Film Star's Death Highlights Plight of Bosnia's Roma

Bosnian Roma actor Nazif Mujic, who won a prestigious award at the Berlin Film Festival five years ago, will be buried on Wednesday - his death at the age of 48 coming after his cinematic success failed to prevent his return to poverty in his home country.

"All of a sudden, he is gone… I do not know what we will do without him, how his children will grow up without a father," Suljo Mujic, Nazif's brother, told BIRN.

Mujic died in the village of Svatovac near Tuzla in north-east Bosnia after being ill for several months.

The film in which he starred, 'An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker', won the Jury Grand Prix at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival and Mujic won the Silver Bear award for Best Actor; the film was directed by the Oscar-winning Bosnian film-maker Denis Tanovic.

In the film, members of a Mujic's family play themselves as they reenact a real crisis that shook their lives when the mother, Senada, had a miscarriage and needed urgent surgery, but the hospital refused to treat her because she had no health insurance. 

The father, played by Nazif, who makes his living as a scavenger selling scrap metal for small sums, as he did in real life, tries to raise the money to pay for her care.

The film highlighted the problems that Bosnia's Roma community face - problems that were all too real for Nazif Mujic too.

After receiving the award in Berlin, he had to return to scavenging for scrap metal to eke out a living.

In 2014, he sought asylum in Germany where he thought he could find a better chance of prosperity, but was turned down.

In January this year, he said he sold his Silver Bear trophy for a reported 4,000 euros because he could no longer afford to support his family.

He then travelled to Germany...

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