🇧🇦 Once Upon a Time in Sarajevo l Al Jazeera Correspondent

Film by Jacky Rowland
Often compared to Monty Python's Flying Circus the comedy team from Sarajevo known as Top Lista Nadrealista or The Surrealist Hit Parade rose to prominence on the eve of the breakup of Yugoslavia. Nele, Zenit and Djuro became household names throughout the Balkans.
The wars that followed the splintering of the country pitted each of the diverse communities against one another. The bitter conflict exposed some nationalist loyalties among the comedians and led to the acrimonious break-up of Top Lista; the split reflecting the broader tribulations dividing their homeland.
Twenty years after the guns were silenced Al Jazeera correspondent Jacky Rowland finds out if the three main stars of Top Lista Nadrealista would consider reuniting and putting the bitterness of the past behind them.
Through her journey Jacky examines the scars left by the war and asks if comedy really has the power to heal.
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#AlJazeeraEnglish #AlJazeeraCorrespondent #Bosnia

[@mirodubai]

Hvala Jackie na ovom uradku, kao sto se moglo i pretpostaviti, prevelik je nazor stvoreni ponos.

[@alisaljic]

Trenutni odnos između Zenita i Neleta je Top Lista Nadrealista sam po sebi, tak' da ni ne moraju snimati nove epizode jer ih upravo žive. "Hajmo na rakijicu u Drinu, ma jebeš Drinu hajmo u Triglav jeftinije je" > "Hajmo snimati u Beogradu, hajmo snimati u Sarajevu". Jedini je problem to što ovo što oni sad rade uopšte nije smiješno. Totalni paradoks. Zenit očito neće da popusti jer prepoznaje da bi Nele to doživjeo kao priznanje da je njegov intelektualni stav superiorniji. U isto vrijeme, Nele neće da prizna da je ispao glup niti sebi niti bilo kome drugom, pa sad na sve načine pokušava dokazati da je on i samo on u pravu; iako zna da je to skoro pa nemoguće jer bi time ujedno morao reći da je rat najrazumniji i najlogičniji potez koji je mogao zadesiti ova područja - i sve to samo da ON, Dr. Nele Karajlić, nebi ispao totalni glupson tipa "stupid is as stupid does". U suštini ne zna se ko je od njih dvojice gluplji jer se i jedan i drugi ponašaju kao djeca. Đuro je jedini koji je ostao pribran i normalan, pa ga cijela ta TLN glupost više ni ne zanima u suštini.

[@almil8760]

The issue is here that despite all time that Jackie spent in Sarajevo and Bosnia, she obviously never understood the city, Bosnia, Balkan, mentality etc , etc. My guess is, she either never read Mesa Selimovic “Death and Dervish” or, even if she did never understood it. But my even better guess is she of course read Mesa and she of course perfectly understood it, but her little story needed a certain angle after it become obvious that attempts to reunite those 3 guys will be futile. And because of her need to have the certain angle to this report she pretends that she doesn’t understand what Nele was saying when he stated that he was thrown out of Sarajevo. At around 29min 30 seconds of the clip when she gently takes Nele’s hand and then interrupts him in a very patronising way “But you said that you were not thrown out but you choose to leave the city”. Nele is probably not exposed to using English on a daily basis and at that point he did not realise that Jackie tried to caught him in something that will seem to be logically inconsistent in eyes of English speaking audience. I also believe that she really did this deliberately because as reunion become unlikely her story needed an unreasonable stubborn character - a “baddie” - the reason why the reunion will not happen despite the fact that she probably perfectly understood what Nele exactly meant by saying that he was yhrown out.. In respect of Bosnian people, regardless of whether they are Bosnjaks, Serbs of Croats there was no any ambiguity at all in what Nele said- every single of them exactly understood Nele’s regardless of whether they agree or disagree with Nele. Furthermore, in this very report Djuro just a bit after Nele himself confirms that he too left the city due to the same reasons as Nele. It is obvious from what Djuro said that ethnicity became an important issue in the city and because himself being from a mixed marriage Djuro felt that he had to leave. If Jackie understood Mesa’s Dervis and Death she would without any doubt understand that Nele could have been effectively thrown out despite the fact that no one grabbed him and kicked him physically out of Sarajevo. The main theme of Mesa’s book is subliminal aspect of Bosnian mentality and Nele simply knew that they have to leave the city because he understands this subliminal aspect of Bosnia.. Nele left Sarajevo just before the war broke out at a point when no one could anticipate what will happen later in the city. At that time Nele and his wife had a baby. Does anyone think that it was easy to leave everything and go to another city to complete uncertainty. On the other note I must say I enjoyed Jackie’s almost colonial arrogance in her ambition to reunite 3 “once friends” whose lives separated. As those guys would not have already reunited if they didn’t have their reasons not to do so and as they haven't number of common friend who already tried to arrange this.. I wonder what will be Jackie’s next project a trip to Utrecht to try to persuade Johnny to reform Azra and then come back with report that Stulic is unreasonable because he refused her desire re reunite the band?

