Shot Through the Heart is the dramatic story of two best friends, Vlado Sarinsky and Slavko Simic, who were teammates on a professional Yugoslavian shooting team. During the war in Sarajevo, Vlado, a Croat married to a Muslim, finds out the enemy sniper he is hunting down is his childhood Serbian friend, Slavko. Told through the story of Vlado and Slavko’s friendship, a human face is put on the ethnic civil war.

The $10-million production got its start when an agent called New York-based executive producer Francine LeFrak (Prison Stories: Women on the Inside) and suggested she read a story by John Falk published in Details magazine.

Falk had worked as a stringer in Sarajevo. While on assignment, he had been introduced to a number of soldiers who were ordered to eliminate the Serbian snipers firing on Sarajevo’s civilians. His article told the story of the two friends and the conflict they endured because of their cultural differences.

LeFrak says she was very excited when she read the story and took to it hbo. She told them she wouldn’t leave until they agreed to buy.

After the project was in development for about a year, Alliance Communications was approached.

Directed by David Attwood (Moll Flanders) from a script by Guy Hibbert (Saigon Baby), Shot Through the Heart was produced by Su Armstrong (Good Will Hunting) and executive produced by Robert Lantos, Francine LeFrak and David M. Thompson. The film stars Linus Roache (The Wings of the Dove) as Vlado, Vincent Perez (The Crow: City of Angels) as Slavko and Lia Williams (Firelight) as Maida.

Shot Through The Heart, a Canada/u.k./Hungary coproduction between Alliance Atlantis Communications, Company Pictures and Transatlantic Media Associates, aired on bbc and hbo. LeFrak says she had the opportunity to produce the film with a major American studio but decided to stay with hbo, ‘because with hbo the integrity of the story would be maintained.’

For LeFrak, working with Alliance was great: ‘They put the whole package together.’

The film was shot over 45 days in Sarajevo and Budapest in late ’97/early ’98 .

LeFrak is currently working on another project, based on a play by Graham Reid. It tells the story of a Catholic woman and a Protestant man who must overcome the objections of their children to their union.