IMDb user comments for
Grbavica (2006)

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18 comments in total

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23 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
An Oscar-worthy performance and a beautiful film, 1 August 2006

Author: tclark-5 from Melbourne, Australia

I was fortunate enough to see this wonderful film at the Melbourne International Film Festival where it seemed to receive a positive reaction from the large audience.

Jasmila Zbanic has written and directed a film that is powerful enough to speak to a global audience. Even as a twenty-something Australian male, I was able to relate to the struggle of a middle-aged Bosnian woman because of the strength of Zbanic's storytelling and the superb acting.

I was particularly astonished by Mirjana Karanovic's performance and would be thrilled to see her acknowledged at Oscar time next year. She captured Esma's internal conflicts perfectly and brought many audience members to tears. Luna Mijovic was also very good as Sara, shifting with ease between adolescent rage and childlike vulnerability.

Zbanic should be applauded for crafting a film that reminds us that the wounds of war leave deep scars. While Zbanic's script may not be "perfect", the humanity of her message is strong enough to leave us feeling grateful for the gift of love. At a time when the global political climate is in such tumult, films like this remind us to appreciate the loving relationships we have, despite the baggage they may come with.

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31 out of 45 people found the following comment useful :-
Excellent Movie, 20 February 2006

Author: mersad18 from Bosnia and Herzegovina

This Movie is excellent, and it's starting in cinemas around Bosnia and Herzegovina March 1st.

GRBAVICA is a story about contemporary Sarajevo…

Single mother Esma wants to grant her twelve-year-old daughter Sara's wish to participate in a school trip. A certificate proving her father is a war martyr would allow her a discount. But Esma continues to avoid Sara's requests for the certificate. She would rather find a way to pay full price for the trip. She believes not telling the truth about Sara's father is a way to protect both her and her daughter.

It's moving and touching, but also very truthful to the post-war events. I hope it will hit cinemas worldwide or at least a DVD Realise. Grbavica's director won 1st Prize on the Berlin Movie Festival.

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33 out of 53 people found the following comment useful :-
plain simple and heartbreaking, 21 February 2006

Author: todorovic from Germany

Very simply a honest, straightforward and earnest film about a topic that is just so important to be informed about and discussed.

The camera-work is so to the point, so is every little piece of direction. The acting is sharp, clear and real all the way through. - I was hoping for Mirjana Karanovic (as well as Luna Mijovic) to win the Bear for their incredibly focused performances. Well, they didn't get it, shame, I thought, but then again, a golden bear for best film is not so bad either...! So congratulations to Jasmila and the whole team and the four different producers from four countries making this possible in joint effort! -

And given all these plain and clear ingredients, what you end up with is one of the most moving "movies" I have seen for a very long time.

This film is not about reinventing the wheel, it is simply all about showing how incredibly well a well made wheel can work.

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7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
plain-clothes suffering, 8 November 2006

Author: altyn from Italy

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The film looks so simple, and maybe it is somewhat too simple in cinematographic terms, but the story is very carefully built (and faultlessly acted). Just remark how symmetric are the paths of Esma and Pelda in the film: war has left her with a difficult daughter, him with a psychically suffering mother. It is moving just because the heroine (almost) always manages to stay dignified and hide her real feelings from unsympathetic people, and the spectator is engrossed by her slow and difficult acceptance of the need for crying out. I found especially credible Sara and her boyfriend, who show a perfect blend of childishness and pseudo-adult behaviour (when they are alone in Esma's flat they drink wine AND play puzzle). The story is brought by the director to the brink of tragedy and Esma might well end badly at one point or two, but then the plot gently turns a bit and there is no more tragedy that what has already happened during the war and which we sense, rather than see, through Esma's own reactions at scenes recalling her of those times. And the spectator is led to feel with her.

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10 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Jasmila Zbanic, a great director, 15 September 2006

Author: emirarven from Bosnia and Herzegovina

Jasmila Zbanic made an excellent movie about the true story that happened in Bosnia. 22.000 Bosniak women had been raped by Serb forces, and this is the first movie which discuss the issue but in the very unusual way. I would also like to recommend the movie with the Balkan War topic. It is called: Remake, by Dino Mustafic. But, Jasmila Zbanic made an excellent dramaturgy unlike all other movies, because the film doesn't show Serb soldiers who rape Bosniak women, but deals with the consequences in a family that was victimized by an evil policy of raping in the war, and ask a simple question? How was that systematic crime possible at the end of 20th century? How Europe let that happened?

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17 out of 28 people found the following comment useful :-
excellent movie!, 12 March 2006

Author: kors2003 from Germany

i have seen GRBAVICA at the berlinale in Germany and this is one of the best movies i ever seen. without any violent scenes this pictures burns the whole frightening war in former Yugoslavia in your head - without to accuse somebody directly. it is a film about accomplishment of the war, the state of the country now, the relationship between mother and daughter, the puberty and a love story too. very good actors and calmly produced. very earned won the golden bear in berlin! if you have the chance to see this movie, please use it... hopefully this movie will be internationally known, not only in Europe.

(excuse, my English is not so good)

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14 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
A story that had to be told, 29 July 2006

Author: momisan from Australia

Highly recommended.

Sarajevo is a raped city, Bosnia is a raped country and the culprit, although known, has never been convicted. How a person, and a nation, finds a strength to overcome the injustice? Very difficult, sometimes impossible.

I hoped and prayed that Sarajevo has that strength, and still do, however, this movie showed me how heavy the burden is. It is personal, a message to each one of the viewers to try to put themselves in victim's shoes and see how they would cope. Hard core stuff. The film tries to put on a positive spin at the end, however, it wasn't that convincing, I am afraid.

Mira Karanovic is absolutely stunning!

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Grbavica - the land of conflicting emotions and eternal struggles, 6 July 2007

Author: D T from Hong Kong

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This is a sad but truly beautiful masterpiece. We have heard so much about wars and atrocities that go with it. What about people who still have to live with all the nightmares and aftermaths of the atrocities on their own land, which they had once loved in an unrestrained and uninhibited manner but now tainted with horror and sins? What have they done to deserve a life like this and what actually keeps them going but not giving up? Zbanic gives us the answer - it is love, the love of your family, the love of your land, though it is now a kind of contaminated, qualified and conflicting love which is eternally tainted with gruesome memories and haunting flashbacks. The nationalistic song sung by the students and in the end, Sara, on the bus sums up this theme neatly and concisely.

A very genuine and down-to-earth movie which speaks so much for itself and for the victims of war crimes who are and will be living in a war of their own emotions for the rest of their lives. Besides, the direction is great with a classy and emotional twist building up to the climax. Acting is superb, expectedly from the veteran Karanovic and pleasantly surprisingly from the teenage Luna Mijovic.

It is worth in the least Oscar nominations for the best director and the best foreign film . Go and watch it!

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
reflects upon hopes, evokes strong emotions., 10 April 2007

Author: mangorytm1 from Poland

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

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.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
A Land Of Dreams, Or Nightmares?, 25 May 2007

Author: Seamus2829 from United States

This little film drew me in with it's central characters, a Mother who was a war survivor,who had been in the P.O.W. camps in Sarajevo (played to perfection by Mirjana Karanovic), and her daily struggle to keep her head above water, with a thankless job in a cocktail bar, and with the daily battle with her adolescent daughter, Sara (played by Luna Mijovic). The two women share a love/hate relationship that will easily tear at your heart at times. This is not always an easy film to watch, but is an easy film to appreciate. First time writer/director Jasmila Zbanic works well with the cast,drawing just enough emotion to make this a heartbreaking, but satisfying experience.

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