Marta Abbà
A film born from a family archive and transformed into collective memory. In My Father’s Diaries, Ado Hasanović reads from his father’s journals, written as he filmed daily life during the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica. His words, the voice of his son, and the original music of IOSONOUNCANE interweave in an intimate yet collective narrative that reshapes memory and restores humanity to History.
In July 1995, in the town of Srebrenica, now part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, over eight thousand Bosniak men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb forces. These events have been recognised as genocide by several international courts and remain among the most tragic moments of the war in the former Yugoslavia.
Behind every number lies a personal story, often left unheard. One of these re-emerges today through My Father’s Diaries – I diari di mio padre, the debut feature film by Ado Hasanović, with music by IOSONOUNCANE. A father films his besieged city. Years later, a son discovers those images and words, and builds a narrative that bridges two generations and two time periods. «It is a film I never imagined shooting. In fact, at first, I did not even want to do it. But now I know it was necessary, for me and for anyone who wishes to watch it», the director says.
This is not simply a documentary about Srebrenica. It is a ground-up account, a deeply personal present that evokes a private sorrow, never fully shared; an interrupted dialogue between two generations that resumes through moving images. An intimate gesture that becomes universal.
Why a documentary on the Srebrenica genocide
Even before considering the public response, Hasanović highlights the transformative effect the film had on him personally. «It helped me grow and, by processing grief, it helped me to process grief».
«I came to understand that my initial resistance concealed a deep need to confront the traumas that continued to haunt me every night, even after I had left Bosnia to study in Rome».
«Almost every night, for eight long years, until the film was released».
Ado Hasanović is an Italian-Bosnian director born in 1986 in Srebrenica, now Bosnia and Herzegovina, and lives in Rome. He graduated in directing from the Sarajevo Film Academy and the Experimental Centre of Cinematography in Rome. Since 2015, he has been the artistic director of the festival “Passaggi d’Autore: Intrecci Mediterranei” in Sant’Antioco, Sardinia. In 2024 he founded the Silver Frame FF in Srebrenica. “My Father’s Diaries” is his first feature film.
Since the UN General Assembly proclaimed 11 July as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide in May 20241, talking openly about what happened has become «a little easier», Hasanović explains, «even though for years I avoided it. I felt belittled, judged. There were still those who denied it, or simply refused to see it».
But the film is not an act of denunciation. It is an introspective work that turns silence into words, nightmares into art, private pain into a collective and shared story. And it all starts with the decision not to place himself at the centre, but his father instead: a man who, in August 1993, at the height of the siege of Srebrenica, traded a gold coin for a video camera. Along with his friends from Djon, Ben & Boys, he used it to capture daily life during wartime.
Instead of filming death, he captured the dignity of a people trying to preserve their humanity in the deepest hell. This was no war reportage, and now, with the son as co-director, that gaze becomes essential.
A private archive as collective memory
By retrieving and reorganising his father’s footage, Hasanović manages to preserve its moving authenticity without turning it into a spectacle. The result is an internal narrative of the conflict, seen through the eyes and voice of those who lived it: ordinary people who left behind hours of footage, not to explain or judge, but to remember, so that history would not be told solely by external witnesses or “victors”.
«There has never been a screening where people did not weep», Hasanović says, recalling one of the most recent showings, in Trento during Estival2. From Italy to France, Germany to Bosnia, the film resonates deeply across borders. «At last – many people have told me – we are watching a film from Srebrenica, not about Srebrenica, one that speaks of Srebrenica from the inside».
His father’s film reels were a fragile legacy: powerful, but not easy to honour in a way that was both respectful of memory and impactful in the present. Hasanović succeeds by choosing to expose himself, without ever placing himself above the story. This is felt throughout the film and is what makes it truly unique. Every scene reflects the loving struggle of a son trying to understand his father through memory. The silences as heavy as stones, the unspoken words and family tensions: an intimate and familiar atmosphere permeates the film, making History feel closer and more human. What appears on screen is no longer “the story of Srebrenica”, but “the story of my father”, “the story of my family”, “a story that could be mine”. In this subtle yet profound identification, the film does not impose a message but generates awareness that cannot be manipulated.
And if that alone were an achievement, there is an element that makes it even more urgent: its contemporary relevance.
«When I started working on the film in 2021, I thought I was telling the story of the last war in Europe», Hasanović explains. «Then Ukraine war came and, while we were still editing, Gaza. That is when I asked myself: does this film still make sense?».
The answer was already in the film itself, which becomes an opportunity to feel the universal pain that war causes: «Those who have suffered can recognise the suffering of others, those who have walked through hell can identify its signs wherever they appear. The film is not only a historical document, but a cry of alarm, a bridge of empathy between all victims of war», Hasanović says. «A warning that reminds us history repeats itself because we refuse to listen to the voices of those who have already paid the highest price».
Shaping memory
Turning raw, intimate and emotionally charged material into a cinematic work that is both accessible and rigorous, without sensationalising a historical tragedy, requires a rare balance.For this reason, Hasanović emphasises, the film is the result of a collective effort: «It exists thanks to the trust of Carlo Degli Esposti and the production company Palomar3, but also to the professionalism and humanity of those who supported me».
Producer Antonio Badalamenti, editors Esmeralda Calabria, Desideria Rayner and Elisabetta Abrami, and screenwriters Armando Maria Trotta and Anna Zagaglia: the director mentions them all repeatedly, along with IOSONOUNCANE4, who composed the soundtrack, because «they are professionals who served a vision and worked with material that was difficult and emotionally intense, unafraid to enter a painful space, but always with respect. They helped me build a strong narrative structure that held everything together without forcing the meaning of the images or words», he says, describing in detail the long process of transforming his father’s footage and writings into a coherent, fluid piece.
He began by spending months immersed in his father’s footage. After selecting the material, he faced the real challenge: shaping a story that already existed into a compelling cinematic narrative. The greatest technical challenge lay precisely in this: creating a cinematic language that seamlessly blended his father’s archive footage with contemporary filming, without disrupting the memory.
«The key shift was deciding to narrate the entire film with my voice, using only my father’s written words. This created an impossible dialogue between past and present, between the one who is gone and the one left to carry the weight of memory».
«This self-imposed constraint demanded near-mathematical precision in editing and a musical sensitivity in weaving transitions between past and present. This was not simply editing a documentary, but inventing a new way of storytelling. A form of documentary that arises directly from its content».
This technical and cinematic choice forced Hasanović to confront personal dilemmas, such as whether or not to include the story of his father’s lover. «I was torn, but then one of the screenwriters told me: “She saved the diaries, and your mother preserved them. Together, these two women safeguarded your father’s memory and allowed you to hold it in your hands today”. Those words convinced me: it was a necessary story».
The film is, therefore, the result of a collaboration that is not only technical, but deeply human. Only by drawing on everyone’s skills and sensitivities was it possible to create a living film, where the present made space for the past without overshadowing it. And each time the film is screened, it continues to live – in those who watch it and in those who made it. «Every piece of feedback I receive makes me think and grow. It is a collective work that keeps evolving».
- UN establishes International Day of Reflection for the Srebrenica Genocide: https://www.un.org/en/observances/srebrenica-genocide-commemoration-day ↩︎
- Estival, a festival dedicated to the politics, society and culture of Central, Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Every year in Trento, thanks to Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso: https://www.balcanicaucaso.org/Estival-2025 ↩︎
- The reality of Palomar: https://palomaronline.com/ ↩︎
- IOSONOUNCANE is a Sardinian artist who, besides being a singer-songwriter, is also an artistic producer: https://www.iosonouncane.com/about-it/ ↩︎
