Best Bosnian drama movies

Bosnia, July 1995. Aida is a translator for the UN in the small town of Srebrenica. When the Serbian army takes over the town, her family is among the thousands of citizens looking for shelter in the UN camp. As an insider to the negotiations Aida has access to crucial information that she needs to interpret. What is at the horizon for her family and people – rescue or death? Which move should she take?

Follow a group of international journalists into the heart of the once cosmopolitan city of Sarajevo—now a danger zone of sniper and mortar attacks where residents still live. While reporting on an American aid worker who’s trying to get children out of the country, a British correspondent decides to take an orphaned girl home to London.

Back from a professional trip to Paris, a neurologist at the pinnacle of his career has to pick up his wife so that they can attend a family meal to commemorate his father, who died a year before. At his mother's flat, the guests are waiting for the priest to arrive while arguing about all kinds of things connected and unconnected with the world’s events and wars.

Nikola’s children are taken away from him after social services decide that he is too poor to provide them with a decent living environment. He sets off on foot to lodge a complaint in Belgrade.

Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1991. After the fall of the communists, Divko Buntić, who has lived in exile in Germany for the past twenty years, returns to the village where he grew up, intent on reclaiming ownership of his family home, driving a swanky Mercedes and accompanied by his young bride; by Bonny, his lucky black cat; and with pockets full of money.

Two years after the Bosnian civil war, a town that is slowly rebuilding itself must whip together a democracy when it's announced the U.S. President Bill Clinton might be paying a visit.

The story begins a couple days after the war has ended. A group of Serbian soldiers in charge of clearing the fields from mines discovers a man sealed inside a factory's basement. A mysterious man says he is 'ours', he doesn't feel cold, isn't hungry and only asks for cigarettes. As soon as he is brought along, people start disappearing, and the infighting begins. Who is the mystery man?

Set in Sarajevo in May 2021, the city's famous Old Town tries to recover after a difficult pandemic year. When a visitor from Zagreb comes looking for the best kebabs in town, a harmless gesture causes the disintegration of the business and private lives of several people.

An alcoholic Bosnian poet sends his wife and daughter away from Sarajevo so they can avoid the troubles there. However, he is soon descended upon by a pair of orphaned brothers. The brothers have escaped a massacre in their own village and have come to the Bosnian capital in search of a long lost Aunt. The poet befriends the boys and together they try to survive the horror of the siege of Sarajevo.

When 50-year-old Milena finds out about the terrible past of her seemingly ideal husband, while simultaneously learning of her own cancer diagnosis, she begins an awakening from the suburban paradise she has been living in.

Zeko, a barber and ex-soldier suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, invites his brother Braco and his friend Švabo to Eid festivities. He intends to take advantage of the festive mood and ask his brother, a gambler and alcoholic, to change his ways. Braco doesn’t want to listen and will not take the conversation seriously. Zeko puts a razor under his brother’s neck, forcing him to promise he will change; furious, Braco leaves, telling Zeko he will never see him again, while Švabo suggests that Zeko see a psychiatrist. Alone, without his only friend and his brother, Zeko decides to kill himself – until Muki, a young man selling books door-to-door, stops him.

Siniša Mesjak, an arrogant and ambitious politician on the rise, finds himself in the middle of a scandal. To hide him from the public, the president appoints him as the commissioner of Croatian government on the furthest settled island Trečić, where he is tasked with the organization of local elections. The previous seven commissioners haven't succeeded.

The year is 2156. The civilization you know more does not exist. All this was preceded by wars. Natural disasters of great magnitude. Now the rule ... that there is no rule, the law does not exist. There is only hunger, death and hunting ...

Senada is 31 and she lives in Poljice neighborhood in Lukavac municipality with her partner and two daughters. She is pregnant with her third child for approximately five months. Since she didn’t have health insurance, she does not go to the doctor’s. When she started bleeding, she goes to the hospital. The doctor told Senada that she needs an emergency surgery and she needs to pay 500 EUR. Without a health insurance card and without money, Senada returns home.

