Waiting for Godot... in Sarajevo

Susan Sontag, Nicole Stéphane / France / 1993 / 26 min.

synopsis

Summer 1993. I was in Sarajevo. It was my second stay here during the war. To my surprise, Nicole appeared, accompanied by a cinematographer and sound engineer. She wanted to shoot a documentary about my theatre staging of Waiting for Godot. The film became an anti-war gesture and a tribute to the city’s residents. Although Sontag isn’t the film’s director, she is in a certain sense its protagonist. Nicole Stéphane, who was her partner at that time, set out to Sarajevo to capture the atmosphere of the theatre production of Beckett’s play. The documentary was created at a time when the lives of all those involved was in danger. The genius loci of the besieged city was portrayed in a unique way, as well as the situation of the people, who were simultaneously actors, residents, defenders, and victims. The camera provides a testimony of a different battle. The city later expressed its thanks by renaming the square in front of the theater as Theater Square of Susan Sontag.

biography

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) was an influential American essayist, publicist, writer, director, human rights defender, and female emancipation activist. Her universal activities remain an impressive characteristic of this Renaissance woman of modern history. She became known in 1964 with her text Notes on 'Camp'. Her essays On Photography, Under the Sign of Saturn and Regarding the Pain of Others, and her novel The Volcano Lover were translated into Czech. Her interest in film is present in her entire work.