Grbavica (2006)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Esma	Mirjana Karanovic	½
Sara	Luna Mijovic	½
Pelda	Leon Lucey
Samir	Kenan Catic
Sabina	Jasna Beri
Cenga	Dejan Acimovic

Review

This is a wonderfully balanced film from Bosnian filmmaker Jasmila Zbanic about the horrors of war, seen in retrospect from the perspective of a female ex-pow and her teenage daughter. Grbavica is saturated with a pleasant everyday warmth, even if it depicts a society still struggling from the aftermaths of war. But, in Zbanic's vision, this is a society filled with potential, filled with possibilities - especially for women, who are about to cut loose from previous paternal curbs and find themselves in a new Europe. It is a film filled with insight, not only on behalf of women, but on behalf of an entire region and culture. And despite its ultimately grave subject-matter, which Zbanic describes with decency, compassion and poignancy, she more than anything wants to depict her genuine belief in people and our goodness. It is a wonderfully positive film which delves into both the horrors of war and the ordeal of coming off age. It's alternately sexy and constrained, just like East-European women, I suspect Zbanic would say.