At this point of the Virtual Nomad journey, A (10) already knows all the countries in the world and the capitals of most, if not all, of them. Therefore it is not a surprise that he can accurately place Bosnia and Herzegovina on the map. For the older children, FK (14), L (17) and L’s boyfriend NA (17), the name of the country rings a bell and they know that it has something to do with a conflict. For those of us who lived in Europe in the early 90s, the Bosnian War was a conflict that felt very close. 

But first, as always, food.

Delicious burek and Bosanski Lonac 

The Bosnia and Herzegovina food stop is a lunch that gathers 12 Virtual Nomads. There are a few Balkan restaurants in Sydney but we want to enjoy the takeaway burek from the Burek Guy in Dee Why and we have a couple of great recipes. So cooking it is!

JK collects a beef and a cheese and spinach burek from the Burek Guy in Dee Why. In our previous stop in Albania, some of us tried burek from the Balkan Cafe, which was very good, but for most of the Virtual Nomads this is their first burek. It’s very crispy, very yummy and quite heavy, being made of thin flaky pastry with different fillings. Burek is commonly served in Albania, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Serbia and North Macedonia. It is well received ‒ oily but delicious and very filling.

For the meat eaters, we have bosanski lonac (stew) – a popular dish of Bosnian traditional cuisine, also referred to as the Bosnian national dish. Traditionally it was made in a ceramic pot in a pit in the ground, but AK prepares it with a slow cooker. The dish includes different types of meat and many different vegetables. The ‘lonac’ part of the name refers to the type of ceramic pot used to cook it in. Apparently men in the mines would gather ingredients on their way to work and then put all of them in a clay pot (meat, vegetables, herbs) to cook while they worked. Once the demanding and dangerous work was finished, they had a delicious, slow-cooked dinner waiting for them. 

We accompany the stew and burek with stuffed vegetables and a Bosnian salad. The vegetables – capsicum (pepper or paprika), zucchini and onion – are filled with rice, Bosnian sauce and a meat substitute (that turns out to be very yummy). It is a very easy dish for me to prepare. It takes some time for the vegetables to soften in the oven before the filling is added. After that it is a quick process back to the oven and then to the plates of Virtual Nomads. The lunch is sealed with a delicious raspberry liqueur.

Conflict and more conflict

The early history of Bosnia and Herzegovina shows that the tensions between different communities have existed for centuries. Bosnia and Herzegovina were once part of the Roman Empire (Dalmatia) but the roots of modern Bosnian are from the 6^th and 7^th  century when the Slavic tribes arrived and tensions arose between different communities. The two main tribes were the Croats and the Serbs, and they spent a lot of time fighting. The Ottomans came in 1383 and slowly the area converted into Islam. Ottomans were in the region for a few centuries and once their power diminished, the Croats and the Serbs were fighting for power again. Austria annexed Bosnia to its empire and the eruption of the First World War was sparked in June 2014 when an angry Serbian extremist shot the heir to the Austrian empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo.  

Yugoslavia was a country that existed between 1918 and 1992 and was constituted of the six (socialist) republics of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro. The coexistence was not always easy. For example, during the Second World War the different ethnicities recommenced killing each other. After the war, Yugoslavia was united under the rule of Josep Tito, who ruled the People’s Republic of Yugoslavia until his death in 1980. Then the artificial unity started to crumble again. 

Bosnia and Herzegovina were part of the former Yugoslavia and once it disintegrated, Bosnia and Herzegovina declared national sovereignty on 15 October 1991. A referendum was held on 29 February 1992 favouring independence and the country was formally recognised by the European Community and the United Nations. Bosnian Serbs had boycotted the vote as they felt a closer relationship with the Serbian part of ex-Yugoslavia. After the referendum, Serbian forces surrounded Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was followed by a four-year-long siege (1992-1995) that resulted in over 10,000 deaths, many of them children. The siege of Sarajevo not only resulted in devastating loss of human life but also the destruction of most of the cultural and religious buildings in the city.  

