Radio Sarajevo

A youth between blue helmets and Bon Jovi. Tijan Sila tells his story raw, vulnerable, and unfiltered. Brutally honest, he describes life and survival in besieged Sarajevo.

This is the story of my childhood and my war. When the war begins in April 1992, Tijan Sila is only ten years old, yet to this day he can remember the smell of detonated explosives. As Sarajevo burns, the boy he once was transforms into a young man. He wanders through the ruins of the bombed city, collecting items left behind by those who fled or died, to trade them on the black market for food. He learns to survive and accepts the cruel new normal, but at what cost?
His story is one of the unexpected. It tells how poets become murderers and murderers become heroes. It speaks of people whose humanity was abruptly taken away and of the splinters that war leaves in the minds of every survivor.