Kiss the Future
Published June 28, 2025
Film info
- Title Kiss the Future
- Director Nenad Cicin-Sain
- Year 2023
- Run time 1hr 43m
- Genre Documentary
- Tagline An inspiring story of resilience, humanity, and the unifying power of music
An exploration of the perils of nationalism and art’s role as a weapon of resistance and activism throughout the 1990s Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War. Explore how art and music sustained hope, thanks in part to humanitarians and the band U2.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 2:17 | Actual Bill Clinton. |
| 2:57 | “Sometimes the more absurd the lie is, the more effective it is.” |
| 9:10 | The courage of journalists to go into a war zone like that. |
| 10:55 | Culture continues to save humanity. |
| 13:26 | They gaffa taped a drumstick to him! |
| 16:44 | Adam looks different. |
| 26:51 | The tower they are based in doesn’t seem very stable. |
| 30:11 | Underground disco is amazing. |
| 33:44 | “I thought their lyrics and their passion were always trying to do something good.” |
| 41:55 | His question is why don’t we learn from history, in the 90s. The cycle’s still going, dude. |
| 47:31 | I love that Bono is just ‘see a thing, do a thing’ and the rest of the band are like ‘sorry, what now?’ |
| 55:12 | “Thanks U2 for the big window you give us.” Oh man. |
| 1:11:19 | Just FIVE days? Fuck’s sake. |
| 1:24:23 | I don’t question the sentiment but from the choir to hard rock is a shift. |
| 1:31:22 | “That’s why the war was pointless, it never made sense. And here we are. Together again.” |
Thoughts
We’ve been waiting for this film for a long time and finally discovered it available for a watch. It’s not an area of history I know a lot about - although Tony Robinson’s Forgotten Wars series gave me some good background. This was a great documentary, well pieced together and focusing on the civilians on the ground, showing how culture and specifically music helped them keep going and stay sane.
Obviously there’s the U2 element to this, but I think it was actually pretty respectfully done - Bono told the story without bigging it up too much and they were frank about the fact the Zoo TV bit didn’t really have the imapct they wanted. I so love the Edge, every time we see something like this and he has this wonderful long-suffering air of ‘Bono said this and I had to reign him in’. Adorable.
It was a really good documentary, moving but somewhat hopeful… right until the end. They’re absolutely right to point out that this kind of thing is still going on, nothing changes, and we need to continue to intervene. But that left me so depressed. You can keep trying but it just keeps happening because of all those suited men and their hideous egos. Sigh.
Rating: 4 / 5
