On screen
The performers of the Sarajevo films — the ensembles that connect Walter Defends Sarajevo to No Man's Land, Grbavica and Quo Vadis, Aida? The directors · The films
Staka in The Perfect Circle — a Sarajevo stage actor and director who later led the Academy of Performing Arts.
Graduated in the academy's first acting class and became its dean during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
A Sarajevo-born actor of the Sarajevo War Theatre (SARTR) who played Gojko opposite Penélope Cruz in Twice Born.
Studied under Izudin Bajrović at the Academy of Performing Arts; SARTR ensemble member since 2008.
Tarik in Quo Vadis, Aida? — a Pristina-born actor trained at the Academy of Performing Arts, Sarajevo.
Adis, one of the two orphans the poet Hamza shelters in besieged Sarajevo, in The Perfect Circle.
Kerim, the second orphan, in The Perfect Circle.
The Serbian officer in No Man's Land — one of more than a hundred films capped with the Pavle Vuisić lifetime achievement award.
General Ratko Mladić in Quo Vadis, Aida? — the role no one else in the region would touch, played by Jasna Đuričić's husband.
He hesitated to take the part and faced pressure in Serbia after accepting it; also in The Man Who Defended Gavrilo Princip.
Martin Buntić in Cirkus Columbia and Aida's son Hamdija in Quo Vadis, Aida? — the young face of 2010s Bosnian cinema.
The Bosnian soldier in No Man's Land and a veteran of Do You Remember Dolly Bell?, The Smell of Quinces and Kuduz.
Professor of acting whose students include Admir Glamočak and Izudin Bajrović.
Čiki in No Man's Land and the face of Top Lista Nadrealista.
European Film Award Best Actor nominee for No Man's Land; frontman of the Sarajevo band Bombaj Štampa. As a director he made Cheese and Jam (Kajmak i marmelada, 2003), co-written with Nele Karajlić, which set the Slovenian record for domestic film attendance (125,000 admissions).
A Sarajevo-born actor and TV personality in The Perfect Circle, Welcome to Sarajevo and Comanche Territory.
Known as 'Maca'; played the criminal Šento in The Abandoned (Ostavljeni, 2010).
Kondor, the German agent posing as Walter, in Walter Defends Sarajevo; later the patriarch Žika in the Lude godine series.
The acting thread across Kusturica and Žbanić.
Graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Emir Kusturica's class; three Pula Golden Arenas (Best Actor 2007 and 2015; Best Supporting Actor 2006). Venice Horizons Best Actor for These Are the Rules (2014); Minister of Culture and Sports of Sarajevo Canton (2007–2011); also the star of Remake, Fuse and Armin.
Played a young man in Walter Defends Sarajevo — his first appearance in a major motion picture.
Better known as a two-time Palme d'Or-winning director.
Branko in Walter Defends Sarajevo — a Kosovo-born Yugoslav star also seen in The Dervish and Death.
Cera, the wounded soldier who must not move off the mine, in No Man's Land.
Son of Fabijan Šovagović; three Golden Arena Best Actor wins.
Colonel von Dietrich, the SD officer hunting Walter — the East German actor cast as the film's main antagonist.
Nihad, Aida's husband, in Quo Vadis, Aida? — a Sarajevo-trained actor who has appeared in more than forty films.
His son Dino Bajrović played their on-screen son Sejo in the same film. On stage he has been a member of the National Theatre Sarajevo's drama company since 1987, headed it 1997–2001, and taught acting at the Academy of Performing Arts 1993–2007.
From The Smell of Quinces to Grbavica and Snow — a steady Bosnian presence.
Hamza's wife Gospoda in The Perfect Circle; a founder of the Sarajevo War Theatre (SARTR).
Over 150 theatre and film roles, from Kamerni Teatar 55 to Remake and Fuse.
Aida Selmanagić in Quo Vadis, Aida? — the European Film Award winner for best actress.
Audiences: Her Aida is called the best performance of that awards season.
A Sarajevo-trained actress of Grbavica and Fuse; now a professor of movement at the Academy of Performing Arts.
A Sarajevo stage institution and anti-war activist in 1992; Sixth of April Sarajevo Award winner (1975).
Buried in Sarajevo's Bare Cemetery in 2025; appeared in The Perfect Circle and Kuduz.
Jane Livingstone, the reporter in No Man's Land, who became a household name in Bosnia.
The Katrin Cartlidge Foundation bursary for new filmmakers is awarded annually at the Sarajevo Film Festival in her memory.
Pelda in Grbavica and Amar in On the Path — the Croatian actor who became Jasmila Žbanić's regular.
Two-time Heart of Sarajevo Best Actor, for Buick Riviera (2008) and The Load (2018).
Zis in Walter Defends Sarajevo; six Pula Golden Arenas across a long career.
Sara, Esma's teenage daughter, in Grbavica — the Golden Bear-winning debut that made her a name at fifteen.
Also Tajna in Death in Sarajevo (2016) and Lejla in Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020).
