MAGAZINE - Berlinale Talent Campus - Top-IX

PORTRAITTHE 2006 GOLDEN BEARERNOT ONLY THE MOST PRODUCTIVE BUT ALSO THE MOST IMPORTANT WOMAN DIRECTOR IN THE HISTORY OF BOSNIAN CINEMA, WE ARE DELIGHTEDTO HAVE JASMILA ŽBANIĆ JOINING US AT THE CAMPUS.“I am fascinated by everyday life, but compared to war, itcan seem ordinary, non-dramatic, even banal. Yet when thesurface of this everyday life is scratched, the whole power ofhuman emotions – past, present and future – starts to leakout”, she stated on the release of GRBAVICA – a story aboutlove that is not pure because it has been mixed up with hate,disgust, trauma and despair.Jasmila Žbanić and her Golden BearThe Golden Bear, Ecumenical Jury Award, Peace Film PrizeBerlin 2006, Discovery of the Year Award Reykjavik 2006…the list just doesn’t end and all these awards for her very firstfeature film – GRBAVICA.Jasmila Žbanić, screenwriter and director, born in Sarajevo,belongs to an important group of filmmakers who, as veryyoung art students, lived through the war against Bosnia-Herzegovina and against the capital city of Sarajevo. Whilethe war was still waging, they decided to begin making films.In 1997, she founded the artist’s association “Deblokada”through which she produced, wrote and directed numerousdocumentaries, video works and shorts.Photo:: Ali Ghandtschi © Berlinale 2006The highpoints of her artistic endeavours include BIRTHDAY,which was part of the omnibus film LOST AND FOUND: SIXGLANCES AT A GENERATION, comprising six young directorsfrom Central and Eastern European countries who madeshort films which were post-produced in Germany. The directorsinclude five participants from the Berlinale TalentCampus 2004 as well as a winner of the Golden Bear: StefanArsenijevic. Jasmila’s portfolio further includes the 2002documentary RED RUBBER BOOTS, which follows Bosnianmothers searching for their children, and the 2003 documentaryIMAGES FROM THE CORNER, a moving personal accountof a young woman seriously wounded during the warwho watched in pain as a foreign photographer snappedpictures of her.Jasmila’s intellectual and creative interest goes beyond film.She is a graduate of the Sarajevo Academy of Dramatic Arts,department for theatre and film directing. Before turningto filmmaking, she worked as a puppeteer in the Vermontbased“Bread and Puppet” Theatre and as a clown in a LeeDe Long workshop. The filmic means and style characterisingher works are influenced by her work with puppets andstreet theatre as well as her literary activities. In addition tofilm scripts, she is a writer of stories and theatre texts.The spectrum of Jasmila’s interests, exceptional visual culture,unconventional and untraditional film paths, make heran ideal panellist for “Whose side is it anyway? Privacy andPolitics in Cinema”.MONDAY 12, 17:00 HAU 1WHOSE SIDE IS IT ANYWAY?BERLINALE TALENT CAMPUS #529