Original Title: Naša porodična bašta

Year: 2022

Length: 40 min

Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Film Category: Documentary Shorts

Cast & Credits

Director: Smirna Kulenovic

Producer: Nedim Karalic

Cinematografpher: Amer Beganovic

Editor: Nedim Karalic, Tatjana Nikolic

Production: Photonchich

Film Synopsis:

Our Family Garden is a powerful documentary that follows the journey of 100 women from Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, and various European countries who came together in August 2021 to plant 1000 calendula plants in abandoned war trenches on the front line of defense on Zlatište hill, Sarajevo. The women, survivors of the siege, reject constant victimization and instead choose peace and solidarity with all kinds of life in the traumatized ecosystem. Through this artistic-activist project, the film explores the role of women as bearers of new changes and the possibility of healing both society and the environment. With new wars drawing violence into the collective consciousness and environment, Our Family Garden is a timely exploration of the possibilities of overcoming war trauma.

Director's Biography

Smirna Kulenović (Sarajevo / BIH) is a transdisciplinary artist, activist, and researcher based in Vienna, Austria. Her practice focuses on performance, participatory, and public art - as methods of addressing cultural, personal, and environmental embodiments of trauma, identity, and memory in post-war landscapes. Her latest artistic research focuses on interspecies rituals and dialogue. She is working as an artist-researcher at Ars Electronica Center (BioLab and Deep Space), in Linz - as well as a guest lecturer at Kunstuniversität Linz (Interface Cultures) and Anton Bruckner Private University (Dance Institute).

She is the founder and artistic coordinator of the Collective for the direct liberation of public spaces Dobre Kote in Sarajevo (BiH) and the international Nomadic Collective for Performing Spontaneous Action TAZ 22 (Bosnia, Brazil, Italy, France, Portugal).