The Bosnian War (1992-1996) claimed more than 100,000 lives and 20,000 – 50,000 women were raped as part of the strategy of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Millions of people left the region as refugees and horrific events took place, the most famous being the massacre of Srebrenica that saw over 8,000 Muslim men and boys murdered. The war ended on 1 November 1995 with the signing of the Dayton Agreement. 

Three books on war and terror

Many of the translated contemporary books from Bosnia and Herzegovina are about the war and, as one translator explains, unfortunately conflict and atrocities seem to be a phenomenon that raises interest in an otherwise relatively unknown region. The international literature from Bosnia and Herzegovina had been carried by a few authors, including Ivo Andric. His book The Bridge on the Drina has been described as an iconic book from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and delivered him a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961. Despite being born in Bosnia and having Croatian heritage, Ivo self-identified as a Serb and therefore this book will need to wait until the Virtual Nomad stops in Serbia, which will be in the distant future (because Virtual Nomads like to take their time to enjoy every stop).

Therefore, I turn to literature from authors that identify themselves as being from the region. 

“Mimmy, I am afraid of WAR” 

My first book is Zlata’s Diary by Zlata Filipović. Known as the ‘Anne Frank of Bosnia’, it is a diary of an ordinary teenager of an educated, affluent family going through the siege in Sarajevo. What starts as a normal, and quite boring, description of friendship issues and pop stars gradually escalates to the horrors of war ‒ friends dying, ever present hunger and cold, a mother who is losing her mind. It is not a particularly fine piece of writing, but the context itself pushes through like a freight train and makes it a harrowing read. It also shows the solidarity people feel in horrendous conditions – neighbours sharing the contents of the parcels they get from abroad, teachers teaching students even if they need to reach the students by running to their homes under sniper fire, birthday celebrations and people going to great lengths to find bird food for Zlata’s pet. And there is some dark humour as well, including the name Zlata’s family and friends give to ‘their own’ sniper. But above all, it is a description of the atrocities of war through the eyes of a child. 

“Some people compare me with Anne Frank. That frightens me, Mimmy. I don’t want to suffer her fate.”

I then move to another book about Sarajevo, Goodbye Sarajevo, which is based on another true story of the Sarajevo siege. It is the story of two sisters. One travels to Croatia as a refugee and the other stays in Sarajevo to take care of younger siblings (of a family of 10 siblings). Written by sisters (as fictionalised versions of themselves), the story jumps from one sister to another. One (Hana) describes the sense of emptiness that permeates the refugee’s life ‒ uncertainty and the awkwardness of depending on others’ mercy for survival. The other (Atka) tells of the horrors of war and the siege ‒ death, hunger and destruction. The writing, again, is not highly skilled with much time spent on details and unnecessary descriptions, but there is a lot of heart in the story. Reading it is to understand what living in the inhumane conditions of war can feel like, but also what refugees go through when they leave their homes, penniless, rootless and hopeless. It is a human story that grows on the reader. It is based on the diaries that both sisters kept during their time apart. Hana describes her life as a refugee with two of her sisters, mainly in Zagreb, and their struggle to have enough money to buy food and for Hana to go to school. Atka works as a translator in Sarajevo, first for a local radio station and then for international journalists. Her days are filled with horror, loss, and destruction but also hope. Both sisters, and their family, meet people of generosity and good will. In the end, it is an incredible, touching human story of survival, love and unity. 