Rahima in Aida Begić's Children of Sarajevo — the role that won her the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Actress.
Graduate of the Academy of Arts in Banja Luka; later Berina in With Mum (2013) and Lada in Lud, zbunjen, normalan.
The father in When Father Was Away on Business; Marko in Underground.
Dino Mehmeda Mujkić in Lud, zbunjen, normalan — a Bosnian TV face with film roles from Go West to Čuvari noći.
Ranko Ivanda in Tanović's Cirkus Columbia — a Croatian veteran whose Bosnian credit is the 2010 film.
Golden Arena for Best Supporting Actor (1982).
Ankica in When Father Was Away on Business; later of Babylon 5 and Lost.
Mitar in Remake and Ćupo in Summer in the Golden Valley; a Sarajevo National Theatre regular turned Hollywood blockbuster actor.
From Kusturica's Senija to Žbanić's Esma in Grbavica — nominated for the European Film Award for Best Actress (2006).
Two Pula Golden Arena Best Actress wins (1980, 1985) and a directorial debut, A Good Wife (Dobra žena), that premiered at Sundance in 2016. Post-2016 she wrote and directed Mother Mara (2024), screened as a Gala at the Sarajevo Film Festival, and appears in The Pavilion (2025), which opened the 31st edition.
Damir Fazlinović in Lud, zbunjen, normalan — a Sarajevo-trained actor whose first film role came in Summer in the Golden Valley.
Graduate of the Academy of Performing Arts, Sarajevo; also in Dobro uštimani mrtvaci (2005).
Hamza, the poet of besieged Sarajevo, in The Perfect Circle; the patriarch of Lud, zbunjen, normalan.
Audiences: r/bih's own vote crowned him Bosnia's best male actor; Hamza in The Perfect Circle is the consensus best role.
Trained in Sarajevo and Zagreb; the sitcom was cancelled after his death in 2020. Won the Golden Arena for Best Actor in 1988.
Principal actress of the National Theatre's drama company, who performed through the siege.
Mirna, the partisan courier, in Walter Defends Sarajevo — a Belgrade-born actress of more than sixty films.
Co-founder and frontman of Zabranjeno Pušenje and co-creator of Top Lista Nadrealista.
The train dispatcher in Walter Defends Sarajevo; a beloved Yugoslav character actor.
Sead Kapetanović in Walter Defends Sarajevo.
Four-time Pula Golden Arena winner; starred in The Woman from Sarajevo.
Nino, the Bosnian Serb soldier trapped in the trench with Čiki, in No Man's Land.
Two Golden Arena Best Actor wins, for Metastases (2009) and Vegetarian Cannibal (2012).
SS-Hauptsturmführer Bischoff in Walter Defends Sarajevo — an East German DEFA regular.
Principal actress of the Sarajevo War Theatre (SARTR); professor at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Tuzla.
The Perfect Circle, Welcome to Sarajevo and the sitcom Lud, zbunjen, normalan.
Professor at the Academy of Performing Arts, Sarajevo.
Colonel Soft, the UNPROFOR commander, in No Man's Land — the British stage actor's Bosnian war credit.
Marko Kalaba in Remake and Miro in Cirkus Columbia — a prolific Bosnian character actor.
Maho, the father, in Do You Remember Dolly Bell? and the UDBA agent in When Father Was Away on Business.
Dr Mišković in Walter Defends Sarajevo — a Slovenian-born actor, theatre director and writer of the Yugoslav screen.
Martha, the UNPROFOR interpreter, in No Man's Land — a Slovenian actress and singer married to Branko Đurić.
Starred opposite her husband in his directorial debut Cheese and Jam (2003).
Mirsad Melić in Children of Sarajevo — a Mostar-born actor who went on to Snatch and the films of Ridley Scott.
Walter in Walter Defends Sarajevo — the city's most quoted film, and one of over 340 films.
Audiences: Users call him the single greatest acting persona in Yugoslav film history; Walter is quoted all the time.
Three Pula Golden Arena Best Actor wins (1965, 1967, 1972). Beyond Walter: Tigar in The Bridge (1969), Muselim in The Dervish and Death (1974) and Inspector Felini in Holiday in Sarajevo (1991); won Best Actor at the 1979 Moscow International Film Festival for Moment.
Predsjednik in When Father Was Away on Business and Asaf in The Perfect Circle — a legend of Bosnian cinema.
The last winner of the Yugoslav Golden Arena for Best Supporting Actor (1990).
Ajla in Angelina Jolie's In the Land of Blood and Honey — the Sarajevo actress Jolie chose for the lead.
An alumna of the Academy of Performing Arts, Sarajevo; earlier in Summer in the Golden Valley (2003) and Snow (2008).
A Sarajevo-born actor, writer and director; Golden Arena for Best Supporting Actor (1983) and Remake's Mirsad 'Hodža'.
The actor who opened the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival with The Pavilion (2025); directed theatre in Sarajevo, Ljubljana, Linz and Salzburg.