Inn a State of Siege

Inn a State of Siege tells the remarkable true story of Mustafa, Ismet, and Faruk-three ordinary men who worked at the legendary Holiday Inn hotel in Sarajevo during the city’s brutal siege from 1992 to 1995, the longest siege of a capital in modern history. The battered hotel remained open and became a base for foreign journalists reporting on the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It stood perilously exposed on the notorious “Sniper Alley”, the main boulevard where Bosnian Serb gunmen targeted anything that moved. Amid daily shelling and constant danger, chef Mustafa, waiter Faruk, and driver Ismet risked their lives to keep the hotel running, sustaining not only a hotel but also those around them. Thirty years later, this story explores how survival under siege shaped them, their sons, and the generations of Bosnians who inherited both the trauma and resilience of war.