For Those Who Can Tell No Tales
Jasmila Žbanić
»I wanted to do something which was a remembrance of 20 years after the war, because for me living in Sarajevo the war was like yesterday. For me, the aim was to frame my emotions and to do something to connect with 20 years ago. I was looking for something which I could do and I saw a DVD of Kym‘s theatre show which all of my friends in Sarajevo said I needed to see since she was a guest at the Sarajevo Festival. They said it was amazing. And I saw it and it was exactly what I felt about Bosnia today, about the state of mind I am in, about emotions I had. And so I decided to write to Kym and told her I think this could be a movie.«
– Jasmila Žbanić
The Australian tourist Kym is spending a vacation in the border region between Bosnia and Serbia. In the idyllic town of Visegrad, she goes on a photo-shoot and dutifully takes snapshots of the attractions the tour guides recommend. Back home, however, she learns of the war crimes that were committed in these places. Whereupon she goes back there to confront a history not discussed in the guidebooks and of which many of the Visegrad residents are not aware either. The screenplay is based on a solo theater performance entitled Seven Kilometers North-East by Kym Vercoe who also worked on the screenplay as well as taking a lead role in the film.
In cooperation with medica mondiale
Jasmila Žbanić
Jasmila Žbanić was born in 1974 in Sarajevo, where she graduated in film and theatre directing from the Academy of Performing Arts. She also worked as a puppeteer in the Vermont-based Bread and Puppets Theater and as a clown in a Lee Delong workshop. Her first feature film Grbavica won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale and countless other international awards. All her films are produced by the artist’s association Deblokada she herself set up. In 2014 she received the KAIROS Prize for outstanding cultural achievement.
Films by Jasmila Žbanić
Airborn 2019 | One Day in Sarajevo 2014 | Love Island 2014 | For Those Who Can Tell No Tales 2013 | Na putu 2010 | Grbavica 2016 | Images From the Corner 2003 | Crvene gumene cizme 2000 | Noc je, mi svijetlimo 1998