Kineski zid

A summer’s day in contemporary Bosnia, twenty years after the last war. A land that conveys the cosy illusion of being at peace enjoying seemingly eternal harmony is basically a country that is also standing still. Eight-year-old Maja is visiting her grandparents in the country. Her three young aunts also live here. She is especially close to her aunt Ljilja, who is something of a confidante and certainly a role model. Ljilja is an artist and the family rebel who refuses to accept the narrow-mindedness and lack of vision that pervades her country. Immediately we sense that she will stir up the familiar family set-up. Everyone is sitting around a large table in the garden, cooking and eating together, the children are paddling in the pool and Maja is larking about with her favourite aunt. She alone notices the tiny signs and knows how to read them. And so she becomes the sole witness of Ljilja’s secret departure for Germany. Faced with the choice of either betraying Ljilja’s plan or letting her go, Maja takes a decisive step in her own life. A story of love and of saying farewell. (Berlinale)