NA PUTU (ON THE PATH)

Bosnia, 2010, 90 minutes, Colour.
Zrinka Cvitesic, Leon Lucev, Ermin Bravo, Mirjana Karanovic.
Directed by Jasmila Zbanic.

In her Golden Bear award winning film (and winner of the 2006 Ecumenical Award), Gbavica, writer-director, Jasmila Bjanik, raised the issue of women raped during the 1990s Balkan wars and the fate of children from the rapes. The film contributed to changes of the law in Bosnia.

Four years later, she looks at Sarajevo and Bosnian society to examine how it has dealt with re-building. How much does the West influence Bosnian life – and many secularised Muslims – with its more open morality, its materialism and its sense of personal freedom? How much does traditional Islam influence modern Bosnia? And, more to the point here, how does a renewal of stricter living of Islam which intends to purify (as well as isolate) the devout while emphasising the dominance of men and the subservience of black-clad women wield an influence?

These themes were to the fore in Berlinale films about the Berlin Turkish community, Shahada (Faith) and Die Fremde (When You Leave).

This film focuses on Luna, a flight attendant, modern, pretty, comfortable, and her partner, Amar, a flight controller with a fondness for drink and joviality. When suspended for an error, he literally crashes into a friend from the war years who offers him a job, teaching computers, at a camp for a Muslim group of very strict observance. Amar becomes absorbed in this new way of life, an antidote, with religion, prayer, control, to his life during the war and after. Luna cannot understand this at all.

The screenplay presents the options clearly, detailing manners, customs, clothes, music, rituals, to make their point. But the key issue is marriage according to ritual and pregnancy within marriage.

On the Path (of Islam) also means pregnancy, the situation in which Luna eventually finds herself. It shows how change is occurring and how resistance to change (and western permissiveness) is also taking hold.

1.Bosnia, post-war? Fifteen years on? Society, the trauma, recovery and rebuilding? The new generation? Culture and traditions?

2.The western influence in Bosnia, the influence of traditional Islam? The aftermath of communism? Strict fundamentalism, devout Muslims, the isolated groups, the Saleefa and their camps? The accusation of training terrorists?

3.The city of Sarajevo, modern, ancient, the streets, clubs, apartments? The mosques?

4.The lake, its beauty, isolated, the camp, education and training, a Muslim sect? The Koran? The men and women, the separation? The women enclosed? The men and prayer? The imams?

5.The introduction to Luna, looking in the mirror, the camera, examining herself, a woman, wanting to be pregnant? Her work as a flight attendant? Amar, his relationship with his wife, the sexual relationship, inability for pregnancy, visit to the clinic, his sample, the clinical result? The possibility of artificial insemination?

6.The introduction to Amar, as a flight controller, his working with Luna, drunk on the job, the phone call and his singing? The tribunal, suspended for six months?

7.Luna and her being upset, Amar admitting his mistakes? Going rafting with the friends and the exhilaration? Crashing into the car of the friend from the war, Bahrija? His calmness about the accident, identifying himself, in strict Muslim dress? His wife completely in black? Luna thinking she was a Ninja? Bahrija making the job offer? Luna against it?

8.Luna and the visit to the camp, Bahrija’s wife? Their discussions? The barge, the isolation, the tent, the clothes, her walking, swimming, spying on the men? The reactions of the other women? The various styles of dress? Showing their hair or not? Amar and his work, remote, Luna leaving?

9.Bahrija, soldiers in the past, the experience of the war, Amar not contacting his friends, talking with Bahrija, going to the mosque? Bahrija and his prayer, his song to the gathering of the men? The women listening? His wife and her help? The young woman, the second marriage, it being against civil law, Amar and his stating that Allah’s law was more important than civil law?

10.Luna, at work, on the flights, her moods? Her friends, going to the bar and talking things over, their puzzle, setting up the artificial insemination? Amar’s return, accompanying his wife? Luna finally changing her mind? Her fainting, the irony that she was pregnant? Amar thinking it impossible – because God was punishing them with infertility because of not having a Muslim marriage? Luna not sure about keeping the baby?

11.The friends and their talk, the past, coping? Luna revisiting her house, seeing the young girl? Her anger against God, her parents’ death?

12.Amar, going to the mosque, prayer at home, not explaining things to Luna, the sexual encounter and the pregnancy? Their meeting? Luna not understanding, asking Amar to come back to her?

13.The scenes with the grandmother, her wise advice, the celebration of Eid, the gathering of all the friends, Amar’s presence, his rant against permissiveness?

14.The end, Amar and his future? Luna and her future? The possibility of reconciliation?

15.The post-war Balkans and rebuilding? Showing how? The West, the music during the credits, all that is sin according to the strict Muslims? Islam, secular, the strict observance, purifying from sin, religion as a sect, the judgmental attitudes and the implications?