Samir Mehanović

Mehanović was born the youngest of five sons to a family of coal miners. His father survived a mine explosion but was unable to continue working at the mine. He found work as an usher and janitor at Moša Pijade, the Bosnian Cultural Centre in Tuzla, and took his family to live with him. Young Mehanović often visited Moša Pijade, and was inspired by the work of theatre companies from Eastern Europe and Russia.

During the Bosnian War, the siege of Tuzla^[1] by Serb forces put an end to Mehanović's studies. He established JLS Avantgarde Theatre company, developing his directing craft, learning together with his actors, and creating groundbreaking plays. On 25 May 1995 Mehanović went to rehearse a play with his theatre company, and narrowly avoided the Tuzla massacre, where 71 young people were killed. In July 1995 Mehanović witnessed the arrival of refugees from the Srebrenica genocide, mostly women and children.

Mehanović left Tuzla to perform at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, having been invited by Richard Demarco OBE, co-founder of the Traverse Theatre. Mehanović remained in Edinburgh and applied for asylum, briefly living on the streets, before finding a council flat in Niddrie, a suburb of Edinburgh, at the time one of the most deprived areas in Scotland.^[2][3]

Mehanović continued directing theatre in Edinburgh and in 2001 directed his first short film, Pigs Flying Pink. In 2004 he completed an MA in Film and TV at the Edinburgh College of Art, winning the Ingles Allen Award (2004) for Best MA Film with Game Over. The following year, he wrote and directed the short film, The Way We Played, about two boys from different religious backgrounds at the beginning of the Bosnian war, for which he won the Best First Time Director BAFTA Scotland award (2005), and the Houston Film Festival Silver Award (2006)^[4]. Mehanović made his TV debut directing for BBC Artworks in 2008 with Class Enemy: A Message from Sarajevo, a 30-minute documentary completed within a two-month schedule. The same year he directed Richard and I, a very personal documentary that examined his relationship with art impresario Richard Demarco. In 2011, Mehanović attended the Binger Director's Lab, Amsterdam. In 2014, he directed the short film Mouth of Hell (2015), filmed on location in Jharia, India.

In 2015 he made film about Srebrenica genocide The Fog of Srebrenica that has been commissioned by BBC has also won IDFA Special Jury Award, as well as Amnesty International Award at Ljubljana Doc Fest and Best Cinematography Award at SEE Fest in LA.

In 2016 Mouth of Hell was awarded Grand Prix Award at Drama ISFF, Greece and it has received nomination for UK BAFTA 2017, award ceremony to be held in February.

In 2014-2018 Mehanovic has filmed/directed/produced film about Syrian Refugees Through Our Eyes that premiered April 2018 Bertha Dochouse at Curzon Bloomsbury London and it was screened throughout UK Cinemas.

In 2018/19 he is directing/producing documentary "Spank the Banker' and developing feature length script.

Mehanovic has daughter Isla ( Ajla in Bosnian) , she was born in Edinburgh 2010 and lives in London. His family lives in private family house in Tuzla.

• Showreel
• The Way We Played (2005) - watch film
• BBC Artworks documentary Class Enemy: A Message from Sarajevo
• Anant (2015) - trailer
• BAFTA Scotland
• Binger Director’s Lab, Amsterdam
• Film Directing MA, Edinburgh College of Art
• Samir Mehanović at IMDb