Grbavica, 2006

Grbavica, 2006
Director: Jasmila Zbalić
Cast: Mirjana Karanović, Luna Mijović





Grbavica in short: A woman and her daughter struggle to make their way through the aftermath of the Balkan war.

Stage: home theatre

Preps: A pure recommendation of a friend visiting + my natural curiosity about the topic of balcan wars. The best ones about this were No man's land, The hunting party, Lepa sela lepo gore, etc. Some of them already famous at some festivals, all implying anger, rage, sadness about the balcan situation.


Reality: Sad, truthful movie about the war orphan (so to speak). The mother was raped in the concentration camp during war and the child is the consequence. Doesn't know it but becomes fully aware of it at her age 14, when she digs into her father's past. The mother doesn't want to tell it but after all she cracks and admits everything in a truly dramatic scene, and beats hell out of her daughter while telling her the truth she must face.

It is a known story, responding to all war crimes that were made on balcan region during the war and absolutely a necessaty not to forget what some people needed to face. The depicted problem is one of those that wasn't properly addressed when it happened. Thousands of women were raped in order to have children that weren't bosnians, but serbians or croats (depending on the camp you were hosteged in and the keepers of the camp). And thousands of babies were born out of this, labeled at school and society and had to live with the idea that their fathers weren't war heroes, but war criminals. I don't know how one copes with this

A must see not to forget how rude, naked and disgusting these acts might get.

My personal rate: 8,5 / it will touch your heart, but I truly believe the people of balcan if they were a part of war, cry if they see such things. Because I don't think they can forget or forgive.


Official website