reported. Mr. Sidran had suffered serious health problems last year, which led to him no longer making public appearances and only occasionally communicating on social media.
Born in Sarajevo in 1944, he began his literary work, particularly poetry, in the 1960s. Sidran was also co-writer of Emir Kusturica’s first feature film Do you remember Dolly Bell? (1981) and his second, Papa is on a Business Trip, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1985.
“Persecution that follows the political lines of one generation is passed on to subsequent generations. It is the curse of the Balkans, the curse of our destiny which means that here… the past is hotter than the present,” Mr. Sidran declared in an interview given in 2011 to a local television channel. .
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“We will remember you forever, for your testimony on the beauty, the soul and the pride of the Bosnian man, on the values that make a man a human being,” the mayor of Sarajevo paid tribute to him. , Benjamina Karic, on Facebook.
A member of the Bosnian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ANUBiH), Abdulah Sidran has received a series of local and international literary awards. His collection of poetry Coffin of Sarajevo (Sarajevski Tabut in Bosnian), published during the 1991-1995 war, was notably rewarded with the Freedom Prize from the French Center of the Pen Club.