The story of a woman who firmly believes that her newborn baby was stolen from her more than 20 years ago, while she was told that her baby died.

Fuke visits his uncle Idriz and aunt Sabira to fix a broken boiler. He soon finds out there's a lot more that needs to be repaired. Idriz and Sabira aren't ready to accept the loss of their only son in the Balkan war, seven years earlier. When Fuke's car refuses to start, Fuke has to stay over in their house. He meets a lot of old friends and neighbors there.

Mirko, an average football player at the end of his career, is back in his hometown because of a knee injury. His family owns a restaurant which is on the verge of collapsing, both because of the economic unprofitability, and because of the plans of local criminals who are interested in the plot where the restaurant is located. One of those criminals is Slavko, Mirko's childhood friend, who suddenly returns to his life, just when Mirko needs him the most.

Story about a forty-something Sarajevo taxi driver named Fudo (Saša Petrović) who decides to take control of his own destiny. Fudo doesn't earn much, so he supplements his income by offering tips to the local criminal syndicate and turning a blind eye to their nefarious dealings. One day, after offering a particularly bad bit of advice to a violent gangster, Fudo is badly beaten. When Fudo's wife Azra (Daria Lorenci) discovers what has happened, she decides to take the couple's infant son and move out. Now determined to win his wife back and restore peace in the home, Fudo decides to go straight. But cleaning up his act isn't going to be easy, because after borrowing enough cash from black market dealer Sejo (Emir Hadžihafizbegović) to purchase a van and then refusing to aid him in any underhanded dealings, the only person willing to cut him any slack is the sympathetic Azra.

The daily hardships of a war-scarred Bosnian village, where all that remains are widows and orphans, are painstakingly documented in this first feature from director Aida Begic. Snow offers insight about the psychological aftereffects of the 1992-95 civil war from a distinctively female point of view without showing any of the brutality or carnage.

Hurikán rushes out to save his favourite beer stand from closure by fetching a new keg to impress the bartender he has a crush on. In a wild Prague district, he faces robbers, cops, and his own thirst. Despite getting the keg, he succumbs to temptation.

In Sarajevo, a teenager seeking affirmation reveals that she had sex for the first time during a game of 'truth or dare' among middle schoolers. Trapped in her own lie, she fabricates a pregnancy and becomes the center of a controversy that spirals out of control.

Being away for many years, Amir returns to Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to take custody of his parent's remains. They were murdered during the war but their bodies haven't been recovered so far. Amir also decides to visit the place of his birth. There, besides a ruined house, he also finds a forgotten friend and those who know about him more than he knows about himself.

At the traditional Muslim funeral service for his father Fikret Varupa, sixteen year old boy from Sarajevo, learns that his father owes money to Hamid, a man he does not even know. The debt is considerable and Hamid does not want it to go to the grave with the body, so the debt automatically passes from the father to the son. Since in Bosnia this way of collecting debts, at a funeral, is considered to be utterly humiliating, it is never, ever applied. Fikret and his entire family become subjects of ridicule. Fikret, who is practically still a child, is decisive to "redeem his father's soul". Wishing to repay his father's debt and to secure the forgiveness, Fikret wanders into the real world of Sarajevo, the world that is ruled by post-war chaos, misery and poverty and becomes an ideal target for two corrupted policemen who wish to "help" him: they plant the kidnapped girl on him.

Asja, a 45-year-old single woman living in Sarajevo, meets Zoran, a 46-year-old banker, at a dating event. Zoran is not there looking for love though, but for forgiveness. During the war in 1993 he was shooting at the city from the opposite side, and he wants to meet his first victim. Now, they both have to relive the pain in their search for forgiveness.

The story of a forced march of the first proletarian shock brigade during World War II.

Friendship and love at a time of life when impulses and changes are irresistible.

A man, a child, two wars, a river, a tree. A man and a child meet under a tree on a river bank, sharing the same memory and a secret. They find in each other the serenity, the silence and the time they lost in the flowing water of the river.

