MovieChat Forums > Grbavica (2006) Discussion > this movie wasn´t against serbs

this movie wasn´t against serbs

posted 18 years ago by perrote
23 replies | jump to latest

It´s more about a universal subject and how to cope with this kind of trauma. The woman just happened to be bosnian and had been raped by a serb, that´s it, It could had happened the other way and in any war thorn country.

I´m not with the ones who think in absoluts, like serbs-cetniks you´re monsters and poor bosnian victims. I had investigated the subject for some years now (i´m not from there and I have a most neutral opinion) and I know it´s not that black and white but that´s not reason to be so insensitive.

Every movie about ex-yugoslavian war board here in IMDB it´s full of agressive serb messages. I understand you can be fustrated by the label -quite unjust- the world has put on you but I think your attitude only worse matters.

Maybe you should think about all the pain that war caused to all the parts involved not just you, show a little humility and conclude that it was bad for eveyone.

Please stop using art (movies) especially when it´s so good like this one as an excuse. Watch the movie again and think it´s in another place of the world, I´m sure you will see it´s about persons not politics.

Hope that helps.

[–] billnfam 18 years ago

Kids not knowing their fathers happens all over the world. Although it did happen quite a bit in Bosnia during the war there.

[–] hereticba 18 years ago

Irony is that Serbs are not mentioned once in the entire movie. There are two mentions of "Chetniks", but that refers not to Serbs as general (in the way of proverb: not all Serbs are chetniks but all chetniks are Serbs). So all this Serbophobia that is talked about is really artificial.

[–] mirzax16 18 years ago

It's called association. They do it to themselves.

[–] naydamarta 17 years ago

You're so absolutely right...

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] perrote 17 years ago

Trust me the horrible genocides that happened were in Bosnia by Serbian soldiers

________________________________________

With all respects to your painful experience, for what I know croatians and muslims did engage in some killing too. Obviously bosnians get the worse part but I still don´t think that´s in the film.

That´s what it makes it so valid and compelling in my opinion.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] sandralukicdc 16 years ago

I am born in Belgrade and 100% Sebian. I did not find this movie anti-Serbian and if you did you missed a point. It is probably one of the most powerful films about Balkan tragedy. It a story of a woman, any woman who is trying to survive as a single mother despite all the obsticales and terror she encounter in her past. It is a story about consequences of a human brutality and horror of the rape as well as hope and love. Mirjana is fabulous - especially the confession monolog at the end of the movie.

[–] jasminejade 16 years ago

"With all respects to your painful experience, for what I know croatians and muslims did engage in some killing too."

In war, all sides engage in killing but that does not make all sides equal. During WWII, the Allied forces killed a lot of people, but they didn't kill 11 million in concentration camps after torturing them and using them as slave labour. I don't think too many people other than neo-Nazis would argue that the Germans were unfairly scapegoated and really were just as much victims as anyone else.

UN reports and more importantly (and objectively) humanitarian aid organizations put the responsibility for the majority of war crimes in the Balkans on the Serbs (around 90% if I remember correctly). That doesn't mean that no Serbs were victims or that every Serb is a war criminal; it does mean people should stop equating Serbian fascists with their victims.

Now if we could get back to the film which is not anti-Serbian...Great movie. One of its strengths is that it didn't ram any nationalism up our noses. Beautiful to see some attention paid to what happens after a war, how people reassemble the shards of their broken lives and just how much stronger love is for some people than hatred. Loved hearing sevdah, too--it's sad beauty perfectly matched the film.

[–] Slatkis 16 years ago

Does anybody know name of the singer in club?

[–] balkan_bloke7 16 years ago

Im Serbian and I didnt find this particularly Anti-Serb either. However, I didnt think it was a good film in general................poorly made, bad dialogue and the child actress was terrible. The only reason it one Berlin festival is because the Germans are still NAZIS with an agenda against the Serbs..........

