Excursion

Una Gunjak / Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Norway, Croatia, Serbia, Qatar / 2023 / Czech Premiere / 93 min.

synopsis

A teenager named Imam lives in Sarajevo and attends ninth grade. In an effort to gain attention and recognition from her classmates, she one day claims that she had sex with an older boy named Damir. In reality, he rejected her. The lie quickly spreads and takes on a life of its own. The heroine gains new friends, but loses control of her own identity. Bosnian director Una Gunjak’s directorial debut focuses in parallel on parents and teachers whose approach to freedom and security was shaped by the Bosnian war. The film, which faithfully depicts the emotional vulnerability of both children and adults, received a special jury mention at the Locarno Film Festival.

“As a woman in her mid-thirties untangling the knots of her sexual upbringing, as a Bosnian woman observing the youth of today, and lastly, as a feminist – I felt an urge and an obligation to make this film.” — Una Gunjak (Source)

biography

Director and editor Una Gunjak (* 1986) was born in Sarajevo, and studied film in Turin and London, where she now works. Her short film The Chicken (2014), about a girl trying to save a chicken from being slaughtered, was screened in the Semaine de la Critique section at the Cannes Film Festival, and at Sundance.