Jasmila Zbanic Quotes

Jasmila Zbanic

Profession : Director

Birth : December 19, 1974

The Wahhabi movement is a form of radical Islam that people here say did not exist before in Bosnia, where Islam had co-existed with other major religions and was much softer and more liberal.

Jasmila Zbanic

Cinema connects people: they respond as a group, you feel you are not alone, and you see you are not alone. Capitalism is destroying this social aspect of films, and even empathy, by creating the illusion that you are more important than the next person: 'You will buy this because you are special.' That is horrible.

Jasmila Zbanic

Always, for me, when I am dealing with subjects related to my country that are very emotional, I have to find the right tone and distance because, obviously, I start with anger, asking 'why that happened' and 'why it is still happening.' I work to rise above my personal anger but still stay connected to my emotions. That's a big challenge.

Jasmila Zbanic

What I'm trying to do with my work is to break open things that are sealed, that are under siege.

Jasmila Zbanic

I grew up during the shift to socialism, and since it was my childhood, I used to think that everything was beautiful and human.

Jasmila Zbanic

It was important to feel that you were resisting the fascism around you. But we had no electricity to watch movies. We were imagining our movies.

Jasmila Zbanic

I have never understood why people identify with criminals: even if your father and grandfather were criminal, you have to find a way to be free.

Jasmila Zbanic

'Grbavica' is first of all a story about love, about love that is not pure because it has been mixed with hate, disgust, trauma, despair.

Jasmila Zbanic

In Bosnia, there are no 35mm cameras. There are no film labs.

Jasmila Zbanic

In the case of Bosnia, studies showed that turning to religion was a consequence of post-war depression and dissatisfaction.

Jasmila Zbanic

Music, for me, in a film is never... I don't want to use music as a slave of the image. I want music to be art, or a body in itself to give something to the film.

Jasmila Zbanic

'For Those Who Can Tell No Tales' is a story of memory and the energy of places that remain full of drama, pain, and denial.

Jasmila Zbanic

The more empathy you have and the more connected you are to society, the better off you'll be.

Jasmila Zbanic

I want to show that drama doesn't lie only in blood and destroyed buildings but in daily life, in ordinary human beings.

Jasmila Zbanic

My generation has to deal with how to overcome a trauma, how to overcome destruction, and how to tell the truth to the next generation.

Jasmila Zbanic

As a woman filmmaker in Bosnia, I have more privileges than disadvantages. I feel I can do more than my male colleagues with a motherly approach rather than a male approach.

Jasmila Zbanic

In my country, though it is very patriarchal and male-dominated, the public enjoys women-directed movies.

Jasmila Zbanic

If you love your film, you have to fight for it.

Jasmila Zbanic

I have always written - since I was a kid. I might say that I am essentially a writer who is bored to be alone in the room writing. I need to have more people around me. So, I 'write' with a film camera and have a party at the same time by having a bunch of people around.

Jasmila Zbanic

I did go to a film school in Sarajevo. I studied film and theatre directing. There was a war raging in the country while I was studying, and we did not have neither electricity nor cinemas for three and a half years.

Jasmila Zbanic