Esma’s Secret/ Grbavica

Esma’s Secret/ Grbavica

Directed by: Jasmila Žbanić

Year of production: 2006

Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Austria, Germany

Genre: drama

Length: 90 minutes

Single mother Esma lives with her 12 year-old daughter, Sara, in post-war Sarajevo. When mother and daughter discuss the delicate topic of the death of Sara’s father, a war hero, Esma’s responses are always vague. The situation becomes more complicated when the school offers to take pupils on a free trip, provided they can furnish a certificate proving that they are the offspring of a war hero. Sara can’t get rid of the nagging feeling that something’s not right when she is not on the list of the orphans of war heroes.