[@MultiEneka]

Thank you Jacky , you became one of us!

[@ulupuubihudruzenje7027]

Kako se desi da Nele ispadne najveći šupak?

[@user-ye4vt4fg3q]

Od sad, pa nadalje i ubuduće svi treba da poštuju ono što su nam oni ostavili. Svi su oni naši, nemojte da se kompromitujete. Nadrealisti su u naš svakodnevni jezik ostavili veliki trag, kao i u rok sceni Jugoslavije (i Bombaj i Pušenje). Svako ima svoje razloge, i ko je čitao dobru literaturu, razume svaki korak koji su naši nadrealisti napravili. Podjednako volim i Djuru i Neleta i Zenu i Paru i sve njih. ❤️🥰

[@slod.3712]

What a great documentary! So glad that the Balkan people got empathic BBC reporters to solve your disputes. So much easier to have your civil war explained by visiting international Broadcast team...

[@SirMo]

Nele is morally bankrupt. Shame really as he was a talented comedian before his mind got corrupted with hatred.

[@MrMungos73]

Ja sam prestala da gledam kada je Dzeki rekla Zenitu da će ga Nele sresti samo u nekom srpskom manastiru na promociji njegove knjige, a Nele jednostavno nije htio da AL Jazeera komercijalizuje njihov susret i da Zenit može da ga zovne bilo kad da se dogovore oko sastanka. To je to sto Zenit ne razumije i u tome je cijela istina. Ova vrsta istine i ova vrsta medija je zapocela rat u bivšoj Yu i ono što počinje ratove po svijetu i uz to profitira od njih.

[@predragstanojevic1938]

Da li se to zove ironija,kad pomirenje pokusa da napravi novinar BBC-a?! Da ne pisem dalje, mislim da je jasna uloga svih cinilaca iz drzave odakle dolazi ova novinarka u izazivanju i kreaciji svog zla koje se desilo na prostorima bivse Jugoslavije,ko to ne uvidja samo je tvrdoglav!!!

[@Stepskivuk007]

***** Shefkete, gledas pricu iz ugla samo onih koji su nasjeli na sav taj program (a to je bio i dio Srba koje pominjes) Medjutim, neki od nas vidimo stvari malo sire i pokusavamo ostalima da prenesemo. Jugoslavija je morala biti unistena, kolonizovana, preduzeca rasturena itd. Srebrenica se be razlikuje puno od drugih zlocina osim po tome sto je osmisljena da mude krvava mrlja Srba i temelj nove nacije - Bosnjaka, kojim bi se utemeljila i mrznja u daljima decenijama. Razmisli malo o tome... A imas i film TEZINA LANACA na yt...

[@Stepskivuk007]

***** I istoriju su ti napisali covjece, vidim dobro si je naucio. Pa u Hrvatskoj je spaljeno preko 2 miliona cirilicnih knjiga i "nepodobnih" pisaca. U Sarajevu je na ovim protestima slucajno izgorio arhiv. Ali ima dosta toga i na netu, kako smo zivjeli prije 100 i prije 200 godina i tako dalje. Nema toga VI i MI, nema cak ni jugoslovenstva, a pritom nema mrznje. Pominjes CG, sve su to zemlje u uzdama zapada, sa poslusnim poltronima na vlasti. Na kaju krajeva ne znas uopste ko sam ja.

[@ekspresija101]

A dobar je Đuro - ''Ja sam neutralan, ja ne zauzimam stranu... al Srbi su gađali...''. A voditeljka je primer neprofesionalnosti, emotivne pristranosti i neobjektivnosti. Sa oduševljenjem se grli u Sarajevu, evocira uspomene, smeje se, a ovamo čist animozitet i pogledi mržnje u BG-u..

[@Peccony94]

Sarajevo Serbs 1981 - 157,143 Sarajevo Serbs 2011 - less than 10.000. Why would Nele get back there ?

