10 Minutes (2002)

Let's be realistic.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

10 minutes is a short film made by Bosnian film director Ahmed Imamovic and won the Best European Short Film award back in 2002. This film is about contrast situation between the peaceful Rome city and Sarajevo during the Bosnian War. The film starts with Japanese tourist in Rome who go to a photo shop and ask the shop to print his photos. The Italian shopkeeper then ask him to wait 10 minutes until his photo done. Meanwhile, in Sarajevo Bosnia, which was torn apart by the Bosnian War, a kid is asked by his mom to buy a bread. About 10 minutes later, his town is attacked and his life changed forever. The greatest thing about this film is Imamovic managed to take the whole Bosnian scene with only one shot!! The camera doesn't change shot at all, continuing events after events. It doesn't shake and take every scene with perfect angle. The film statement was amazing, how can life change in other parts of the world in such short time without us even noticing it. We who live in a relatively good place should appreciate every passing minutes, because there are millions other people who aren't as lucky as us. This film combines great art of cinematography and strong film statement. Brilliant camera technique, acting, and actors selection combined with such strong screenplay. This is one of the best short film I've ever seen..

The film begins with a Japanese tourist entering an Italian photo developers and he can't believe that they can process his pictures in just ten minutes. The man behind the counter assures him this is true and you see the tourist leave the shop--and you see the time in the foreground. Then, abruptly, the scene changes. At first it isn't certain where you are, but it seems to be Bosnia. A mother is making dinner for her husband who is coming home from the battle front. She sends her oldest child out to get bread and he must run through a war zone to get food. In the space of time it took to get the photos developed, this little boy will have his entire life shattered and the film ends with the Japanese man picking up his pictures.This is a truly exceptional short film. The style and way it juxtaposed two moments in time was very clever and it sure packs an emotional wallop! A very clever and personal way to help the world see the madness of this war.

A Japanese tourist is in Italy, merrily taking snapshots of all there is to see. He goes into a shop and, despite his disbelief, hands over his film to the shopkeeper who says he can develop it all in under ten minutes; such a short time! Meanwhile in Sarajevo, the same ten minutes seems a lot longer in the life of one boy sent out to fetch some bread and water for the evening meal.I'm not sure why the device of the Japanese tourist was specifically chosen but regardless of how it is delivered, the message of the film is a simple and powerful one. To many of us ten minutes seems like no time at all; the time it takes to fetch a cup of coffee perhaps, or write that email I owed that guy etc. However in other circumstances, ten minutes can see a lot happen. This contrast is played out between the two threads, with the Japanese tourist acting as bookends to the main story. Ignoring this device for a minute what the film does do is deliver a convincing and depressing picture of life in a war zone. OK so the war itself is less than topical but it seems little different in Iraq or Afghanistan – just hotter and with more sand. The delivery of the Sarajevo story is convincingly real. The ending lacked an emotional punch as I had had no time to engage with the characters but the story was still engaging as it did an excellent job of summarising life as a civilian in a war zone; normal activities turning into death, walking a dog becomes a risk etc.A strong but simple film then that is framed well by the idea of 10 minutes as both a very short and very long time, depending on your circumstances. Convincing in delivery even if the emotional content was not all that I had hoped it would be.

This short film, as its title indicates lasts only 10 minutes, but it tells a much longer story which unravels only in our imagination upon seeing the end of the film. While 10 minutes in someone's life mean nothing, they can be fatal in another: a boy and his loving family, tragedy in a war-torn city, death and destruction. All in just ten minutes. The film follows two simultaneous story lines: one set in Rome, and one in Sarajevo, in 1994, the worst time of the war in Bosnia. Although the Rome part was not filmed on the original location, that does not take away anything from the quality of the film, it was just a symbolic element anyway. Cast is great, story is very compact and well written, direction dynamic and precise. There is nothing out of place in the film: well structured, stripped of false pathos, realistic, it is very straight forward. In other words, this is a jewel of a film, and it was not by chance that it won the award for the best European short film in 2002. 10 minutes for me is definitely one of the most moving and powerful films about wartime Sarajevo. Behind the scene: I read that the director Ahmed Imamovic, in search of Japanese for the role of the tourist, had to go to the Japanese Embassy in Sarajevo and ask one of the staff to perform in the film. Luckily for the director, the Embassy allowed one of their employees to star in the film.