The third book takes me, again, to Sarajevo. The book of poetry, Sarajevo Blues, by Semezdin Mehmedinović has been described as the best book about the Sarajevo siege.  Before the war Mehmedinović was part of the cultural and alternative rock scene in Sarajevo. He was an editor of an anti-communist publication and when the war started, stayed in Sarajevo where he remained until the end of the siege. The book is a deep exposition of the existence in Sarajevo through poems and micro stories. It is skilfully translated by translator Ammiel Alcalay, who offers an extremely insightful introduction. The book itself is harrowing ‒ nearly ethereal in its poetry and nuanced writing. It is superbly written and also nauseating in its description of the war. Semezdin’s narrative is delivered with knife-sharp text. He is cogent and detailed in his political analysis and his poetic symphony of the end of the world in Sarajevo. It is forensic and brilliant, but very different from the previous book I read that brought forth hope and love in the middle of a living hell. This book offers very little light but is an impressive read.

Movies from Bosnia and Herzegovina 

There are outstanding movies made about the Bosnian War. No Man’s Land is a movie that I saw many years ago and it still holds its place on my top movies list. Then, for the Virtual Nomad, JK and I watched Quo Vadis, Aida and boy, does this movie leave you breathless. It is a devastating masterpiece. Almost still and without explicit violence, it is still brutal.  

Quo Vadis, Aida (2020), written and directed by Jasmila Žbanić has been called a movie “so harrowing that you forget to breathe”. It is a movie based on true events ‒ the Srebrenica massacre, through the eyes of one family. After three and a half years of war, the Bosnians from Srebrenica were placed under insufficient UN protection in a ‘safe zone’. The Dutch division of the UN Peacekeepers, the Dutchbat, negotiated with the Serbs that the Bosnians would be transferred into a “safe place”, resulting in a massacre of nearly 8,000 boys and men under the UN watch. The main character works as a translator for the UN and comes to the terrible understanding that something horrendous is going to happen while the world is watching. She desperately runs against the clock trying to protect her husband and two boys. There is very little actual violence in the movie but the suspense is real, and it crawls under the skin. It is a masterful movie and absolutely so harrowing that you do indeed forget to breathe. It’s difficult to watch and difficult to look away. The lead actress, Jasna Đuričić, delivers a performance for the ages ‒ one of the best ever in an absolutely agonizing, heart-wrenching and heartbreaking story. It is a story powerful beyond words, incredibly impactful and truly deserving of its 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. After the movie, we just sat quietly for a long time.  

I try to find another highly regarded movie from Jasmila Žbanić, Men don’t cry (2017), about a group of middle-aged men from the three ethnic groups that used to fight each other. The men attend a therapy retreat in the mountains. But sadly I am unable to locate it and am forced to place it on the watch list. 

Instead, I watch Grbavica (2006), which was the first of Jasmila’s movies that brought her international attention. The movie won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2006. The movie carries the name of one of the most devastated neighbourhoods in Sarajevo where systematic rape was used as a weapon of war.  During the war, an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 women and girls were raped. The vast majority of the rapes were done by Serbs but other men raped ‘enemy’ women as well. The movie looks into the systematic rape as a generational trauma. Esma’s teenage daughter does not know anything about her father except the claim that he was a war hero. There are no official documents of him and Sara confronts her mother about her origins. Slowly the painful trough is revealed as Esma reveals her daughter’s origins. Again, not an easy watch. It is testimony to fact that trauma never leaves us, but where there is hope there is also space for some healing. 

Another movie about the Bosnian war that I have seen before but the age-appropriate others have not, is No Man’s Land. It is really hard to find but I finally manage to buy it from a fellow cinephile in Melbourne for $9,99. I make JK and the age-appropriate teens (L, 17 and NA, nearly 18) watch it. It is as good as I remember it to be. Two soldiers, a Bosniac and a Chetnic (Serb) are stranded in No Man’s Land, between the lines. Hostile and suspicious of the other, they find some common ground, even if they still have reservations. It is another movie that highlights the uselessness of the United Nations in a conflict. It has a brilliant, albeit shocking, end. It won a deserved Oscar for the best Foreign Movie. 

