THE LIFE OF FLOWERS (2016, 83 mins.)
Maja, a Sarajevo native, spends her days bouncing all over the city - going to English classes, hanging out with her friends, and trying to stop the deportation of her former teacher, an American exchange student named Austin.
Official Selection, Sarajevo Film Festival, Prague International Film Festival - Febiofest
Written and Directed by Jimmy Bontatibus
Produced by Jimmy Bontatibus and Moamer Kasumovic
Starring Mersiha Husagic, Drew Gregory, Aida Bukva, Katija Bratkovic, Ilir Tafa
Cinematography by Alexander Lenzi
Edited by Christopher Day
The “will they or won’t they” tension threaded throughout is a narrative guise for subtextual ruminations on a youthful strain of self-paralysis spurred by uncertainty. Husagic’s magnetic performance effortlessly combines the seemingly counter-intuitive personality traits of laid back friendliness and brooding angst in Maja, and she binds the film together with sincerity and a consistently gripping performance. Developed while Bontatibus studied under Béla Tarr in the distinctive Film Factory program of the Sarajevo Film Academy, the film was shot on location in Sarajevo in twelve days. Director of photography Alexander Lenzi’s intimate lensing elicits a distinctive sense of longing from each close up of Husagic, and editor Christopher Day weaves the nonlinear narrative together with emotional coherence. - Senses of Cinema