Bosnian producer Damir Ibrahimović, who is best known as the producer of Jasmila Žbanić’s 2020 Oscar-nominated Srebrenica drama Quo Vadis, Aida?, died October 9 in Sarajevo. He was 60.

The producer, was born on 18 July 1965 in Sarajevo, was regarded as a driving force in Bosnian Herzegovinian cinema as a co-founder of production company Deblokada, with life partner and long-time creative collaborator Žbanić.

Ibrahimović, who was an economist by training and profession, met then film school student Žbanić in a bomb shelter during the 1992 to 1996 Siege of Sarajevo.

When the conflict ended, they set up their neighborhood’s first post-war video store and used the proceeds to make short films, launching Deblokada in 1998.

Their early films were devoted to processing the human impact of the 1992 to 1995 Bosnian War. Short credits include Red Rubber Boots, about a woman trying to find the remains of her two children who were killed and buried in a mass grave.

Žbanić credited Ibrahimović with being her quiet support on all her films, who shunned the limelight, with the pair collaborating closely on every aspect of development and production.

They first made waves internationally with Žbanić’s Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams about the legacy of rape of women during the Bosnian war, told through the prism of mother and daughter navigating the aftermath of the conflict.

It won the Berlinale Golden Bear winner Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams in 2006 and was also Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Oscars submission in 2007.

Their best-known film Quo Vadis, Aida? revisits drama revisits the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995, in which more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys sheltering in a United Nations (UN) safe zone were killed by Bosnian Serb forces.

Jasna Djuricic stars as a local schoolteacher working as an interpreter for the UN’s Dutch peacekeepers, who tries desperately to secure the safety of her husband and two young adult sons.

The film premiered in Venice in Competition in 2020 and was one of the buzziest titles in the running for Best International Feature Film in the 93rd Academy Awards in 2021, reaching the nomination stage.

It also won Best European Film, Director and Actress in the 2021 European Film Awards.

The Srebrenica Memorial Center – set up in memory of the victims of the massacre – paid tribute to Ibrahimović for his role in bringing the story of Srebrenica to the big screen.

“Damir will be remembered above all for his work on Quo Vadis, Aida?, a film that gave voice to the truth of the Srebrenica genocide and honoured the memory of its victims with dignity and courage. His belief that the film’s BiH premiere should be held at the Srebrenica Memorial was a profound gesture. Thank you for that,” the body said in a statement posted on Instagram.

“His productions consistently explored how war lingers in people’s lives, and how storytelling can become a form of healing…Thank you, Damir, for ensuring that through film, the story of Srebrenica, and of those who still carry its pain, will never be forgotten.”

Ibrahimović’s subsequent producer credits included the award-winning TV series I Know Your Soul, on which he took a co-creator credit; Mirjana Karanovic’s Mother Mara and Žbanić’s Blum: Masters of Their Own Destiny, which is Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Oscar entry for the 98th Academy Awards.