The Whistleblower (2010) is not a Bosnian movie but takes place in Bosnia. It is based on the true story of an American police officer, Kathryn Bolkovac, who is investigating human rights abuses in Sarajevo after the war. What she found was a sex trafficking ring that was being covered up by the UN – well, not just covered up but maintained and supported by some UN officials and employees of the international security company she worked for. She found a network of corruption and slavery, and the UN again failing to protect those it is supposed to protect. 

Kathryn was subsequently fired after taking the case to her superiors. She then gave the story to the press and it led to international exposure, but also lamentable downplaying by the UN of the issues raised. No criminal charges were laid and the same security firm still works with the US government on peacekeeping missions around the world. 

It is a shocking story, based on real events with a small amount of artistic licence. The film itself received mixed reviews and was criticised for the violence it portrays. However, when compared to many other action movies, the violence is shocking because it is ‘real’. One should not turn away from the movie because of it. 

The story is devastating, and still true to this day in many parts of the world. When Kathryn asks who are the clients of the Bosnian mafia that exploit the trafficked girls from Eastern Europe, a Bosnian police officer says to her: “Half of our men are dead, who do you think are their clients?”.  “They are just war whores” says a top UN official to Madeleine Reese, referring to the ‘collateral damage’ women suffer in a war. “They are not prostitutes, they are slaves” says an elderly Bosnian woman who runs a shelter for the girls.  

And in the aftermath, the UN worked hard to downplay the events and brush them under the carpet. No real justice was ever achieved. 

Another movie about the Bosnian war ‒ particularly the Siege of Sarajevo ‒ is a UK-US movie, Welcome to Sarajevo (1997). It is based on the real-life character of Michael Nicholson, a ‘conflict-junkie’ journalist who covered 18 conflicts in his forty year career. In the movie Nicholson is smuggling an orphaned child out of Bosnia for a better future. It has an international cast and therefore, of course, the view point is more of witnessing the war than living it. It portrays skilfully the challenges and risks journalists go through while reporting from conflict zones, and the heartbreaking position of not being to help when help is needed. 

It is also good to include a movie from Herzegovina, so I watch Circus Colombia (2010) by Danis Tanović ‒ the director of No Man’s Land. The story takes place in the early 90s when the war is a few days away. The characters in the film hear things about a looming conflict. On the radio there is news of fighting in other parts of ex-Yugoslavia, but the people do not quite believe it yet. “We have always lived together” someone says, and brushes off the rumours until the cracks in the mirror of reality start to grow bigger. In the story a man who has lived abroad comes back to his home town with his new young girlfriend. The past haunts him while people around him are slowly being introduced to the new reality of post-Yugoslavia.

Even if quite melodramatic, the movie is interesting in that it shows how the country was still struggling with coming into the terms with its past while bracing for an imminent future in which neighbours and childhood friends turn against each other. The viewer knows more about what is coming than the people in the film do. 

The actress who plays the (old) wife in the movie also featured in an American series, Lost, and her actual life story is like a movie itself. Croatian but married to a Serb, Mira Furlan was part of the Croatian National Theatre and was blacklisted as she chose to continue to act in Belgrade, Serbia. Mira and her husband left right before the war and lived in the US where she died in 2021 of West Nile Fever that she got from an infected mosquito.  

Romeo and Juliet

One of the stories I remember well from the Bosnian War is the story of the Sarajevo Romeo and Juliet. Sweethearts since high school, Bosnian Muslim Admira Ismić and Christian Serb Boško Brkić, both in their mid-20s, decided to flee Sarajevo during the siege in order to build a life together. After several days of trying, all parties assured them they would be safe when they departed the city. But when they approached the bridge to cross the river Miljacka, a sniper from one of the sides (it has never been determined who) shot them both. Boško died immediately but Admira lived for another fifteen minutes after being shot, crawled next to her slain partner and embraced him while dying. Their bodies laid together eight days before they were collected at night and later buried together.   

(Photo Balkan Insight )

Next stop: Botswana