[@Peccony94]

Jason Genova Haha what a lie. There are definitely no 100.000 Serbs in Sarajevo. That's a complete lie. Serbs were expelled from Sarajevo. Haha, we don't care about Bosniak census where dead and people that are living abroad are counted. Why should Serbs even agree with that ? And if you are the majority how is that possible ? Weren't millions of Bosniaks killed in the war ? Or expelled by us ? How come are now such an majority ???

[@MrMungos73]

I stopped watching when Jacky said to Zenit that only way that Nele will meet him is in some serbian monastery on the promotion of his book while Nele just did not want Al Jazeera to commercialize their meeting and said that Zenit can call him any time to arrange meeting. That is what Zenit does not see and that is whole truth. This kind of truth and this kind of Media is what started war in ex YU and is starting wars around the world and profiting on it.

[@88mrki99]

Emily congratulations for your comment

[@gortos1]

Citam prepucavanja Srba i Bosnjaka, mrznju koju seju na sve strane, ali retko gde videh da je bilo ko pomenuo ulogu koju su Evropa i svet (USA) imali krajem 80-tih u razbijanju Jugoslavije, posebno ulogu medija u raspirivanju mrznje, a mora se reci i da smo i mi (kad kazem mi, mislim prvo na Srbe, pa Hrvate, pa Muslimane, pa onda i sve ostale iz Jugoslavije) oberucke prihvatili njihovu igru i napravili od onakve zemlje kalakurnicu. Sad opet Evropa i Amerika potpiruju mrznju, a mi opet sve gutamo. Da li cemo se ikad opametiti i okrenuti sebi, a ne slusati strana govna, ciji je jedini interes da nas ponize, bez obzira da li se zovemo Nemanja, Senad, Ivo ili drugacije. Ajde da vec jednom izadjemo iz pecine, kazemo zasrali smo, dajte da vidimo sta mozemo da uradimo, i da krenemo da gradimo neke nove odnose, ili ce bojim se ovde opet za 20-30 godina izbiti rat. A svima vama koji jebete jedni drugima majke, zelim da imate rat svaki dan u kuci, stoko repata.

[@Adomaster97]

ovdje je svakih 40-tak godina rat od pamtivijeka... ne zove se dzaba Balkansko bure baruta...

[@chitluk79]

pitam se da li ju je rijesio zena poslije rakije? xd

[@stojanovicvlada2009]

Da je Jugoslavija nešto vredela ona bi i opstala ili u prevodu nikad suštinski jedni o drugima nismo mislili pozitivno niti smo jedni drugi poštovali ... kraj priče idemo dalje ... nikad više zajedno i to je to ...

[@dzonikg]

VIdeo on 2:11 is actually NATO bombing city off Nis in Serbia with Cluster Bombs where 11 civilians were killed ...and Top lista Nadrealista was totally awesome ,best crazy humor but predicted many stuff not just in Yugoslavia but in Europe

[@MsSlava1953]

Who is she? Who is she?

[@branko1408]

Drago i je da nije doslo do patetike i laznog mirenja pred kamerama, kako je bilo izmedju Kusturice i Sidrana, pa su se posle 2 meseca opet popickarali...

[@zvonko1234]

Misliš pijani umobolnik Sidran je ispičkarao Kusturicu 2 meseca nakon pomirenja jer je saznao da Kusturica ne želi od njega da kupi scenario što je Sidranu i bila jedina motivacija da inicira 'pomirenje' s Kusturicom.

[@bokicar4358]

Some good points raised in few comments below. "Ex BBC reporter working for Al Jazeera, being impartial and impartially reporting". Hahaha. And comments are telling, people with Muslim names Impartially are on the Zenit's side, while Serbs are on Nele's side. Nobody is talking about Djura. HAHAHA. Maybe because i am Serb i see it from Nele's point of view? And what did we learn? What Nele said, even if they meetup, nothing will change

[@milanmarbo1006]

Nele Sarajevo ima 500.000 stanovnika a ti si se "snavezao" sta ti je napisalo nekih 2.000 ljudi, valjda je normalno da neko misli i drugacije, u ovom sjucaju velika manjina.A ja bih ga volio vidjeti koga to ne vuce rodna gruda i ko se ne bi volio vratiti tamo gdje je rodjen, samo sto si ti pun nekog ponosa ili mozda necega DRUGOG

[@ivanmilosevic3815]

In the beginning is footage of the Nato strike on civilians in Niš 1999.

