Neither Here Nor There

IntroductionNeither Here Nor Thereis an intimate portrayal ofthe Selimovic family fromSrebrenica in Eastern Bosnia,who resettled in Columbia,Missouri after the fall of the former United Nations “safe area” that resulted in Europe’sworst massacre since World War II. The story follows a Bosnian War widow, FatimaSelimovic, and her family living in the heartland of America and still searching for home.Filmed over a three-year period, Neither Here Nor There traces the complexities ofstarting over in a new place when ties to the past remain unbreakable.In July 1995, more than eight thousand Muslim men and teenage boys were murderedin the small town of Srebrenica, Bosnia during a five-day period by Bosnian Serbs. Sincethen, Missouri has become home to the largest Bosnian population outside of theirhomeland, which includes approximately 60,000 Bosnians refugees living in St. Louis,Mo. Having survived one of the bloodiest battlegrounds of the Balkans and the massexecution of their family and friends, Fatima Selimovic and her family find themselvesstruggling to resettle in a peaceful middle-class college town.Fatima works as a house keeper at the Holiday Inn and her teenage daughter worksnights, full-time at a book factory while attending high school by day. Her oldestdaughter is hoping her husband can join their family in the U.S. Meanwhile, she mustbe the single parent to their one-year old son. The past comes back to haunt the familywhen Fatima learns that her father is identified in a mass grave in Bosnia. The film followsthe family back to their homeland for the first time to bury her father at a mass funeralin Srebrenica. Fatima’s father, including 600 newly-identified remains, are buried at thememorial, which is attended by thousands of mourners, including world leaders.Neither Here Nor There is an example of the strength of women and an intimate portrayalof the U.S. refugee program. The Selimovic’s story is told from the viewpoint of thefilm’s co-director, also a refugee caseworker, as she tries to help the family become selfsufficient.Would it be better if Fatima and her children stayed in Bosnia? Or, is Americatruly the land of opportunities? Sometimes a refugee’s home is neither here nor there. It’ssomewhere in-between.Produced by Refugee Films - www.refugeefilms.org3 3