Mostar Round-Trip

The son left for two years to attend an international high school. It is precisely then that the bond deepens between him and his father, the film’s director. 

David, the director, sets out to visit his 17-year-old son, Yuval, a year after Yuval left home to attend an international high school in Mostar, Bosnia—shortly after the end of the brutal Balkan civil war. Part of the city’s rehabilitation includes the establishment of this international school.

The director observes his son, his son’s friends, and the conflicted city to which Yuval chose to distance himself. The students and teachers all hail from different countries and diverse cultural backgrounds, yet their common ground proves far greater.

Throughout the journey to Mostar and back, the film unfolds the relationships between Yuval and his father, between Yuval and his Israeli peers alongside him, and between Yuval and his Spanish partner, Naus. All this against the backdrop of complex coexistence among Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs—ethnic groups that remain locked in tension despite the civil war officially ending in 1995.

Yuval shares his college room with Salam, an Arab-Israeli from the Galilean village of Arraba. Overflowing with charm, Salam wins the hearts of everyone, including the female students. Yuval and Salam are close friends who discuss everything, including their contrasting worldviews.

Despite the distance from home, the separation brings father and son closer through a series of conversations about their relationship and the broader situation. David’s three visits to Mostar reveal Yuval’s honesty, maturity, and openness. Home video footage from Yuval's childhood accompanies the emerging mature relationship between father and son, bringing a smile alongside moments where Yuval does not spare critique: "Building intimacy through the camera is very frustrating and hard... even though I’ve been used to it from a young age," he tells his director father.

The film made its world premiere at the Jerusalem Film Festival, and subsequently screened at the Montreal World Film Festival in Canada, as well as film festivals across Germany, Austria, Australia, Serbia and beyond.

For long stretches of the film, family roles unconsciously swap: it is the son who accompanies his father along a sober path to 'growing up'—leaving the dugout of fatherhood for an open field where he holds no advantage over his maturing son. A valuable lesson in active parenting.

Meir Schnitzer, Ma'ariv

"The film’s uniqueness lies in how Fisher observes not only his maturing son and their deepening bond, but also the very way the documentary takes shape, builds, and crystallizes, until reaching its final form as Yuval returns to Israel to enlist in the military. Don’t miss it.

Yehuda Stav, film critic

Fisher excels at finding the drama. And when it surfaces and clears in his film, Mostar succeeds in exposing people and worlds that are deeply moving to encounter.

Yair Raveh, film critic

A captivating and deeply personal documentary

Matan Shiram, Globes

Yuval and Neus

View from Yuval's class