COUNTRY: Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia YEAR: 2023 RUNNING TIME: 63 min
DIRECTED BY: Kumjana Novakova
LANGUAGE(S): Bosnian, English
SUBTITLES: English, German
PRODUCER: Kumjana Novakova
WRITTEN BY: Kumjana Novakova
EDITED BY: Jelena Maksimović
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Archive
Screenings
Synopsis
Forensic video essay constructed as a performative research into the first international criminal tribunal case to enter convictions for war-time rape as a form of torture and sexual enslavement as a crime against humanity. While working solely with archive and testimonies, SILENCE OF REASON acts as a memory itself: elusive and fluid, it rejects framing, moving in all directions, spatial and temporal. The singular experiences of violence and torture of women in the Foča rape camps during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina become our collective memories, surpassing time and space.
Director
Kumjana Novakova
Biography
Kumjana Novakova is a research-based filmmaker working also as a film curator and lecturer. Born in Yugoslavia, Kumjana’s background is in social sciences. She currently lives between Sarajevo and Skopje. She is the co-founder, chief curator and director of the Pravo Ljudski Film Festival in Sarajevo and led the Film Department of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje from 2018 to 2021. Her work spans cinema and contemporary video art, exploring identity, memory, and the collective self. Her film DISTURBED EARTH was shortlisted for the Academy Awards and was screened on our international competition 2023. She is an associate professor in the Master of Film program at the Netherlands Film Academy and is pursuing a PhD in Contemporary Arts and Media in Belgrade.
Filmography
SK 2014 (2014), When Clouds Burst… (2014), It Could Be a Film (2016), Disturbed Earth (2021, NIHRFF 2023), The Silence of Reason (2023)
Links /Contacts
PRODUCTION: Margaux Chalancon, Medea