Directed by Jasmila Zbanic, Grbavica is a movie on a Muslim mother Esma who tries desperately to hide her rape scene from her daughter Sara who is just 12 years old. The film is a moving portrayal of Esma’s life whose daughter thinks that her father was a great martyr: but the underlying reality is far from the truth.



Sara is not a love child but one who was conceived in Esma’s womb when she was raped by a man in the concentration camp at Bosnia.



In Grbavica, the director highlights the everyday torturing episodes of the post-Bosnia period where the kids are found competing with one another to make their father the bravest war-hero and the families flooding from one place to another to look for their missing member.



In the movie, Zbanic wanted to show the real scenario of post-Bosnia. Women were the worst sufferers who were used as a tool in the war. They were gang raped and made pregnant till the moment when it becomes impossible for them to go for an abortion.



Zbanic also said that she wanted to bring forward to the world what it is to be a Muslim women coz she feels that they are always shown as fully covered from head to toe, wearing a hijab and cooking for their husband: but this is not always so. She wanted to show to the world that though there were many years of hatred that lies deep in the heart but through Esma she wanted to convey to the world that it is impossible to hate one’s child even if he/she is conceived in the most disrespectable situation.