Snijeg

It shows what Bosnian women endured after serbs genocide in Bosna

Debutante Aida Begic opens a tale about Eastern Bosnia in 1997. A sparsely, seemingly deserted village in the aftermaths of the Balkan war. But wait, there are six women, a grandfather (acting imam), a few girls and one boy left alive. Oblivious of the fates of beloved ones, life in the small village continues as usual. At least until one day the two sharp-minded businessmen arrives on a quest to buy land in the war-torn Bosnia, naturally also in the village of pic's assembly. Moral dilemmas including family values and definition of true freedom comes to surface and force the group of women to form divided camps.

Snijeg interposes – by all means – an uncomfortable feeling and pathos for the causalities of war, but also the ones outliving it. Underlying aspects of pic are not beautiful, but it manages to radiate a poetic feeling of how life can go on when it has to. The women of the film are confronted with change, for better or worse. They have lost a lot of things, but what they do have left is their freedom and despite their despair what they need to realize is what they want is all they've got.

All my regards to Aida Begic for portraying this tender subject with such care and modesty, yet managing to include some enigmatic and symbolic scenes which begs for discussion. It's a most successful debut feature that has already earned great reception worldwide – not to say the least by scooping the Critics Week Grand Prize in Cannes.

I have seen many wars dealing with Bosnian war subject. This one deals with post traumatic syndrome which some Bosnian Muslim women go trough after their husbands and fathers were killed by Bosnian Serb Army during the war of Bosnian independence 1992-1995. If you are interested on the subject this is a film for you, otherwise you might just watch it to learn how Bosnian society looks like.

Plot is interestingly imagined, but it is not really life realistic. Since I know Bosnian society well, I am not sure that somebody would come and offer money for the land. But I am not that sure.

What I am sure is that this film excellently portrays society in eastern Bosnia.

For those who are looking for some fun, excitement, or action, there is nothing to see here. However for those who want to see one tradition, country, state, lifestyle, culture, facts there is something to see. Reminds me of real life problems like finances, health, work... But even then, this is still poor movie. Too boring, passive, and too much talk. I expected more action and reaction (e.g. To snow), and more depth like stepping on a landmine or at least seeing situation during and after sale, during and after winter... Instead it has no end. It is unusual to see Emira Hadzihafizbegovic in such poor movie, where even he can't show his acting skills, charisma... Worse than Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020), Sabina K. (2015)... Poor, empty, unfinished.

I recently saw this at the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival. Writer/director Aida Bergic sets this story of survivors of the Bosnian war of the 1990's in a small rural village of present day and the few remaining villagers still there who are trying to eek out a living canning fruit and vegetables and making rugs to sell to anyone who may come here way. Onlt about a dozen or so villagers remain who are mostly women and children except for one old man who is the village elder. An aggressive developer wants to come in and buy their land and they are faced with selling or staying. This a good small film with some wonderful performances and a subdued but powerful script. Lot's of imagery here as this film examines Bosnia's past and the effects of the war that are still reverberating today. I would give this a 7.0 out of 10.