| Bilgi :In her brave first feature, Bosnian writer-director Jasmila Zbanic tackles the theme of war's aftermath. The past haunts the movie's present as painful memories worm their way into the daily activities of people going about their lives. Everything looks normal, but every glance and gesture tell you that "normal" went out of business a long time ago. A schoolchild will speak with pride about his or her late father being a "shaheed" or war martyr. People eagerly flock to postmortem identifications whenever new mass graves are discovered in hopes of claiming the body of a loved one whose fate remains unknown. Future festival dates loom for "Grbavica" though most likely wider exposure will come with European TV sales. Mirjana Karanovic, known for her roles in films by Emir Kusturica, plays Esma, a mother who lives with her 12-year-old daughter Sara (newcomer Luna Mijovic) in Sarajevo's Grbavica district. The neighborhood, heavily damaged and then used as an internment camp during the 1990s Yugoslav wars, is still undergoing reconstruction. Unable to make ends meet on government aid, Esma takes a waitress job in a nightclub along with a day job in a shoe factory. She attends therapy sessions in a local women's center, but does so mostly to collect additional aid. Sara develops a friendship with a male classmate (Kenan Catic) when they discover each has lost a father in the war. A school trip is coming up, for which Esma must find the money. Sara can go free if she provides a certificate proving her father died a shaheed. Only her mother is determined to pay full price, as the red tape in securing the document is too great. Sara gradually comes to realize her mother has never told her the truth about the war years.
Zbanic's script delicately intertwines the overwhelming hurt of the past with the quotidian details of her characters' lives. A friendship Esma strikes up with a male co-worker (Leon Lucev) at the club finds its bonds in the past. Even the film's music expresses the conflicting realities in the Balkans: Sensitive, God-fearing ilahijes music contrasts with popular "turbo folk" songs, originating in Serbia, that appeal to aggressiveness and machismo. Zbanic and cinematographer Christine Maier shoot naturally so as to capture the sense of a fake and often failed veil of normalcy drawn over too many horrible secrets. | 
