2023 Directed by Senad Šahmanović
Sanela, a Montenegrin of Muslim background who left the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s after her father was kidnapped and killed alongside other Muslims, comes back to the Balkans after twenty years abroad. She has betrayed her origins, erased her own culture, and become a true Westerner. They say the past is a foreign land and that the one who departs and the one who returns are not the same person.
Montenegro
Montenegro
The trope of a stranger in a strange land is well-worn, and was recently implemented to great success in the International selections with Amerikatsi. Sirin attempts to subvert that archetype with a stranger in her homeland, at once felt recognising the culture, landscapes, people and traditions, but also feeling alien from them. This is the experience of an immigrant returning home as a full expat.
But that's all this film has to say. If you've not been home for a long time, you'll feel like an outsider and a traitor upon returning. The elephant in the room is the traumatic circumstances under which she left, which are largely underexplored, and could have added some depth to the character or been…
“I understand people who wish to be buried in their homeland.”
Sirin is the International Feature submission for Montenegro. The film opens up in 1993 in Yugoslavia in a small town called Strpci. During the war, military forces from the Republic of Srpska boarded a bus, seizing 20 passengers and killing them, just for having a Bosnian last name. Sanela, now called Nathalie, was on that bus and 20 years later she returns back to her hometown, along with her employer, Valery, to execute a will from one of their clients.
Nathalie has lived in the USA for the past 20 years. She, along with many other youth during that time, fled Yugoslavia in search for a better life.…
2024 International Oscar Submissions - #15 🇲🇪
Don’t we often feel, all of us, even here, as strangers being in a foreign land?
With a title bearing the name of a mythological creature, half-woman and half-bird, Sirin delves into the emigrant experience and the search for identity upon returning to one’s homeland. It explores the contrast of mentalities between emigrants and the world they leave behind, unfolding its story on two interconnected layers. Despite its notable weaknesses and rather poor writing, the film possesses enough heart, reflections, and observations to make its story resonate, both within the Balkan context and on a universal level.
Katarina Koljević piše o Sirinu Senada Šahmanovića, premijerno prikazanom na ovogodišnjem Sarajevo Film Festivalu.
Iako obrađuje teme često prisutne u ovdašnjim kinematografijama (nasleđe ratova, identitetske krize ljudi koji su napustili svoju zemlju), Šahmanović zamke već viđenog izbegava svežinom vizuelnog i rediteljskog pristupa, u čemu mu neizmerno pomažu dobro izgrađen lik Natali/Sanele i gluma Danice Ćurčić.
Celu kritiku čitajte na sajtu Filmoskopije.
"Sirin", the Montenegrin submission to the Oscars this year, deals with a yearning for home and roots no person can erase even after years abroad or traumatic events the Home connected to. Danica Curcic bravely carries this feeling, mostly silently, passing it from the screen to the audience. She saves "Sirin" from being a total failure.
Although the inner feelings are present in the film, the plot is a mess. Even if I leave aside the reliability of Natali getting the assignment exactly in the town she left many years ago and agreeing to return there despite the burden, her mysterious past and relationship with her sister stay unclear even after the credits start to roll. The resolution is hastily…