[@CzvSale]

Daj neko ime ove devojke na promociji knjige keke

[@bolid991]

Nes jebat

[@personaldove]

I always wondered why these Serbs and Muslims looked like Turks....

[@anitasaha434]

This is like ESPN's Once Brothers, but even more pathetic (especially the last scenes, urgh). Waste of funds for AJ. Try something that is more contemporary and edgier like 'How Edo Maajka Became Public Enemy No1"?

[@nagarihari3588]

Ne mogu ovo stranci da shvate,samo mi balkanci.

[@bokimerdzanovic2105]

Neleta niko nije otjerao sam se pokupio i otisao mogo je komotno ostat kao mnogi srbi u SA sto su ustali

[@esnaider3499]

svetosavski mitomane, niko tebe ni vas nije izbacio iz Sarajeva vi ste izabrali šumu ili u tvom slucaju Bg...........Lijep pozzz

[@mufljuzkosovoalbany6876]

NENADE VJECITI NACIONALISTO, POGLEDAJTE NA 22.33 DIZE TRI PRSTA, A NA 23:44 KAZE C4 STO ZNACI 4CCCC SAMO IZ TOG RAZLOGA JE I KUPIO AUTOMOBIL CITROEN C4 SIGURNO BI VISE VOLIO DA SE ZOVE CITROEN 4C 4S

[@bosniabosniaks2841]

Djuro je legenda ponio tocak sa sobom ukrasce ga ko !!!!

[@mufljuzkosovoalbany6876]

Bosnia Bosniaks NENADE VJECITI NACIONALISTO, POGLEDAJTE NA 22.33 DIZE TRI PRSTA, A NA 23:44 KAZE C4 STO ZNACI 4CCCC SAMO IZ TOG RAZLOGA JE I KUPIO AUTOMOBIL CITROEN C4 SIGURNO BI VISE VOLIO DA SE ZOVE CITROEN 4C 4S

[@bankulin8641]

Živio Assad, živio Putin, živio Erdogan. Jesam li koga zaboravio? Macron?

[@rajkocg5135]

Dje se BBC pojavi naebali smo

[@G.G.G593]

ثورة ثورة حتی النصر، الیوم البوسنة غدا فلسطین

[@xowurb]

jgb šta bi.

[@zvonko1234]

It's also quite interesting how Jacky Rowland (the reporter) tries her hardest to present her old buddy Zenit as the good-natured, unburdened-by-the-past, I'm-down-for-anything, happy-go-lucky guy of the piece. Yet at 34:27 he's the one who refuses to meet Nele at a book launch in a Serb monastery, saying something to the effect of: "if it was any other time I would do it, but the politics that I'm a part of prevent me from doing so" before they edit out the rest of his thought!? What the hell does this even mean? His politics prevent him from setting foot in Serb monastery? I guess the "multiethnic" Sarajevo that's 99.999% Muslim is so open-minded that a well-known Muslim individual living today in Sarajevo genuinely fears local fellow Muslim reaction if they found out he so much as set foot in a Serb monastery.

[@mauriciomalaver4003]

Why would Zenit go to meat with him. I don't think that Nele deserved something like that. He was enjoying good life in Serbia, while Zenit was surrounded by dead in Sarajevo... Would Nele ever come to mosque in Sarajevo?

[@zvonko1234]

Mauricio Malaver Why would Zenit want to meet with Nele you ask? Perhaps you should pose that question to Zenit because he himself says he wants to meet with Nele. In fact, this wish of Zenit's is the starting point of this entire television piece. However, despite reporter Jacky Rowland trying her hardest to present Zenit as some naive little shrieking violet mending broken ties, it turns out there are clear limits and boundaries on Zenit's friendship towards Nele. One of them being not wanting to set his foot in a Serb monastery because of "politics", even if it's only to meet his supposed great friend. Zenit exhibits the same hypocrisy many Sarajevo Muslims do - they'll talk a foreigner's ear off about the supposed "multiculturalism" of Sarajevo (neglecting to tell them that the city has been 99% Muslim ever since 1995) while at the same time rejecting any symbols of Serb culture, tradition, and heritage without batting an eye. As for this 'Nele was enjoying great life in Belgrade while Zenit suffered under the bombs" narrative, spare me the bullshit. Nele was essentially run out of Sarajevo. He was receiving threats and was even alerted by a Muslim friend Benjamin "Cober" Isović that it would be better if he took a hike.

