The (in)visibility of violence: Jasmila Žbanić’s post-war cinema

Abstract

The aim of the article is to discuss Jasmila Žbanić’s Esma’s Secret ( Grbavica, 2006), On the Path ( Na Putu, 2010) and For Those Who Can Tell No Tales ( Za one koji ne mogu da govore, 2013) as a trilogy addressing the consequences of Bosnian War. The films are considered in the theoretical framework of women’s cinema as world cinema, exploring their location in relation to globalization. The article hence analyses each film’s aesthetic in light of influential feminist concepts and theories such as Rey Chow’s age of the world target, Adriana Cavarero’s horrorism and caring, E Ann Kaplan’s trauma and Judith Butler’s ethics. In these films the violated body is neither victimized nor considered as a natural being: each character is a biopolitical subject, geo-culturally located, and produced through processes originating from dynamics of power and responsibility, guilt and care.