Starring Stephen Dillane, Woody Harrelson and Marisa Tomei Directed by Michael Winterbottom Rated R, with wartime violence, profanity Running time 100 minutes Jack gave this film a rating of 9 out of 10

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(Feb. 20, 1998) -- Welcome to Sarajevo is a powerful, compassionate drama of violent, modern-day warfare -- and of the struggle of a determined journalist to save at least one child from it.

It's adapted from Natasha's Story, a memoir by British reporter Michael Nicholson.

The film initially explores the brutal shelling of Sarajevo through the eyes of the cynical journalists, assembled there in 1992 to cover the bloodshed in the former Yugoslavia.

Clearly in the tradition of The Year of Living Dangerously and Under Fire, the film depicts the risks taken by the reporters and cameramen on the job, as well as their playful camaraderie in the few moments when they're not ducking sniper fire, writing dispatches or snapping pictures.

With shoot-from-the-hip direction by Michael Winterbottom, Welcome to Sarajevo has the feel of a documentary, at least until a more personal drama emerges halfway through the film.

Hand-held cameras capture realistic re-staging of bombing tragedies and sniper bloodshed, acted out in real-life Sarajevo locations. The surrounding rubble in this war movie isn't Hollywood Styrofoam.

British actor Stephen Dillane stars as Michael Henderson (as Nicholson is renamed in this adaptation). He's a cool-as-ice television journalist who eschews flashier forms of broadcast news for restrained, well-researched reports.

Two better-known stars -- Woody Harrelson and Marisi Tomei -- are also in the cast. Tomei plays a social worker and is on screen for only about five minutes; the Oscar-winner obviously is on board as a ploy by the producers to help get the movie made and seen.

But Harrelson's role is more substantial, and he gives this otherwise-bleak film an injection of color and energy. He plays a passionate American reporter who uses his own reckless exploits to bring attention to his stories.

"Back home no one's heard of Sarajevo, but they've all heard of me," he says.

Cynicism is rampant among the journalists, who know that few Western readers and viewers care about the war. "News" about Michael Jackson or Britain's royals takes precedent over their hard-won coverage.

Welcome to Sarajevo becomes a more personal saga when Henderson videos a series of reports about an orphanage in a heavily shelled part of the city.

There he meets Emira (Emira Nusevic), a precocious, nine-year-old orphan who also helps care for the facility's many babies.

In an impulsive moment, Henderson promises Emira he'll help get her out of Sarajevo. But this isn't easy. Emira is too old; only infants are allowed to leave the country.

Henderson makes it a personal crusade to save the girl, abandoning his usual dispassion as a journalist.

Welcome to Sarajevo is engrossing on several levels -- as a terrifying portrait of innocent people caught in the gunsights of snipers; as an insightful look into the lives of journalists with more to worry about than making deadlines; and as an intimate story of a man determined to save a child.

That it was filmed in Sarajevo, only days after a shaky armistice was declared, only adds to the film's intense impact.