''As If I Am Not There'' (Serbian: Као да ме нема, ''Kao da me nema'') is a 2010
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
made by Irish director
Juanita Wilson
Juanita Wilson is an Irish director and writer from Dublin. Her short film ''The Door'' received an Irish Film and Television Award (IFTA) in 2009 and an Academy Award nomination in 2010. Her debut feature film ''As If I Am Not There'' received ...
. The film is set in the
Balkans
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
and is shot in the Serbo-Croatian language.
It was selected as the Irish entry for the
Best Foreign Language Film
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
at the
84th Academy Awards
The 84th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2011 in the United States and took place on February 26, 2012, at the Hollywood and Highland Center Theatre in H ...
,
but did not make the final shortlist.
The film follows a young teacher who travels to a remote village. After the village is attacked, she is imprisoned and raped, together with the women of village. It is based on
Slavenka Drakulić's
1999 novel of the same name that deals with
war rape
Wartime sexual violence is rape or other forms of sexual violence committed by combatants during armed conflict, war, or military occupation often as spoils of war, but sometimes, particularly in ethnic conflict, the phenomenon has broader so ...
in the
Bosnian War.
Plot
Set during the
Bosnian War, the movie follows the experiences of a young female teacher from
Sarajevo
Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see names in other languages'') is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo ...
who travels to a remote village to teach. Soon after arriving, the village is attacked by a group of soldiers. The men are killed, the women separated from the children, and placed in a makeshift brothel. There, the women are repeatedly raped and beaten.
The film is adapted from a novel by Croatian journalist Slavenka Drakulic based on testimony of women taken prisoner during the Bosnian War.
Cast
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Nataša Petrović as Samira
*
Fedja Stukan as The Captain
*
Jelena Jovanova
Jelena Jovanova Perić ( mk, Јелена Јованова Периќ; born 21 October 1984) is a Macedonian actress.
Biography
Jelena Jovanova was born in SR Bosnia and Herzegovina to a Macedonian father from Štip and a Bosnian Serb mother from ...
as Jasmina
*
Miraj Grbić
Miraj Grbić (born 17 July 1976) is a Bosnian–American film, television and theater actor.
Biography
Grbić graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo at the University of Sarajevo, where he earned an M.A. degree in acting. Sin ...
as Commander
*
Jasna Diklić
Jasna Diklić (born March 8, 1946) is a Bosnian theatre and film actress. She was born in Sarajevo. Her mother was also an actress and a puppeteer. Diklić's first theatre experiences began at MESS Festival's experimental theatre studio, after wh ...
*
Zvezda Angelovska
*
Nikolina Kujaca
*
Sanja Burić
*
Katina Ivanova
*
Jana Stojanovska
*
Nino Levi
*
Irina Apelgren
Irina (Cyrillic: Ирина) is a feminine given name of Ancient Greek origin, commonly borne by followers of the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is derived from Eirene (Ancient Greek: Εἰρήνη), an ancient Greek goddess, personification of pe ...
as Alisa
*
Jana Mircevska
*
Stellan Skarsgård
Stellan Skarsgård (, ; born 13 June 1951) is a Swedish actor. He is known for his collaborations with director Lars von Trier appearing in ''Breaking the Waves'' (1996), ''Dancer in the Dark'' (2000), '' Dogville'' (2007), ''Melancholia'' (201 ...
Reception
The film received positive reviews. Review aggregation website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
gives the film a score of 85% based on 13 reviews, with an
average rating
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...
of 6.4/10.
See also
*
*
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:As If I Am Not There
2010 films
2010 drama films
2010 war drama films
Irish drama films
Serbo-Croatian-language films
Bosnian War films
Films based on Croatian novels
Films about rape
Films about Bosnian genocide
Yugoslav Wars in fiction