"The perfect Circle is a project that transcends the boundaries of film, and which symbolizes the overwhelming desire of so many Bosnians to return to a normal life…."
With this words, the photographer Paul Grivas offers the context in which not only the film The Perfect Circle was created but also within which he himself set out to photograph the shooting of the film and the war-wrought destruction of Sarajevo.
The film along with an exhibit of Grivas' photographs will be a part of this year's International Thessaloniki Film Festival, which takes place from November 21-30.
At the invitation of the film producer, Dana Rotberg, Grivas followed the shooting of the film for three weeks in Sarajevo as well as in Brac, Croatia.
It was the first time Grivas found him self in a country just emerging from years of war, and still suffering from it. Words can barely describe what his lens captured.
Much of the shooting of the film took place in the most devastated neighbourhoods of Sarajevo. Sadly, there was no need for scouting out locations. The five-years war had taken care of this for director Ademir Kenovic and his art director.
Grivas took hundreds of photos, both of the city of Sarajevo and of the indescribable euphoria obvious among the film-industry people who once again were able to return to their work. Kenovic ( a native Bosnian) and his crew were reunited around their "Perfect Circle."
Everything about The Perfect Circle and Poul Grivas' photos has to do with what is described above - the longing of a war ravaged people to return to a normal life, to be able to walk in the streets without fear, to find fresh bread at the grocer's, and to shoot a film in the streets of a beloved city.
Of the hundreds of photos shot, 21 will be exhibited on the occasion of the 38th International Thessaloniki Film Festival, in co-operation with France's FNAC photo gallery and the Andre Malraux Centre in Sarajevo.
Paul Grivas was born in Mexico City, Mexico in 1970. Following his
university studies in literature in Paris, where he earned a B.A. degree,
Grivas worked as an assistant editor and still photographer on Arturo
Ripstein's La Reina de la Noche (1994 ). He also worked as an assistant
editor on the series My First Film for Mexican public television.
Grivas has just completed his first effort as a director on the
documentary
Eddie Palmieri: The Sun of Latin Music, shot on location in New York City
(co-directed with Julien Donada). He is a member of the photographer's
cooperative "La Modern Association," based in Paris, and has had a number
of photo exhibits through the cooperative. Besides his work in cinema and
photography, Grivas is the editor of the newsletter Salsa Na Ma, which is
devoted to the native Latin American music.
