When Chris Leslie revisited Sarajevo to document the 20th anniversary of the peace accord, he accidentally uncovered the story of two relationships that crossed bitter national divides in this war-scarred city. I t was a typical Saturday evening in downtown Sarajevo: in the Underground nightclub, a local heavy-metal band was about to hit the stage.
It was my fourth day in the city, and I had expected this day in particular to be a bit special: exactly two decades ago, the Dayton Peace agreement had been signed. It signalled the end of nearly four years of brutal war between Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks Bosnian Muslims , and the end of the siege of Sarajevo β the longest siege in modern-day history. Twenty years to the day, and it seemed there was nothing for me to photograph. There was certainly no anniversary event at the nightclub that evening.
The young people drank, smoked and partied on regardless β perhaps unaware of the year anniversary, or just too busy with Saturday night to care. I scanned the crowd looking for some ambient light and interesting faces. The one image I saw was of a woman and her boyfriend, about to kiss. Two weeks later, Guardian Cities published the image as part of a photoessay of my project. She began the email saying:. I have had people from all over contacting me saying I am on the Guardian website.
It was amazing to me that you took that photograph of us because it fits perfectly with this article β as my boyfriend is Serb and I am Bosnian. Nationalism is still very much the norm here: tensions and divisions remain, and to cling on to power, most politicians and their media allies promote increasingly nationalist agendas. Separate education systems work to replicate the divisions, and each side enforces its own historical perspectives and political ideologies. There seems to be almost no scope for integration.
Young people such as Lejna and Damir are the rare exception, challenging the consensus that even two decades after the war, the nationality of your boyfriend or girlfriend is important. Ivona and her family were living there as refugees after fleeing Sarajevo, while Elvir ended up being stationed there as a soldier. It was a time of intense combat between both sides, and their relationship was frowned upon by everyone. Within a few weeks they decided to move back to Sarajevo, breaking into the city through a secret tunnel that ran under the airport to avoid the frontline checkpoints.
