Warchild

Christian Wagner,

Germany/Slovenia, 2007, 103 min

In Serbian and German with English subtitles

Script: Edin Hadzimahovic

Cast: Labina Mitevska, Senad Basic, Joelle Ludwig, Crescentia Duenßer, Otto Kukla

Winner, