A film by Juanita Wilson

Introduction: Slavenka Drakulic

"As If I Am Not There" is a story of a young woman from Sarajevo whose life is shattered the day a young soldier walks into her apartment and tells her to pack her things.

Rounded up with the other women from the village and imprisoned in a warehouse in a remote region of Bosnia, she quickly learns the rules of camp life. The day she is picked out to ‘entertain’ the soldiers, the real nightmare begins. Stripped of everything she ever had and facing the constant threat of death, she struggles against all the hatred she sees around her. In a final act of courage or madness, she decides to make one last stand: to dare to be herself. And this simple act saves her life. It’s when she realises that surviving means more than staying alive, that she has to make a decision that will change her life forever.

"As If I Am Not There" is a modern war story that explores love, identity and the connections between us. Based on Croatian writer Slavenka Drakulic’s book of the same title which covers the war crime hearings at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia at The Hague, Juanita Wilson’s debut feature chronicles a moment in history that must never be forgotten.

"As If I Am Not There" will be shown at the IWM for the very first time in Austria. The introduction will be held by Slavenka Drakulic. Official release date is July, 26, 2011.

Title: As If I Am Not There (Link to the official website)
Country: Ireland, Macedonia, Sweden 2010
Languages: Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian with English subtitles
Producer: James Flynn, Nathalie Lichtenthaeler, Karen Richards
Screenplay: Juanita Wilson, based on the book by Slavenka Drakulic
Runtime: 109 minutes

Slavenka Drakulic is a writer, journalist and former Visiting Fellow of the IWM. She lives in Zagreb, Stockholm and Vienna. Her book Als gäbe es mich nicht was partly written during her stay at the IWM and was published in German by Aufbau Verlag in 1999.

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