Haris Pasovic

Haris Pašović – Life, Career, and Artistic Vision

Discover the life, work, and artistic legacy of Haris Pašović, the Bosnian theatre and film director whose bold productions and public interventions have shaped cultural life in Bosnia and beyond.

Introduction

Haris Pašović (born 16 July 1961) is a Bosnian theatre director, playwright, producer, and educator.

He currently leads the East West Theatre Company in Sarajevo, serves as a tenured professor of directing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo, and teaches in universities across the region and beyond.

This article traces his biography, major works, artistic approach, influence, and enduring contributions.

Early Life and Education

Haris Pašović was born in Sarajevo, then part of SR Bosnia and Herzegovina within socialist Yugoslavia.

From a young age, Pašović was drawn to theatre directing. He studied at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad under Professor Bora Drašković and supplemented his training through international programs such as a Fulbright Scholarship (in the U.S.) and director training via UNESCO and Festival d’Avignon initiatives.

These educational experiences gave him both local roots and global exposure, enabling him to work across cultural boundaries while maintaining a strong connection to Sarajevo.

Career & Milestones

Breakthrough Productions & Prewar Work

Pašović gained significant recognition in the late 1980s with his production of Wedekind’s Spring Awakening in Belgrade, a staging that came to be seen as a landmark in Yugoslav theatre. Calling the Birds (based on Aristophanes’ The Birds) in that period, further establishing his reputation for bold reinterpretation and crossing theatrical boundaries.

Other notable early works included Waiting for Godot in Belgrade, and Ubu Roi in Subotica.

Wartime Sarajevo & Cultural Resistance

When the Bosnian War and siege of Sarajevo began in the early 1990s, Pašović stayed in Sarajevo and continued orchestrating theatrical life under dire conditions.

He managed the MES International Theatre Festival during the siege, directed plays under fire, and in 1993 helped organize the first Sarajevo Film Festival under the theme “Beyond the End of the World.” Silk Drums and In the Country of Last Things) even while the city was besieged.

One ambitious postwar project was staging Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in 2002 in front of the Parliament building in Sarajevo, setting Muslim/Christian identities into sharp relief and transforming a political space into theatrical space.

Later Works & Spectacles

In 2005, Pašović founded the East West Theatre Company in Sarajevo, giving him a stable institutional base for experimentation and cross-border collaboration.

Some of his more celebrated productions include:

• Class Enemy (adapted from Nigel Williams) — which has toured internationally (Edinburgh, Singapore, etc.) and earned awards.

• Hamlet (reimagined with Muslim identity in a corrupted state) — a major regional co-production.

• Faust (2006) — combining classical themes with reflections on artificial intelligence, ethics, and future society.

• Football, Football (2010) — a massive international dance/theatre project involving artists from multiple continents, exploring the global language of sport and human movement.

• Europe Today (2011) — based on Miroslav Krleža’s writings with cross-regional collaboration.

• Sarajevo Red Line (2012) — a public installation and memorial combining visual art (11,541 red chairs for siege victims), concert, and street performance commemorating the victims of the siege.

• A Century of Peace After the Century of the Wars (2014) — staged on the Latin Bridge in Sarajevo (site of Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination), with music, projections, massive cast, multimedia staging.

• The Conquest of Happiness (2013) — a spectacle inspired by Bertrand Russell, premiered at Derry’s City of Culture and in Sarajevo.

He has also created documentaries, such as Greta (the story of Greta Ferušić, Auschwitz and siege survivor), and works addressing war, memory, reconciliation, and cultural identity.

Pašović also writes essays and plays, contributes thought leadership on nationalism, culture, and social issues, and gives workshops internationally.

Artistic Vision & Themes

Theatre as Public Space & Political Act

Pašović’s work often blurs the boundaries between theatre and public life. His spectacles in public spaces (e.g. Romeo & Juliet in front of parliament, Red Line in streets) reflect his belief that theatre can intervene in civic memory and politics.

He sees culture as a tool of resistance and identity — especially in contexts emerging from trauma. During war, he used theatre to affirm life, defy siege logic, and generate symbolic acts of resilience.

Multidisciplinarity & Multimedia

Pašović mixes theatrical performance with dance, music, video, projections, architecture, large casts, and technology. His productions are visually ambitious and often immersive.

He also adapts texts from classic, modern, and local sources, sometimes combining them, localizing them, or reframing them in new cultural contexts. His Class Enemy, Faust, Hamlet, Europe Today works reflect this hybridity.

Memory, War, Reconciliation & Identity

Much of his output is concerned with the legacy of Yugoslavia, the war in Bosnia, collective memory, and the tensions of rebuilding. He often engages explicitly with trauma — through monuments, memorial theatre, documentary, and collective witness.

Pašović also grapples with nationalism, multiculturalism, and the fragility of shared cultural space. In interviews he reflects nostalgically on Yugoslavia’s pluralism while criticizing the fragmentation wrought by war and politics.

Education & Generativity

As a professor of directing in Sarajevo and teacher abroad (e.g., IEDC-Bled School of Management, universities in Slovenia, Serbia) he invests in future generations of theatre and film practitioners.

His influence is seen in students who themselves have become prominent, including filmmakers from Bosnia and the region.

Legacy & Impact

• Cultural anchoring in Sarajevo: Through war and postwar periods, Pašović has remained rooted in Sarajevo even while working internationally.

• Theatre as civic memory: His public memorial works (notably Sarajevo Red Line) have generated international media attention and have become symbolic acts of remembrance.

• Cross-border artistic dialogue: Pašović has directed in multiple countries, connecting Balkan theatre to global trends, and bringing international gaze to Bosnian culture.

• Educational influence: As a leading professor and mentor, his ideas and techniques have shaped a generation of theatre practitioners in Bosnia, the Balkans, and beyond.

• Courageous cultural voice: He has remained outspoken on political and social issues—nationalism, memory, identity, democracy—which gives his art an engaged dimension.

Though not as widely quoted as literary figures, Pašović is occasionally cited in interviews or essays. For example, he has reflected:

“Yugoslavia was my country. It was a concept of the world in which I was born and raised … that common cultural space was so powerful that even today … that space still exists.”

He also speaks of Sarajevo’s multicultural roots and the tragedy of its fragmentation.

His work continues to provoke, commemorate, and imagine through theatre.