SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) – Robert De Niro opened the 22nd Sarajevo Film Festival on Friday, presented Martin Scorsese’s restored “Taxi Driver” and received the festival’s first lifetime achievement award – The Heart of Sarajevo.
De Niro starred in the 1976 film in the role of Travis Bickle, a mentally disturbed Vietnam war veteran.
Over nine days, some 100,000 expected guests will watch 223 movies from 61 countries in nearly a dozen locations in the city. At the end, winners will be announced in seven categories.
“I will treasure this award – my Heart of Sarajevo – because I don’t think there is another city in the world that has shown such heart in the face of so much tragedy,” De Niro said at the ceremony.
The festival was born in a sandbag-protected basement during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war when a few enthusiasts organized screenings of whatever movie they could get in order to offer some sense of normalcy to the besieged city. Sarajevans braved snipers and mortars to come watch, often paying for tickets with cigarettes.