As a child, visual artist, academic and filmmaker Dragana Jurišić adored Westerns, both American and from the mysterious former-Yugoslavian have-a-go hero, Hari Džekson. But who was Hari really? Jurišić’s kookily charming, if occasionally chilling, Sarajevo Film Festival competition documentary attempts to fill in the blanks blurred by war crimes.
2026
The Balkan Cowboy
2026
The Balkan Cowboy
Australian Premiere.
Director
Dragana Jurišić
Runtime
93 Minutes
Country
Ireland, Croatia
Classification
Unclassified 15+
They say history is written by the victors, but some stories have a life of their own, refusing to die in the darkness that follows cataclysmic war. So it is with Hari Džekson, the photographer who worshipped the American Western, especially George Stevens’ Alan Ladd-led Shane. A folk figure of near-mythic proportions, his homespun entries into the genre are a source of fascination for fellow photographer-turned-filmmaker Dragana Jurišić. The Dublin-based artist and academic’s family shares a connection to the elusive Džekson that predates the violent dissolution of Yugoslavia and the murderous waves of ethnic cleansing that followed, for which so few have been held accountable. As she’s drawn back to a land that no longer exists, simultaneously troubled by the worrying rise of nationalist xenophobia in Ireland, Jurišić sets out to shoot a Western of her own using locals from across the splintered Balkan divides. It’s through these big-hearted auditions that some small semblance of the truth is uncovered in Jurišić’s form-expanding wonder that rode into competition at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
“A quirky portrait of an offbeat filmmaker is blended with considerations of the Yugoslav Wars, and the ongoing global threat of divisive nationalism, in a debut documentary that is warm and poignant.”
Screen International
“Dynamic … The Balkan Cowboy leaves viewers with a flavour of Yugoslav history and on a hopeful note.”
Cineuropa
“Playful, offbeat and moving …The Balkan Cowboy is an enjoyably quirky deep dive into the faded celluloid of half-remembered history, peppered with charming musical interludes and framed with the keen eye of a visual artist.”
The Film Verdict
“Every aspect of The Balkan Cowboy emphasises precisely what made Džekson such an enigmatic but beloved figure. Simultaneously affectionate and outrageously funny.”
International Cinephile Society
Sarajevo
Film Credits
Director
Dragana Jurišić
Year
2026
Country
Ireland & Croatia
Language
Croatian, English & Serbian
Subtitles
English
Type
Feature Documentary
Program Strand
Feature Documentary Competition
Producer
Zlata Filipovic & Anna Rodgers
Cinematographer
Eleanor Bowman
Editor
Paul Mullen
Music
Michael Fleming
Film Source
Invisible Thread Films
Genre
Art, Biographical, History, Politics & War
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