Women Make Waves International Film Festival

Program

As If I'm Not There

Juanita WILSON 2010 Ireland/Macedonia/Sweden Fiction color 109min Bosinian, Serbian, C Digi Beta
This is a contemporary European story about a young, urban woman from Sarajevo whose life is shattered when she is caught up in the Bosnian war. A soldier who walks into her apartment and tells her to pack her things, and she is imprisoned in a warehouse in a remote region of Bosnia. Captured and taken away from everything she has ever known, she has to learn to survive with nothing but her mind to escape from the hell she finds herself in. She has to constantly battle to retain a shred of humanity in the face of such absolute hatred. When she realizes that surviving means more than staying alive, she has to make a decision which will change her life forever.The story will be told in a fragmented, impressionistic way as she tries to piece her life back together and make sense of all that has happened to her.

Director

Juanita WILSON

Irish director, Juanita WILSON has just followed up her Oscar nominated first film, The Door, with an equally hard hitting true story from the Bosnian War, As If I’m Not There, based on Croatian journalist Slavenka DRAKULIC’s book of the same name. The film went on to win the prestigious Silver Pyramid at the Cairo International Film Festival in December 2010 and was selected for the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January 2011. She won the “Best Director” and “Best Screenplay” at the 2011 Irish Film and Television Academy Awards in February, and the film also went on to win “Best Film.”

Director's Statement ▾

Juanita WILSON

2010 The Door

2010 As If I’m Not There

DirectorJuanita WILSON

ProducerJames FLYNN, Natalie LICHTENTHAELER, Karen RICHARDS

ScreenplayJuanita WILSON

CinematographerTim FLEMING

EditorNathan NUGENT

SoundTsvetan KADYSKI

MusicKiril DZAJKOVSKI

CastNatasha PETROVIC, Fedja STUKAN, Stellan SKARSGÄARD

J Skars Production Ltd & Octagon Films Ltd Ardmore Studios

Herbert Road, Bray Co. Wicklow, Ireland

Tel: +353 (0) 1-276-9468, Fax: +353 (0) 1-276-9471

Wide Eye Films Ltd 70 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay Dublin 2, Ireland

Tel: +353 (0) 1-678-7930