Sarajevo, September 30, 1993

“Sitting outside a small bar in the center, Edoardo were waiting for a coffee.

The city's truce is holding. From their positions, the Bosnian Serbs are not firing. In the rest of the country, former Croatian and Muslim allies are fighting bitterly. East Mostar is on its knees, besieged by soldiers praying to Medjugorje. Pocitelj, which overlooks the Neretva, is razed to the ground.

The day before yesterday, the Muslim Bošnjacki Sabor rejected a proposal for an international ceasefire based on the ethnic partition of the country, and today the official parliament ratified the decision.

The coffee arrives just as there is a chilling hiss above us, followed by an explosion. I take the cameras and run to where the grenade fell (...) The road is deserted. There is no photo.

Another explosion, but further away. I see something moving. A girl runs towards me. I snap and curse that I have not set the camera to continuous shooting, as she passes, ignoring me.

I shoot again, but I have the gaze of the running girl in my head. She was angry, not afraid. Now there is silence, and I think that maybe I took a good shot.

I go back to the bar. The cups full of coffee are still on the table. I take them and enter the bar. A gesture to say that the danger has passed. But my hands start shaking and the coffee spills out. Everyone laughs. At least it served this purpose.”

The photo is taken from a scene of the film “Venuto al mondo” (2012) by Sergio Castellitto, based on the novel by Margaret Mazzantini (Campiello prize 2008).

It was chosen as the cover by Chiara Ingrao for her book “The rest is silence” and by Tullio Bugari for "The running girl".

Dimensions 30x40 cm.

fondazionepintor.net/esteri/sarajevo/fotoBoccia