Newsreel 242 – Sunny Railways

Newsreel 242 - Sunny Railways was part of IDFA program in 2023, and withdrawn by the filmmaker. Upon the request of the filmmaker, we publish the following text as received:

"This film was one of 12 to withdraw from participation at IDFA 2023, amongst 28 total withdrawals that included moderators, jury, and others in protest at the festival's damaging denunciation of an action in solidarity with Palestine that took place on the opening night of the festival. At the time, the festival erased all information relating to the films withdrawn in protest from the website. In response to the publication of the Palestine Film Institute's 'Industry Protocol in Times of Genocide' in August 2024, and as a gesture towards transparency, IDFA reinstated the information relating to the withdrawn films in September 2024. No further accountability has been taken.”  - The Palestine Film Institute on behalf of the filmmakers, for the full statement click here

In Yugoslavia in 1947, 211,000 of the country’s young people, joined by 5,735 from abroad, worked with great enthusiasm building the 242 kilometer railroad between Sarajevo and Šamac. A newsreel from the period shows them toiling away with spades, pickaxes and shovels to complete the job in just seven months. Newsreel 242—Sunny Railways is both a tribute to these idealistic young people and an elegy for the loss of hope for a better world.

“The visions of the future suffocated in the rivers of blood and mass graves,” we hear in voice-over, referring to the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia and to a broader context. The railroad, laid over the rubble of the Second World War, damaged during the Bosnian war, and neglected in the new millennium now looks like the ruins of some ancient civilization.

This documentary essay argues that the story of the railroad harbors enduring ideas for a world beyond capitalism, and that we must rediscover the values of times past.