The Balkan Cowboy
2026

The Balkan Cowboy

Australian Premiere.

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.

Director

Dragana Jurišić

Runtime

93 Minutes

Country

Croatia, Ireland

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

Croatia & Ireland

Language

CroatianEnglish & 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

ArtBiographicalHistoryPolitics & War

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