[@mauriciomalaver4003]

zvonko1234 That is complete bullshit and you know it. It is easy to speak about something that you don't know. I have some relatives in Sarajevo, so i know how the war looked like there. You know that in areas that were controlled by Serb forces most of Muslim population were expelled or taken to camps. But when we look on Sarajevo we see that ArBiH never did such acts. Of course there were bad individuals, but official army of Bosnia didn't do the persecution... And Zenit wants to meat with Nele because Zenit is very good man. But of course that he don't want to go in Serbian monastery, i wouldn't too :D You must first tell that you are sorry, because Serbia did more evil things in that war, and that is the fact...

[@leninirshad7395]

simple fact "war changes everything"

[@LukaSerb1]

What happened with 160.000 Serbs from Sarajevo? Where are slotted another 10.000? Who is responsible? We've seen how you are doing those tricks here in St. Louis in US, faking victims.

[@protivudar]

The best thing is not to have anything to do with Turks and Krauts.

[@jaojaoalsamzao392]

nele supak

[@nenadm1011]

Shame on you Al Jazeera. or former BBC. As always keep aside. With Zenit've made friends, and immediately he was nice but not good Nele who was exiled along with 200 000 people from Sarajevo. It is easy to Zenit wants to socialize when every night sleeping in his bed. A condoning (between the lines) Nele because it does not want after the expulsion.

[@nenadm1011]

At one point they all 200,000 resolve to move freely? People have saved lives. Nobody wants to listen to children cut off your head as you are doing in the Middle East. Most of your people there, learn the craft. So- ne idi vise u Pariz..

[@nenadm1011]

Pa zvanicni popis BiH to kaze ja sam sklon da verujem da je bilo i vise...Ali verujem zvanicnim izvestajima BiH. Ko kaze da nikome nije falilio nista? Pa prosle godine su u Sarajevu nadjeni lesevi na deponiji negde oko 1800.. Isto sve zvanicno od institucija BiH.. A da 200 000 ljudi samo resi da napusti neko mesto nemoj molim te pa cak i isprani mozak dzihadom shvati da tu nesto nije u redu... A da Vi ste poznatiji po izivljavanju oprosti,tipa dranje koze pa soljenje i pecenje,nabijanje na kolac... Klanje u smislu odsecanja glave pa sam Naser Oric to priznaje...u svojoj knjizi...

[@nenadm1011]

***** Hahahha istina boli aaa.... Nikome se ne dopada prljav ves.... To je zvanicni podatak tvog grada,tvoje drzave,tvog naroda...

[@nenadm1011]

Jel to ono kad se Izetbegovic dogovara sa Klintonom koliko muslimana treba ubiti da bi SAD intervenisala? To je ono sto je Vikiliks potvrdio... truth hurts aaa

[@nenadm1011]

Pa lako ces ziveti sa tim da sam ja kreten,samo se pitam kako ces ziveti kad i junior to prizna....

[@anthonykennedy8043]

There seems to be such anti-Serbian bias in the media

[@DimaSizo]

Yeah people don't like war crimes

[@donaldduck280]

@@DimaSizo Then why do they commit them?

[@Takac1979]

Very poor.

[@LukaSerb1]

There was never siege of Sarajevo. Muslim forces attacked surrounding suburbs and villages around Sarajevo inhabited by Serbs and Croats and besieged themselves.

[@LukaSerb1]

то се обрати изметбеговићима и својима а не овоме који се нигдје ни није борио.

[@MilanVoorhees]

Bob Loblaw U Srebrenici je ubijeno 5000 muslimanskih vojnika, taj broj spominje i Hakija Meholjić, tadašnji načelnik policije Srebrenici. O kakvom se to "genocidu" radi ako je taj čin bio odgovor na smrt nešto manje od 4000 srpskih civila u selima oko Srebrenice? Razlika je u tome što se taj broj formirao tokom godina, a akcija srpskih vojnika je bila izvedena u kraćem roku.

[@lolalola2592]

I feel sorry for you if you have such a wrong idea of what really happenedp

[@milovanmikic5905]

There's nothing Bosnian Muslims hate more than being presented with a hard dose of truth. This aggressive reaction against Nele is a reaction of those with guilty conscience. They don't like to be reminded of the fact there's 200,000 Serbs missing in Sarajevo. It's very comfortable being the victim and playing up your own ethnic group's supposed martyrdom, but facing your own war misdeeds is a different story. When it comes to that, you lash out, you blame the victim, throw insults, and invent conspiracy theories. Keep exposing the hypocrites, Nele!