People in B&H and in the former Yugoslavia have a talent for telling stories and they are very passionate about it. I think that there is more potential here than young people are able to realize. Young people are trying to realize their potential, but the resources are lacking, announced the well-known director Jasmila Žbanić during the ‘Coffee With…’ program of the SSF yesterday.
Speaking on her new projects, Žbanić said that she found herself in a very unusual situation. While she filmed her new movie ‘Otok Ljubavi’ in Poreč, she found out about the film by Australian director Kim Werkle shown in Sydney on the crimes committed against women in Višegrad during the war in B&H, and she immediately came into contact with the Australian artist, who was in B&H as a tourist several years ago and during her stay in Višegrad she found out about the mass rape of women in this region. She compelled her to make a theatre piece in Sydney. Jasmila and Kim travelled to Višegrad and filmed the movie “For Those Who Can Tell No Lies” on the testimonies of the war crimes in Višegrad.
Žbanić said that the motive for showing the movie was the 20 year anniversary of the start of the war in B&H last year, and added that the sole purpose was to acquaint young people with the recent history and to not be engaged in history again.
About her still unfinished film ‘Otok Ljubavi’, Žbanić said that this is her first nonpolitical film and that it is a love story that stands out from her other work.
Speaking on her earlier films, Žbanić said that she filmed her second movie ‘Na Putu’ as an atheist and a feminist, and was intrigued by the motives that attract young people to the conservative and radical Wahhabi movement. What is especially interesting is that these young people grow up in modest surroundings in which they have the opportunity to become familiar with the Western style of life, but instead turn to radicalism.
On her celebrated film ‘Grbavica’, Žbanić said that she wished to do a story about the personal fate of women from the shocking number of 20.000 that were raped during the war in B&H.
