Sandra Wollner’s ‘Everytime’ at Sarajevo: History Felt

Sandra Wollner is bringing her latest project, Everytime, to the Sarajevo Film Festival, and the director behind The Trouble With Being Born is soaking up every second of the atmosphere. For Wollner, this isn’t just another stop on the seemingly endless festival carousel - it’s a chance to connect with a city that carries its past in its streets.

“You can feel the history here,” Wollner said of Sarajevo, a sentiment that cuts deep for a filmmaker known for exploring the weight of memory and uneasy truths. The Austrian director’s presence at the festival adds a layer of intrigue to an event already buzzing with premieres and panel talks. While plot details for Everytime remain tightly under wraps, the buzz around the screening suggests Wollner is continuing her reputation for crafting stories that don't let audiences off the hook easily.

If you caught The Trouble With Being Born, you already know Wollner doesn't do light and fluffy. That 2020 sci-fi-tinged drama about a girl and her android father figure was a polarizing, provocative trip through identity, exploitation, and robotic companionship, earning comparisons to everything from A.I. to Michael Haneke’s more uncomfortable works. It won a special jury prize in Berlin and sparked plenty of heated arguments in its wake. So, when a new Wollner project rolls into a festival circuit, the film nerd crowd tends to perk up - and Sarajevo is no exception.

The choice of Sarajevo as a backdrop is smart programming, and not just for the pretty scenery. The festival has long carved a niche for itself as a meeting point for bold, challenging European cinema, a space where arthouse daredevils like Wollner feel right at home. In a landscape of safe sequels and franchise bait, a screening like Everytime feels like a breath of something stranger. And with Wollner present in person, the post-screening Q&A sessions are likely to be as gripping as the film itself - she’s known for being candid, unflinching, and occasionally a little wry when pressed about her intentions.

While official details on Everytime are still scarce - no runtime, no cast list beyond Wollner’s own involvement, no word on a wider release - the festival screening is a strong signal that the film is hunting for distribution deals. Sarajevo has a history of being a launchpad for titles that later dominate the awards conversation across Europe, and with Wollner’s track record, the chatter is already brewing.

The director’s quote about Sarajevo’s palpable history is more than just tourism-board material. For a filmmaker whose work revolves around primal, often uncomfortable questions about what we owe one another - and what we do when no one’s watching - the city’s scarred yet resilient character provides a fitting backdrop. The festival is a celebration of cinema, sure, but it’s also a living reminder that stories carry real weight. Wollner seems to get that.

Sarajevo’s mix of Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and modern scars can be overwhelming for first-timers, but for a storyteller like Wollner, it’s likely pure inspiration. Whether Everytime dives into similar thematic waters as her previous work or marks a sharp turn into new territory remains to be seen. But if her past output is anything to go by, audiences should expect something layered, uncomfortable, and impossible to shake off.

The festival circuit can be a blur of red carpets and polite applause, but every once in a while, a filmmaker arrives who makes you stop scrolling through your phone. Wollner is that director for many, and Everytime is currently the hot ticket that festival-goers are hoping to snag.

There’s no confirmed release date yet, and the cast remains a mystery, but the fact that Everytime is already making waves on the circuit speaks volumes. For fans of cerebral, challenging cinema, watching this project’s journey is half the fun. And with Wollner on the ground in Sarajevo, absorbing the city’s energy and history, there’s a sense that this film might be her most personal statement yet.

As the festival winds down and awards get handed out, the real winners are often the films that find their audience beyond the theater walls. Everytime is off to a promising start. If the whispers from Sarajevo are any indication, Sandra Wollner has done it again - crafted something that forces you to think, feel, and maybe squirm a little in your seat. That’s the kind of cinema that lingers long after the credits roll, and the kind of filmmaker MovieBuzz can’t stop watching.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter