petarmatic Whenever I watch film connected to Sarajevo I am touched to the bottom of my soul.So much was said about this film, that I do not have anything much to add except if you like films on ex Yugoslav theme this is a must see.Jasmila Zbanic always wanted to be a film director, and when you have a talent like she has it has to happen. I know the war stopped her for some years to become a successful film director, but she survived the war and she made it. Many Sarajevans can not say the same, dead mouth do not speak. On that theme watch other film made by Zbanic For those who can not tell the tales.Jasmila since we are the same generation growing up in a relatively small city like Sarajevo is, we knew all about each other. I also wanted to be a successful film director, may be I would of, if I did not like the other kind of films you do not like. You know those when actors have no clothes on while acting ;) May be the words you uttered: Petar Matic can not be a film director because he likes porn! condemned me for ever. Since that damnation happened all was bad for me, I would never have a real chance in life, not to say film directing was lost for me for ever. I know I did some semi professional work but that was really not good. I would give myself 1 out of 10 for those pitiful film directing I tried. You simply have to have training in the best film schools in order to make it. I never got to it. I thought there was time. Time expired for me.

Ege Hazar Gursoy this movie with a single word, is outstanding. While watching the movie you can actually hear your heart's voice of break. there is no unbearable war scene in the movie yet it shows you with all clearness of the horrible and though consequences of the war.the movie is telling a story of a single mother that is a survivor of the war and her newly teenage daughter. The mother is living for her daughter. The mother Esma has a secret that comes out at the end of the movie and that scene crashes you. the scene in which a group of war survivor women sit together and one of them sings a chant, is undeniably one of the best in the movie.

mangorytm1 Almost every scene depicting the life of Esma and her 12- year old daughter, Sara carefully shows human emotions. Grbavica is an intensely gripping drama about discovering the truth. The story is set in former Yugoslavia; Zbanic doesn't simplify post-Balkan war Sarajevo. The landscape is marked by war; Sara and her boyfriend spend their time in demolished and abandoned buildings. War trauma intertwines with everyday life. Esma and a bodyguard she befriends, discover they have met at exhumations, and both share the experience of loosing their loved ones. Esma works the night shift as a waitress in a night club run by a gangster, she is intent on giving her daughter what she can. It's clear that she is struggling to earn money for her daughters' school trip, but I wasn't so sure about the idea that a woman with such a past would work in the specific environment of gangsters and prostitutes. Since Esma doesn't confront her problems the chasm between mother and daughter widens. The government ensures psychotherapy and welfare for women imprisoned Chetniks. I found the therapy scenes lacked psychological probability; it's hard to believe in sessions with such a number of women, and a seemingly incompetent and slightly short on empathy psychologist. Esma comes to terms with her own past, not because of the meeting, but thanks to Sara. When finally, she reveals the long concealed truth. When Sara discovers she is not the child of a war hero, she loses her illusions, but gains inner strength. Luna Mijowic was moving in her portrayal of Sara, a child at the threshold of becoming an adult.

aiculik Before yesterday, I didn't know ANYTHING about Bosnian actors or directors. I only went to see it because of Leon Lucev - I know him from Sta je muskarac bez brkova. Well, I discovered Jasmila Zbanic, Mirjana Karanovic, Luna Mijovic yesterday. Both actresses were brilliant. The director managed to show normal life of Sarajevo, it was so easy to identify with Esma and Sara's problems, even for people who never had such traumatic experience.That's why the ending was even more shocking. I had tears in my eyes (and that happens very rarely, I'm not sentimental at all) - and when I secretly looked around, I saw all the others have tears in their eyes, too.One little off-topic comment: I saw here comment that Esma shouldn't swear to Tito in the film, because she was too young when Tito died, and her generation didn't feel Titoism so strong. I was only 3 when Tito died. But even 8 years AFTER he died, we (in Croatia) still had to sing "Comrade Tito, we swear to you not to turn off your path" and "Comrade Tito, white violet, all young people love you. Young and old love you, you are our pride and our hope" - we had to sing it on all school events on holidays.