Whether it’s in books by Kafka and Turgenev, in films such as Tim Burton’s Big Fish or Andrej Zvjagincev’s Russian masterpiece The Return, or even embodied by Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader in the Star Wars saga, the difficulties we have when it comes to talking about and talking with our fathers is one of the most revisited taboos in film and literature, whether resulting from generational differences and varying expectations, authoritarian or distant paternal figures, or personal or historical trauma which hinders dialogue. Ado Hasanovic - an Italian-Bosnian director renowned for his short films which have won awards around the world - has made this taboo the focal point of his feature film debut, My Father’s Diaries, which was presented in the Visions du Reel Festival before being screened in Sarajevo, and is now showcasing out of competition at the Trieste Film Festival. Combining archive material with new footage, the film explores one of the darkest chapters in recent European history: the Srebrenica genocide.

In 1993, during the Bosnian War, Bekir Hasanovic exchanged a gold coin for a video camera and started filming daily life in the capital city of his birth, Srebrenica, which was besieged by Serbian forces. Supported by a spontaneous crew, the “Dzon, Ben & Boys", Bekir documented the difficulties experienced by a community caught up in a brutal conflict. His footage, often out of focus and accompanied by the whirring typical of VHS ribbons, immortalises a broken yet resilient form of humanity clinging onto mutual support, faith in the future and their healthy Balkan humour.

Almost thirty years later, Ado Hasanovic has decided to “revisit” this footage, combining it with his father’s diaries and a conversation with his own mother, Fatima. The result is a poignant, personal tale exploring the memory of this massacre and the weight of the past on survivors’ lives. Hasanovic the son doesn’t just showcase this archive material, he transforms it into a vibrant universal testimony, comparing and contrasting his family’s story with the collective tragedy experienced by the wider Bosnian people. The film’s editing, courtesy of seasoned talent Esmeralda Calabria, together with Elisabetta Abrami and Anna Zagaglia, is quite simply superb.

Officially recognised as such by the International Court of Justice in 2007, the Srebrenica genocide remains one of the worst atrocities to have taken place in Europe following the Second World War. On 11 July 1995, Serbo-Bosnian troops led by Ratko Mladic took control of the city, which had been declared a “protected zone” by the United Nations. Over 8,000 Muslim men and boys were massacred, while the rest of the population desperately tried to escape. Bekir’s footage shot during the siege testifies to the tragic situation which faced those forced to flee their homes, their loved ones and their roots, finding refuge in subhuman conditions. Written together with Armando Maria Trotta and Anna Zagaglia, the film sees Hasanovic mending some form of dialogue between the young father filming the tragedy and the man he has turned into today, reluctant to talk about that war. Now reserved and marked by wounds which won’t ever heal, Bekir painfully relives those memories for his son. With sensitivity and respect, the director uses his father’s VHS tapes to bring a collective memory at risk of oblivion back to light, all the while reminding the world of the ferociousness and inhumanity of conflict.

My Father’s Diaries alternates images from the past - with all their visual and aural fragility - with modern footage, which serves to heighten the story’s emotive punch. The narrating voice accompanying the audience into safe havens, amongst woodland and rubble, makes the fear and forbearance of those who lived through these events truly tangible. Once again, documentary cinema invites us to reflect upon the importance of memory as an instrument for denunciation and for building an enduring peace.

My Father’s Diaries was produced by Palomar and Mediawan Rights, with the latter also handling world sales.