I defy anyone to emerge from this dual-film about the siege of Sarajevo created by Balkan artists Sejla Klameric and Anri Sala without humming Tchaikovsky's sixth symphony – Pathetique.

The music, performed by the Sarajevo Symphony Orchestra, is the soundtrack to this visually arresting work about life in ‘Sniper Alley’ that conveys the extreme tension of living in a city where you might get shot at just going out to buy a loaf of bread.

The ‘without red’ part of the title refers to the instructions given to people by the government not to wear bright colours so they didn’t become targets for snipers. 1395 is the number of days the siege lasted between 1992 and 1996.

There are no gun-shots in the first part that follows Spanish actress Maribel Verdu as she attempts to go about her daily business with fear and anxiety etched into her eyes and hollowed out cheekbones. Instead you have the visual evidence; the bullet pock-marked walls, the broken glass.

In the second part, where you see the same action from different camera angles, you do hear a couple of shots but you don’t see any dead bodies. Yet you glean from the characters’ strained expressions that they are a familiar sight.

Crossing the road is a traumatic event, with crowds gathering at one side silently willing one of their number to step into the snipers’ firing range.

Eventually, a middle aged woman dashes across followed by others, including an old woman who cannot run.

You wonder how many elderly people were shot down during those horrific years just because they couldn’t run across the road fast enough.

There is no dialogue save for a couple of orchestral instructions from the conductor. No utterances from the lead actress, just heavy breathing after she sprints across a road – into emptiness. And the noise of her humming Tchaikovsky as she tries to cancel out the horror of one of the ugliest episodes in history with one of the most beautiful pieces of classical music ever written.

Go and see this if you are interested in art and film and the current war crimes trial taking place in the Hague of former Serbian war lord Ratko Mladic. Mladic is accused of ordering the deaths of thousands of civilians during the siege, one of the worst atrocities of the war and the longest siege of a capital city in modern warfare.

Don’t go and see it if you can’t bear the thought of watching a film without dialogue. I suspect this was the reason several people walked out while I was there.

» Until July 17. Mon–Sat, 10am – 11pm, Sun 12pm – 5.30pm. Admission is free.

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