Sarajevo on 28 of June, 2014. At the Hotel Europa, the best hotel in town, the manager Omer prepares to welcome a delegation of diplomatic VIPs. On the centenary of the assassination that is considered to have led to World War I, an appeal for peace and understanding is supposed to start from here. But the hotel staff have other worries: having not been paid for months, they are planning to go on strike. Hatidza from the hotel laundry is elected strike leader even though her daughter Lamija, who works in reception, is firmly against industrial action. Meanwhile, in the sealed-off presidential suite, a guest from France rehearses a speech. Elsewhere, a television reporter conducts interviews about war and its consequences. Was Gavrilo Princip, the 1914 assassin, a criminal or a national hero? What long shadow does his deed cast into the present?

Mirjana returns home to attend her mother’s funeral. Now, surrounded by stone in a place where time seems to have come to a halt, she has to face her father and his expectations as well as her own emotions and feelings of guilt.

This film follows father Ahmed and son Tarik Karaga during WWII and the Siege of Sarajevo.

In the summer of 1993, a group of Bosnian refugees flee to Sweden due to the war in Bosnia. The Swedish Red Cross places refugees in a pavilion for migrants. Among them is the middle-aged married couple, Dervish and Adem. Dervish meets the Swede Ingrid in the pavilion and despite the language barrier, the two become good friends. Then, Dervish finds out that Ingrid is seriously ill...

This is a story about pain, search for meaning in life and friendship of orphaned. Syrian boys - Isa, Ahmed and Muataz - who live a difficult life as refugees in the magical, mythical Turkish city of Sanliurfa. In their search for recovery from traumatic past, the children will cross the path from destructiveness and hostility to meaningfulness and love. By finding friends in each other, the boys will find their inner peace.

In a sweaty, overcrowded tram in Sarajevo, a shy teenager is beset by every imaginable impediment as he tries to capture the attention of his object of desire. Yet the overheated hero of this wild farce will not be easily defeated.

Movie follows life of Croatian war hero general Ante Gotovina.

April 1992. Members of a large family strewn around the former Yugoslavia gather around the death bed of their elderly matriarch. She is not well, but the forecast of a family doctor that her death is a matter of minutes away proves incorrect, so the waiting stretches out for days. Relatives start bickering, playing tricks and arguing over the inheritance to be left by the old woman, especially over her large family house in Sarajevo. Despite her deteriorating health, Grandma happily joins the fray. It appears as if that might be what is keeping her alive. Family feuds and intrigues directed against one of the sisters are more important to the family than the clear, terrifying signs of an approaching cataclysm. When the scheming is finally revealed, it is too late. A war has begun in Sarajevo.

The film is dedicated to the struggles that lasted from June 24 to October 6, 1992, when the Banja Luka-Bijeljina corridor was liberated. Operation “Corridor” meant life for the population of both Krajinas – the supply of food, electricity and medicine was re-established.

Merjem-Meri, an unambitious, 30-year-old homemaker and mother to 8-year-old girl Mila, moves back to her parental home after 10 years of marriage. Soon after, Meri realizes she is stuck in a circle of provincial rules and expectations and a complex relationship with her ambitious mother and spoiled younger brother. Her hope to get the custody of her daughter wanes from day to day because she has no chance of finding a permanent job. The only thing that makes her happy, but also makes everyone else look down on her, is participation in an audition for a film role in her neighborhood.

After ten years in Germany, Armin returns to Bosnia. He just got married and wants to surprise his father, but he is not home. Neighbours say that he has been arrested, nobody knows why. The papers say that he is a suspect for the war crime back in the 90s. Armin wants to learn the truth and the neighbourhood to celebrate May Labor Day.

In the 1990s, the Yugoslavia Federation falls apart in bloody wars. Perpetual student Milan, a Serb from a patriarchal community, and Kenan, a Muslim cellist, are a gay couple living in Sarajevo. Their lives, intimate and public, are shaken up by the aggression in Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose devastating consequences unfold in inter-ethnic hatred.

A couple of morticians entertain themselves by betting on how many cold customers will come in that day. But one of the corpses refuses to cooperate...

