If you didn’t know this 2016 film was a documentary, it’d be easy to read its synopsis and come away expecting a satire like M*A*S*H or This Is Spinal Tap. In December 1994, Iron Maiden front man Bruce Dickinson and the backing band for his solo project performed in Sarajevo, which was largely cut off from the outside world by the Bosnian Serb military—their siege of the city would ultimately last 1,425 days and cause tens of thousands of casualties. Dickinson and his band came knowing that Sarajevo was in peril, but it wasn’t until they arrived that they really grasped the severity of the situation—or that rock-star status wouldn’t protect them from snipers. Though the concert (and the musicians’ life-altering journey to play it) was the catalyst for the film, it provides a portal into a broader and even more compelling story—about the fans who endured the siege, and who’d cultivated a thriving underground arts community in Sarajevo despite constant danger, grief, and loss.


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Babygirl’s unforgiving look at desire comes just in time for the holidays.

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Los Frikis is a vibrant exploration of punk and resistance in 90s Cuba.

Review: Nosferatu

While it sometimes struggles under the weight of its predecessors, Nosferatu is made deep and sinister by its actors.

Review: The Brutalist

The Brutalist is a massive American epic that damns the ground we stand on.

Jamie Ludwig (she/her) joined the Chicago Reader in 2017.

She is the associate editor and branded content specialist at the Reader.

Ludwig lives in Chicago. She speaks English and can be reached at jludwig@chicagoreader.com.