The Bosnian film ‘Grbavica’ explores the country’s war scars through the very personal story of a mother and daughter, struggling to survive and build relationships — with each other and with others — while overcoming the past.

From the opening of the film, it is clear that Esme’s whole world revolves around her 12-year-old daughter, Sara. She works round-the-clock to give Sara a good home, and even takes a job in a seedy discotheque to try and raise the money for her teen daughter’s school trip.

But Sara is clearly a troubled child. She fights with the other children at school, lies to her teachers and torments her aunt, Sabina, who cares for her while Esme is working, mercilessly. Like many girls her age she is self-absorbed and inexplicably angry at times. Despite her moodiness, she begins to form a bond with Samir, the child of a shaheed (war martyr), which Sara also believes herself to be.

Meanwhile, Esme has essentially withdrawn from society and is obviously carrying some dark secrets. She goes to work and she goes home. She refuses invitations to parties and get-togethers. Occasionally, she goes to a Women’s Centre where women gather to discuss the horrors that they experienced during the war which ripped apart the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

At the Centre, Esme says nothing as other women break down around her. She goes to the centre for one reason only — to get the small amount of Government money allotted to those who attend.

Through her work at the bar, however, Esme meets a man — Aran — who seems to have a gentle soul despite his tough appearance and shadowy role in her workplace.

Aran and Esme begin to slowly get to know one another — which does not escape Sara’s attention and leads her to act out even more. Her anger is tempered only by her desire to go on the school trip and her friendship with Samir.

One thing this film does extremely well is let the tension build slowly, you know everything is not alright and that Esme will not be able to hold her secrets and inner pain forever. This is shown as she increasingly breaks down at work when confronted with explicit sexual behaviour or violence. In the end a violent incident at the bar breaks Esme’s fragile romance with Aran and sends her straight into a dramatic stand-off with Sara, who will push her mother too far.

This film is very subtle, you feel almost like you are observing the main characters in real time, which makes them very easy to relate to. It also well captures the insidious nature of the scars of war.

In the end both Esme and Sara can only move beyond the pain and torment thrust on them by the country’s violent past by forcing into the light and confronting the secrets that have been badly hidden for so long.