Ivana, Clara and Marina are three women from different backgrounds living at the same time in Sarajevo. Ivana dreams about moving to the USA, Clara works during the night to save money for her studies and Marina is in love with her best friend who is moving to a different country. Each one fights to achieve her own goals, but most of the time society doesn´t accept what's not in accordance with its norms.

A man earns his first paycheck by driving his motorcycle, for the pleasure of rich people, through a mine field in Bosnia.

Since Zlatan fled the war in former Yugoslavia, his contact with his homeland has only consisted of him regularly sending money to his old aunt who is the only surviving relative there. Now his adult daughter is set on visiting Sarajevo (Zlatan’s hometown) together with him in order to walk the streets of his youth and hear his story. Despite initial unwillingness, Zlatan lets himself be persuaded and the reunion with the home country brings both absurd surprises and secrets from the past.

While her middle class, socialist family is falling apart around her, Berina, a young artist, tries to cope both with her awakening sexuality and her mother Jasna's imminent death. Her father cannot accept the fact that life is already happening without his wife. Her younger sister Luna cannot or does not want to grow up. For everybody's sake, Berina wants to save her mother's life and her family the only way she can - through art, and through magic.

Sara firmly disagrees about her granddaughter’s wedding plan. To convince her not to marry, she takes Andrea to her husband grave and begs him for a sign.

After begging her to come back, Azra gets her daughter Lejla back at the airport. In the car, she tells her a surprising news and takes her to an unknown place where mother and daughter will revisit their roles.

The armed conflicts of the 1990s not only visibly destroyed the land of the former Yugoslavia, but also left the deepest wounds in the memory of each of its belligerent nations. There are as many different interpretations of that bleak past as there are countries affected. It is therefore hard to expect absolute harmony when, less than two decades since the war ended, a diverse group of veterans gathers at a remote mountain hotel for a therapy session over several days. On the contrary, such a dangerously volatile situation can suddenly ignite by just one thoughtless word, or a seemingly dirty look. That’s because the former soldiers, obstinately holding on to their fundamental masculinity and their prejudices, refusing to expose the inhumanity of the atrocities perpetrated. However, this quietness is just about to be broken and hidden emotions are to be faced.

A microcosm of the fathomless suffering that remains more than 16 years since the siege of Sarajevo ended, writer-director Aida Begic’s follow-up to her 2008 Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize-winning debut Snow tells the story of two orphaned siblings struggling in a transitional society where only the fittest survive.

Thirteen European directors explore the theme of Sarajevo; what this city has represented in European history over the past hundred years, and what Sarajevo stands for today in Europe. These eminent filmmakers of different generations and origins offer exceptional singular styles and visions.

A young man by the name of Atif Kurtovic goes into a mine for the first time in his life to become a miner and to continue exactly where his now retired grandfather had left off. However, his fate is soon completely changed when he is picked as the face for the most valuable banknote in the country, the bill in the amount of one thousand dinars. Because of this, Atif soon finds himself on his way to Belgrade where Tito's personal photographer takes his picture and thus allows Atif to become a part of history. Into this story enters a young girl whose nickname, "Hiljadarka / A Thousand", is no accident and with whom Atif falls in love. When Tito announces his personal visit to Atif's hometown, there begins an adventure that they will all remember for the rest of their lives.

The story of a boy from the orphanage for abandoned children who tried to find out the truth about his origins. Through the story of a boy Alen, it describes the consequences of war casualties and immense injustice that war brought most helpless, the children.

The film deals with the tragedy of the women survivors of the Srebrenica genocide, or rather, the consequences of the horrors they experienced - it is about women whose sole purpose in life is to locate the bones of their loved ones and give them a decent burial. Fifteen years later, they still want just one simple thing - the truth. As a contrast, the film deals with trivialities of modern living, obsessed with different reality shows...

Arriving on an island, a young woman embarks on a journey to discover her identity and place in the world. Her experiences on the island unravel a tapestry of past events, bringing hidden truths to light. As the situation grows increasingly complex, she is driven towards a profound reconciliation and acceptance, starting with herself and gradually encompassing those around her.