In Conclusion Serbs dont have the right to call this film something it isnt (racist-anti Serb)whilst the rest of us (espeically Muslims) need to admit it wasnt a great film. No Mans Land, Lepa Sela Lepo Gore are much better.

[–] bojanivanisevic 16 years ago

Another movie were serbs are shown in a onedimensional way as criminals. Why doesn´t anyone make a movie about croatian concentration camps during World War 2?
Why isn´t there one single movie which shows croatian fashism and nationalism? I don´t know one single country that perverted nationalistic as they are. I get bored with that anti sebian propaganda.

[–] dee_pee 16 years ago

oh please. you're being ridiculous. this kind of attitude is exactly what puts people off from serbs...and exactly what perotte was talking about in his post. there is not one single mention of serbs in this movie. and it's not a fairytale - these things have happened. fact. just accept it. is it so difficult? i'm from croatia, and i don't find it difficult at all to accept all the terrible things that croatians did in the name of nationalism in the past ... because it has nothing to do with me, with my generation. the same thing should go for you. bosnian muslims were definetely the biggest victims of the wars in balkans. and the serbs were the main aggresors. it's a fact. of course, it's easier for you to portray yourselves as scapegoats and victims, but, during the 1990s at least, you were anything BUT victims. 2nd world war is another matter, but it has nothing to do with this film, and neither do croatian "fashism and nationalism", so there is no reason to bring it up. seriously. as for the "perverted" nationalism... ahem... the only "extreme" right-wing party in croatia got 5% of the vote on the last elections. serbian radicals (the almost-fascist nationalistic party) regularly get, what, 50% of the vote? please, get real.

[–] bojanivanisevic 16 years ago

Have you ever been to a football match supporting your favourite croatian club? Go there and you'll see what I mean. You don't see this type of things in serbia. Sure there is a lot of nationalism going on in serbia, but it really is a different thing. I honestly don't see this type of radicalism there. You can't seriosly deny that Croatia has a long fashist tradition. Why I talk about the WW2? Because I have the feeling a lot of croatian people never made a "clean ideological cut". I live in Germany. I can tell the difference. While the germans see their historical mistakes and distance themselfs from their past crimes Croatia has a long way to go there. According to a study which was conducted 2005 in Croatia over 60% of the people emphasise with the Ustasa movement and they see their motives as "honourable". I know a few croatian people here in Germany and it seems to me that nationalism and fashism is a socially acceptable thing for them. So if I want to deal with them I better ignore the Ante Pavelic portrait in the living room (no joke, saw it more than once) and I avoid this type of issues. Sure not all of them are like that, but it isn't a minority either. So if you want to reflect about your past please don't be so one sided and please get real yourself.

[–] thisboydestroyed 16 years ago

from an outsiders perspective...

I have no Balkan background whatsoever (I am of Scottish heritage), but I have travelled through the region quite extensively -- and I must say I did find the attitude towards outsiders in Serbia to be a little confronting. I met some lovely people in Belgrade (I love the city), but I think Serbia certainly has some very disturbing nationalist trends that need to be addressed-- it is keeping Serbia back. Comparatively, I didn't notice any nationalism in Croatia or BiH. Comparing it to sport is not valid, either.

PS-- Do you have a source for your claim that %60 of Croats support the Ustasa movement?? I find that very VERY hard to believe. the 1940's was a shameful period in Croatian history-- as was the 1990's in Serbian history.

Nationalism and race is *beep* we are all HUMANS.

[–] ColinChapman 16 years ago

Nationalism and race is the opium for the stupid and ignorant masses who have little faith in themselves and their abilities and therefore seek consolation in belonging to some race or religious faith.

Those great thinkers and inventors that brought the development forward always did their own thinking and dared to differ from the masses.

Besides of that I hate people that make assumptions before they know something about a person. Never assume nothing because your assumptions might offend people.

This was a good movie by the way. I only wish the woman would have ended up with the man that moved away, but that would perhaps have been too much of a cliche.

[–] munspel 14 years ago

Well written!

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] johnny42 14 years ago

Well _this_ is one cool post. :)