Help Us Bring a Bosnian-American Refugee Story to Life

Here's a link to our look book: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QMxT1sIdH3mW2slYc-Id38ZccInv0vzT/view?usp=drive_link

About me:

My name is Dzan Harba, and I am the writer-director of Zarobljeno Srce Moje (My Enslaved Heart). I’m a fourth-year MFA film student at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. I have directed three short films, Deus Ex Gym Machina (2021), In Medium Res: An Ode to Cinema (2022), and The Fifth Column (2023), which have screened at several domestic and international festivals. Prior to attending NYU, I graduated with a degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago and was awarded a Fulbright grant to teach English at at the University of Prizren in Kosovo.

About the project:

Zarobljeno Srce Moje is a deeply personal story, in many ways inscribed into the circumstances of my birth. My parents fled Sarajevo while my mother was pregnant with me, and I was born while they were refugees in Zagreb; shortly afterwards, we arrived in New Jersey, which is where I grew up.

The film will showcase seldom-represented aspects of the Bosnian-American experience—the relationship between the diaspora-refugee community and the society from which they were violently uprooted, and the ways individuals cope with feelings of displacement.

Zarobljeno Srce Moje is inspired by my grandfather, Hajro, who, even decades after we fled Bosnia for the United States, would sit by the window of our small apartment in New Jersey and sing sevdalinke. Just as my grandfather informs the character of the quixotic Avdo, other family members (my mother, father, and grandmother) inform the character of the skeptical Zlatka. Deep down, Zlatka shares Avdo’s nostalgia, but she’s scared by what Bosnia has become. In turn, she sublimates her melancholy into practical concerns and chooses to assimilate into American society as best she can. However, along the journey, her nostalgia is reawakened, while Avdo swings the other way—his faith in finding home becomes increasingly shaken. With this film, I hope to fully explore these profound feelings of displacement and deracination that have marked the lives of so many in the post-war period.

The film also interrogates the notion of ethnic relations through a personal lens, confronting head-on the most perplexing questions I’ve pondered much of my life: how and why can such wars happen? How is it possible that neighbors and family members can turn into such bitter enemies seemingly overnight? The conclusion I draw is an ambiguous one. As Pasternak wrote, “life always spills over the rim of every cup.” It is impossible to completely understand and characterize interethnic relations in the former Yugoslavia—they will always surprise and exceed our grasp, both in their brutality and their compassion.

Our Collaborators:

We have two excellent actors attached as our lead roles, Izudin Bajrovic and Jasna Zalica. Mr. Bajrovic and Ms. Zalica are among the best actors in Bosnia & Herzegovina, and each have starred in dozens of films that have played at international festivals and achieved critical acclaim.

Our director of photography is Samir Ljuma, a fantastic cinematographer from North Macedonia and winner of the 2019 Sundance Award for Best Cinematography in Documentary for his work on the Oscar-nominated Honeyland.

Why we need your support:

As you can imagine, making a student short film in Bosnia & Herzegovina involves balancing artistic vision with limited material resources. Thus far, we have been creative in coming up with solutions to offset our expenses through collaborations with local institutions and individuals. We have the material support of NYU and the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo, but are still short of the funds necessary to make the production happen.

Your contribution would be invaluable in helping us fully realize the dream of this film. All funds would go to covering monetary production and post-production expenses, everything from location and talent fees to film scanning and coloring, to festival submission fees that will help us bring the film to a wider audience. Upon completion, Zarobljeno Srce Moje will be submitted to several prestigious festivals where NYU student films have been accepted in the past, including Sundance, Cannes, Tribeca, Berlinale, Rotterdam, Venice, and Sarajevo Film Festival.

Thank you once more for taking the time to read through our materials and considering making a donation—contributions of any amount are greatly appreciated and will go a long way to realizing our vision.

Please feel free to reach out if you'd like any additional information about the project.

Many thanks,

Dzan Harba

Disclaimer: No raffles, sweepstakes, giveaways, or returns on investment are offered in exchange for any donations made to this GoFundMe.