Film: Grbavica

Grbavica is Strong film from Bosnia-Herzegovina about the post-war Balkan. Esma a widow and her daughter Sara live in today's Sarajevo, dealing with the daily difficulties of devastated Balkan life. Sara has inherited the identity of the daughter of a martyrs while Selma does not provide her with any proof of such an status. The society is clearly a mafia run society where intellectuals are at best bodyguards of the gangs. In such a violent and depressed society, where is the position of widow and her teenage daughter? In several layers, the movie presents the heavy side effects of the brutal Balkan war and the struggle of a new generation to get out of that shadow.

Grbavica is not a dark movie. It pictures hope and the struggle of human being for survival both physically and emotionally and also the importance of community work in such a wounded society. As Esma sings in one Bosnian folklore song "Desert can blossom if there is a vision of paradise."