Under the auspices of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in 2023 the Sarajevo Film Festival presents its fifteenth consecutive Human Rights Day programme.
On Monday, 14 August, a screening of Tea Vidovic Dalipi’s SNAJKA: DIARY OF EXPECTATIONS at Cineplexx Sarajevo is followed by a panel discussion of “Navigating Expectations: The Road to Understanding Discrimination and Cultural Differences”, moderated by journalist and director Robert Zuber.
„It is never easy to be a daughter-in-law, although many married women do have wonderful relationships with their husband’s mothers. But, sometimes it happens that two people in love bring together families of different customs and traditions, and this is when tolerance, mutual respect, and patience become of crucial importance to the loving couple. Such is the case documented by Tea Vidovic Dalipi in SNAJKA: DIARY OF EXPECTATIONS, in which the director herself is a main subject, along with her husband Mirsad and their daughter Frida. Or, as she puts it, we watch “an attempt at a shared life under pressure from our families and compromises we both are willing to accept.” What this couple unite in marriage is two very different, almost irreconcilable, social classes and cultures, which is why they have the thankless task of balancing their “primary family luggage” – the heritage of their forefathers that clings to them – as they travel between Croatia and Kosovo. Amid all that, Tea, Mirsad, and Frida sometimes become observers of the incompatible cultural demands of their families, who are at odds with each other and refuse to look for compromise, a way to co-exist. But, Tea and Mirsad are very much willing to shield their private life to avoid, as much as possible, both traditional stereotypes and something akin to cultural racism. Will they succeed? It is impossible to tell. But one thing is certain, neither Tea nor Mirsad will easily give up on their core family of three“, said Robert Zuber.
SNAJKA: DIARY OF EXPECTATIONS
Croatia, Italy, Kosovo, 2023, 75 min.
Director: Tea Vidović Dalipi
We enter every relationship burdened by identities bequeathed by our primary families, be they economic, social, or religious. Love, marriage, and parenthood between Tea, a Croatian woman, and Mirsad, a Roma man, seems in a sense to be mission impossible, because their daily life will be scrutinised by their respective families’ wholly different customs and value systems. Burdened by rigorous tradition on the one hand and economic pressure on the other, the couple will expose themselves to the possibility of their loved ones’ failed expectations, at risk of jeopardising their own relationship and a better future for themselves and their newborn daughter Frida.
The 29th Sarajevo Film Festival will take place from 11th to 18th of August 2023.
