DAY SIX  November 8, 2005
Documentary BACK TO BOSNIA Finds Beauty Amidst Tragedy
by Telly Davidson
Like the recent scripted feature EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED, with its pastoral imagery of the "innocent" countryside where so much violence nonetheless took place, the new documentary BACK TO BOSNIA uses a similar technique to underline the horrors of war. Instead of the grim, sepia-toned footage of body bags, blown-out buildings, shrieking children and death squads from news reports during the Milosevic era, BACK TO BOSNIA features an almost travelogue-like tour of beautiful downtown Bosnia. The quaint coffeehouses, art museums, tree-lined roads and valleys, beautiful country homes and tasteful cemeteries all make the violence and brutality that happened in those seemingly civilized surroundings all the more powerful. In advance of its North American Premiere today, November 8, at 7:15 p.m., AFI FEST interviewed director Sabina Vajraca and her longtime collaborator and filmmaking partner Ali Hanson about the project.
"I kind of have this theory that too much beauty causes war," Vajraca laments. "Bosnia has suffered through so much--World War I, the Nazis, the Communists--partly, I think, because it's so desirable and rich in natural resources." She adds that "Bosnia in itself is absolutely stunning, and we wanted to show a side of the country that wasn't shown in the US media at all. Most people from the US and Canada who saw our picture had no idea how beautiful Bosnia really is."
As to what led them to go BACK TO BOSNIA? "Our family had just gotten summoned by the courts to see if we wanted to file a claim for our property," Vajraca begins. "My dad said that he wanted to go back, and I wanted to shoot the film for my own sake." Hanson takes up the story from there. "Sabina had already been to Bosnia about six months prior. It was Earth-shattering--all those memories and emotions she'd been trying to block out for 10 years came flooding back."
After a weeklong depression, a good friend of Vajraca's named Adnan Sulejmanpasic finally broke through, and suggested she work through her feelings through her art. "We want BACK TO BOSNIA to be something for all the people who didn't go back yet, or who went through the same things we did--something to show them that they're not alone, that there's someone else who went through the same thing. People have told us, 'Oh my God--that's exactly what happened to me.'"
"It's funny," Vajraca sighs. "When I'm in America, I'm a Bosnian; when I'm in Bosnia, I'm an American." Vajraca shares that living as an "out" Muslim has had its difficulties in recent years, noting ironically that her father's birthday is on September 11. "One of the reasons we went to America during the exile was because here, your religion doesn't matter. And then, after 9/11, it was sort of like, 'Uh-oh, here we go again!' My brother and father get searched constantly when they travel, because their names sound like some of the hijackers. People I've met are sometimes shocked when I tell them I have a Muslim background--like they expect me to be wearing a burka or something." The women add that they have a real problem with people using terrorists to characterize Muslims, "when you have no idea about their background, what happened to them or what particular sect or culture they came from."
Vajraca goes on to say that while greater Yugoslavia was heavily communist in the 1940s and '50s, culminating in the horrific 1968 riots, as the Cold War heated up and then thawed, Western and American culture became the primary influence. By the time she was born in 1977, "we had managed to separate from the direct control of the Soviet Union," Vajraca notes. "My generation grew up with the same things you did in the States--MTV, BEVERLY HILLS 90210, BASIC INSTINCT, rock music, everything."
The co-directors point out that while they look forward to success in film and television, their first love remains the live theatre. "I love film, but theatre is my passion," says Vajraca. The talented women look to playwrights and directors who've crossed over to film--like Mike Nichols and Alan Ball--as their inspirations. "One of the reasons their films and TV shows are as good as they are is because they have that theatrical background. They know how to take time and really work with their writers and actors."
Hanson and Vajraca share this advice to future AFI FEST's up-and-comers: "Do something that you're really passionate about if you want to be successful and happy. This isn't to say the process won't be devastating--living with your parents, running up your credit cards, losing your savings. But doing this movie meant more to me than one some studio would pay me a million dollars for," Vajraca replies. Like they say in those Nike ads, Hanson enthuses, "Just do it!"
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