Bosnian director highlights importance of non-professional actors

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Danis Tanovic, president of the Jury Committee for Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF), said on Saturday that non-professional actors sometime can play a more efficient role in movies.

During an interview with Xinhua News Agency, the renowned Bosnian film director took an example of his movie "An episode in the life of an iron picker", which won two Silver Bears, for film and Best Actor, in Berlin International Film Festival this year. Nazif Mujic, who is a Roma in real life, played as a Roma like himself in the film.

Non-professional actors may look not so natural in front of cameras as professionals, but they give people a sense of real life, said Tanovic. When he directed "No man's land" over 10 years ago, Tanovic recalled, he just came to the streets to find some actors for the movie.

"No man's land", a movie about the war in the Balkan region in 1990s, won the Oscar For Best Foreign Language film.

Talking about the ongoing 19th SFF, Tanovic said he loved his job. "At least I can watch many movies this time as the president of the Jury Committee, and I can use this job as an excuse to refuse interview requests," he joked.

The SFF, which gains more and more fame internationally, is something special for the city of Sarajevo, Tanovic said, adding he was honored to work for the festival.

He said he almost has no hobbies other than watching movies from all over the world, adding that "film is my life".

When asked about his next movie, the Bosnian director is reluctant to give details, just saying it is being filmed in India.

Tanovic also paid attention to China, saying that the Chinese film market is huge and developing fast. He said he watched quite a few movies from China, "especially action films produced in Hong Kong".

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