Armin has been unemployed for a long time, and in desperately need of a job. His wife Jasmina is pregnant, and his son Edin has behavioral problems at school.

In a story that follows some lives and their respective reincarnations over time, Valerio is a prince in the year one thousand and a doctor of the S.e.r.t. in the year two thousand. Altea on the other hand is a princess, who after a thousand years was reincarnated as a university student who volunteers as a mission and it also operates in the same S.e.r.t.. Their antagonist, in the past as in the present, is a man who was an alchemist and who today is the evil director of the same hospital where the S.e.r.t. is located. of Valerio and Altea. A rather anomalous director, given that he takes advantage of the cover offered by his position to traffic drugs in a big way. A fourth character is added to the three, Herrmugnen, who in the story embodies the mythological figure of the giant hero.

Five uniquely moving films about motherhood—bubbling up in the grocery store, the cemetery, or even a car ride—come together in this omnibus film set in Sarajevo.

Kym, an Australian tourist, decides to travel to Bosnia. Her guidebook leads her to Višegrad, a small town steeped in history, on the border of Bosnia and Serbia. After a night of insomnia in the 'romantic' Hotel Vilina Vlas, Kym discovers what happened there during the war. She can no longer be an ordinary tourist and her life will never be the same again.

Short film, post-war drama.

Asthmatic grandmother named Safa and her six-month baby granddaughter Jasmina, are transferred in a humanitarian convoy from the besieged Sarajevo to a peaceful small city at the Adriatic coast. By a combination of circumstances, their first neighbour is an alcoholic named Stipe. He is constantly causing troubles and making their lives complicated. During one of her asthma attacks, having no other choices, Safa rings Stipe's bell and hands him the baby. Stipe starts to temporarily take care about baby Jasmina. Safa dies at the hospital and now Stipe is left alone with the baby. He's clumsy, even funny. She becomes his only mission in life. He is not ready to give Jasmina away to anyone. He loved her as if his own granddaughter even daughter. Suddenly someone is at the door. Stipe recognises Jasmina's mother. In spite of all his internal struggles, he returns Jasmina to her mother. Stipe stays alone, again.

The story begins in a small village in central Bosnia in 1989, when Asad, a 25-year-old boy, returns from school with the desire to marry his childhood sweetheart. Not knowing that his son already has marriage plans, father Agan arranges his son's marriage with the father of another girl whom Asad does not even know. After the sudden death of his father, the whole village begins to remind Asad of his bequest to his father, and until then the boring everyday life in the village becomes a dynamic and comical revelation of all the characters and their individual stories.

Fedja is haunted by his conscience in the form of Bibek.

A ball spins around, stuck in the river that goes through the Grbavica neighborhood in Sarajevo.

25 years from the Homeland war, Croatia is far from ideal of the veterans, now disgruntled men silenced with pensions. A few war veterans are brought back together by an idea of Museum of Homeland Thanksgiving in Paromlin building in Zagreb city center.

A single mother discovers that her daughter displays signs of autism.

Upon learning that a planned school trip was postponed due to financial constraints, high-school student Alem – an orphan who lives with his grandmother – decides to take matters into his own hands and secure the money for the trip in whatever way possible. Alem’s manliness and credibility are put to test when his criminal role model Paze suggests robbing a supermarket.

The film is a high-concept project with five stories exploring the themes of motherhood and pregnancy, directed by women filmmakers from five former Yugoslav republics. “Croatian Story” follows an anguished painter who must decide whether or not to keep one of her unborn twins, diagnosed with Down syndrome. “Serbian Story” finds an expectant mother in the same emergency room with a charming killer. “Bosnia-Herzegovina Story” centers on a financially strapped Sarajevo family whose son?s lover is pregnant. “Macedonian Story” unfolds in a clinic where a drug addict struggles to keep her baby, and “Slovenian Story” ends the omnibus on a humorous note with a nun who finds her own way to immaculate conception.