Premières neiges

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.

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.

It shows what Bosnian women endured after serbs genocide in Bosna

Wonderfully acted, beautifully filmed, and well written story. Very real depiction of village life in Bosnia, and the impacts of war that these people experienced only a short while ago. This film was very touching and didn't need to rely on huge action scenes - even in its simplest moments it was very powerful. The symbolism is also very interesting(the young boy's hair, the snow) and may take some contemplating to understand, but overall this was film wasn't trying to be complex or confusing like some films on this subject can be. The characters are wonderful and it was very touching to see their personal struggles with their loss, and their strength in carrying on with life. All actors were wonderful, especially the the main actress who played Alma. I hope to see more from this director. Highly recommended!

There is a tendency among film critics today to praise the intentions of directors, especially when the director is from a part of the world that has seen much bloodshed and cruelty. And more so when the causes are recent and the director is young and is brimming with humanity. But the quality of film making does not rest on these things. The result of such a tendency here is to react to the intention and not the result. The story is simple. A group of Bosnian woman are forced to live alone and do their best to survive as their men folk have all gone off to fight and not returned. They make plum jam. A lot of it. And hard work of it. In an early scene, one woman is seen struggling to pull a great big plastic box full of plums up a hill. It showed how tough these girls are. Audiences will ask 'where's the wheel barrow?' This would have proved how bright they are. But no. Relentlessly the 32 year old director pours his heart out over the struggle Bosnian widow women go through. Busy cutting and no real focus on any one woman leads to a collective protagonist that never ever works. Then a couple of Serbs (the bad guys) turn up and for reasons I can not imagine, want to buy the village. But it is going to snow soon. And… well. Plum loco.