The Tunnel Underneath Sarajevo Airport [30min]

Throughout the Bosnian War a vital link -- a tunnel underneath Sarajevo Airport -- kept hope alive for the 400,000 besieged inhabitants of the city. This documentary tells the story of the tunnel which became a secret lifeline for the besieged city, hearing from those who built it, used it and now remember it. By early 1993, when the Bosnian military gave the order to dig the tunnel, food and fuel had all but run out and the only way in or out of the city was across the UN-controlled airport runway - fully exposed to Serb snipers. Most important of all, the tunnel became a way of bypassing the arms embargo on Bosnia, bringing in weapons for the city's fighters. Those who made the journey included doctors, the Sarajevo Football Club, politicians and black marketeers. This is history from the bottom up - told mainly through the voices and personal experiences of those involved: the men who dug the tunnel; Edis Kolar, whose home was transformed into a secret thoroughfare to keep Sarajevo alive; former Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic on the political significance of the tunnel; and interpreter Zahida Milasevic on what the tunnel meant for housewives in Sarajevo, trying to run households deprived of the bare essentials. Most of the tunnel has now collapsed. But listeners are taken into some 20 metres of what remains of it. This has been transformed into a museum, run by the Kolar family who risked their lives to keep open Sarajevo's wartime lifeline.