Popular reviews

• 

  Review by shookone ★★

  has the feeling of an Un Certain Regard selection in Cannes, but won in fact the golden bear in Berlin. nothing could describe the quality difference between the two festivals better than this i guess, already in 2006, 5 years after Kosslick took over and ran down the once great A-class event.

  low budget, straight told and without visual panache. nothing surprises here and the emotional catharsis of the ending feels a bit like the necessary plot twist this thing wants you to have to endure. a strictly political decision to give it one of the most prestigious film prizes, but seeing the top reviews here clocking in at 10-15 likes those statistics speak another clear language.

• 

  Review by Sabina ★★★★ 2

  I watched this with my mom as a kid. Decided to give it a rewatch since I only remember fragments from it. And wow does it hit differently now.

  Is it as good as Quo Vadis, Aida? No. This is an extremely low-budget film with occasionally dull visual language. Yet it manages to depict a deeply harrowing story about parental love with a twist that will leave you shell-shocked, at least if you’re not familiar with the war. It’s also a coming-of-age story set in a post-war environment that asks what the ramifications of war do to the experience of growing up.

• 

  Review by TajLV ★★★

  Part of my Iron Curtain/Eastern Bloc Challenge

  This feature debut by Bosnian writer-director Jasmila Zbanic, like so many Eastern Bloc films, deals with the aftermath of war. In this case, the conflict is the Bosnian War that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. In the Grbavica district of Sarajevo, we see a single mother named Esma (Mirjana Karanovic), job hunting and sexually harassed since the death of her husband in the war. Her 12-year-old daughter Sara (Luna Zimic Mijovic) needs 200 Euros for a school trip, and Esma has no idea how to come up with the money.

  Esma intermittently attends group therapy sessions for women who lost loved ones in the war. She collects a…

• 

  Review by Merjema ★★★★

  If I wouldn't originally come from Bosnia this movie would get about 3 stars. But for me this movie means alot more and it makes me feel many emotions that i can not describe. Its one of my favorite bosnian movies.

• 

  Review by Tamara ★★★★

  Who will recognize your father, if you leave? Will he lie alone in a plastic bag? Who will identify the body?

  May all the victims of Bucha massacre and other Russian war crimes in Ukrainian cities and villages rest in peace. I really hope that justice will prevail and everyone who is responsible will be punished accordingly (щоб ви повиздихали в страшних муках, гній на тілі Землі).

• 

  Review by Mark Strelok ★★★½

  I've skirted past this one for awhile, but for what it's worth I probably shouldn't have. There's a slew of Yugoslav War films out there ranging from English action (Behind Enemy Lines) to the message-heavy No Man's Land. It is interesting to note that while most Western films portray the Serbs as generic villains, Balkan films explore the complex background of the war. Grbavica surprisingly does both on a shoestring budget.

  The leads perform well despite the age of one, and the story feels more personal. A lack of flashbacks to the war really helps keeps the focus in the present rather than past. The message of the film is universal and could fit into any conflict, though unfortunately the limited legacy of the Bosnian Wars to the West has kept this out of the spotlight.

• 

  Review by Kevserke ★★★★

  Kadın savaşta yaşanan travmanım doğrudan muhattabı olur .

• 

  Review by Nicolò Grasso ★★★★

  Original Title: Grbavica
  Year of Release: 2006
  Genres: Historical Drama
  Director: Jasmila Žbanić
  Writers: Jasmila Žbanić, Barbara Albert
  Main Cast: Mirjana Karanović, Luna Mijović, Leon Lučev, Kenan Ćatić, Jasna Beri, Dejan Aćimović, Bogdan Diklić, Ermin Bravo

  Winner of the Golden Bear at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival, Grbavica shows the decadence of Bosnia post-Yugoslav war through the eyes of a widow and her teen daughter. It's a really compelling piece of drama, a believable look on the long-term repercussions of war on civilians, with some having to work really hard to keep afloat, and orphans unable to cope without proper parental support. Some harsh truths come out in this, and both Karanović and Mijović deliver really powerful and emotional performances.…

• 

  Review by Laurie Holden ★★★★

  Grbavica is many movies at once: it's a coming of age story, a story about victims of rape, a mother-daughter story, story about the war... Bosnian director Jasmila Zbanic does a credible job merging everything together and delivering a poignant and heartrending movie.

• 

  Review by julian ★★★★

  one of my favorite bosnian-herzegovinian films.

  also upon rewatching, i've found i need the subtitles less which is cool!! yay for language acquisition

• 

  Review by Kosta Jovanović ★★★½

  Basis for future review:
  A Balkan tale of coping with past tragedies.

• 

  Review by em 🐈 ★★★

  women deserve ... so much better .............