A harsh dose of cinematic realism about a harsh time-the Bosnian War of the 1990s-Juanita Wilson's drama is taken from true stories revealed during the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague.
Samira is a modern schoolteacher in Sarajevo who takes a job in a small country village just as the war is beginning to ramp up. When Serbian soldiers overrun the village, shoot the men and keep the women as laborers (the older ones) and sex objects (the younger ones), Samira is subjected to the basest form of treatment imaginable. Read more …
Unconcerned with wider politics, Wilson deftly uses cinematic means – widescreen framing, sound, focus, PO V – to convey her protagonist’s ordeal, eliciting exceptional acting from Macedonian newcomer Petrovic.
An impressive, if inescapably grim, feature debut.
Petrovic gives a good performance in this grim and bitter film, but in some ways it comes alive most in its final section, an eerie coda taking place some time after the conflict, in which Samira must come to terms with what she has lived through and the legacy of the brutality.
An unforgettable central performance, but could be more dramatically engaging.
The plot never quite adds up and starts to drift aimlessly in the closing stages.
Not for the faint-hearted.
The violence exceeds usual cinema levels but it's not gratuitous and offers a reminder of how a slaughter as cruel as the Holocaust happened in our own back yard less than 20 years ago.
It only works because Ms Petrovic is remarkable in the role of Samira, beautiful like a young Nastassja Kinski, but with fire in her eyes. And because in her unblinking recounting of the story, director Wilson displays admirable restraint in the face of horror.
General release. Check local listings for show times.