SNIJEG (SNOW)
Bosnia Herzogovina, 2008, 100 minutes, Colour.
Zana Marjanovic, Jasna Beri.
Directed by Aida Begic.
Snijeg is a moving film about the aftermath of the Balkan wars. The setting is Bosnia Herzogovina in 1997-98.
The film is set in autumn-winter, a small village inhabited by refugees from other towns, all women except for the imam and a little boy who is mute because of the traumas of war. The group in the village try to earn a living by growing fruit, harvesting it and making preserves and jams which they sell by the roadside. The film is interesting in its presentation of this group of women, many of them very earthy. However, the central character, Alma, stands out. She is a devout Muslim, a widow who lives with her rather haughty mother-in-law who is the chief member of the village.
Possibilities open up: a group of entrepreneurs arrive from the city interested in buying up the land for development; on the other hand, after an accident on the highway where a truck crashes into the jam stall, the driver offers to transport all the jams and preserves and so develop a business. The postscript to the film indicates that the inhabitants did not sell their village but rather employed the young man and have built up a trade.
Throughout the film there is great regret at the death of the men, fathers and husbands, sons. One of the entrepreneurs is a Serb who comes, wanting to make some kind of recompense for the war, having saved one of the inhabitants of the village but unable to save another.
The film is very sad in showing the futility and ugliness and brutality of the clash between Serbs and Bosnians. The director is a young Bosnian woman, a writer-director.
1.The impact of the drama, the war and its aftermath, the women and their survival? The memories of the war, the deaths of the men?
2.Audience knowledge of Bosnia and the 1990s, the long history of the clash with the Serbs, the Muslim population, the Orthodox population? The war, impoverishment? The dead and the missing?
3.The film as a week in the life of the village? The small village, the mountains, the countryside, the woods? The population? Their work, the fruit, the trade? Processing the fruit by hand? The jars and the storage? Selling the jams by the roadside – and the few customers? Survival? Family, relationships? The importance of the absent men?
4.The structure: the days, the sense of drama with the young man promising to come by Wednesday, the arrival of the agent and the entrepreneur? The pressure on the group to sell?
5.Alma as the centre, the catalyst for what happened in the village? In herself, age, beauty, marriage, the death of her husband, a retired widow, living with her mother-in-law, as a servant, her moods, her criticisms? The opening charades, Alma at work, waiting on people? Hard work with the fruit, the production, the selling? The accident, her doing a deal with the driver? Waiting for him to come, trusting his word? Her reaction to the buyers, the argument against selling the village? Her mother-in-law and her decision? Attracted by the young driver? Her development as a woman, her self-consciousness as a Muslim woman, her clothes, her hair? Her hopes? The postscript and the trade?
6.Nadija: a boisterous widow, tough, her family, daughter, her energy? At work, her clothes? Arguing? The continued search for her husband? The role-plays and the charades, her husband? Her daughter? Her selling the fruit – and not wanting to be mistaken as a hooker? Her arguments, the outsiders and their persuading her to sell? Her hopes? The discussions about her husband, the Serb admitting he could not save him? Her daughter, her longing for her father, her upset about her father’s death?
7.The imam, his role in the village, leadership, teaching the little boy, the boy and the effects of war? His being lost in the woods and the imam searching?
8.The mother-in-law, her moodiness, demanding, illness, her final decision?
9.The weaving woman, Muslim, her work in the village, relationship with the others, the beauty of her weaving? Her trying to be persuaded to sell?
10.The young woman, her gaudy style, her boyfriend in Sweden? His gift? The phone call, her hopes dashed?
11.The grandmother, her grandchildren, work, anger, her sense of loss, the arguments, willing to sell?
12.The agent, Serb, his being with the women, the discussions, trying to persuade them to sell, his hard-sell style? The entrepreneur, his visit, brashness, language, despising the people? Trying to trick them? Their being stranded, the car breakdown, the snow? Eating with the group?
13.The failure of the driver to turn up on Wednesday? The women wanting to sell? The talking points about a future for the village, for the women, for their children, education? The arrival of the driver on a later day?
14.One year later, Alma, rebuilding the village despite the difficulties, the trade, the young driver, morale? Hope for Bosnia in the 21st century?
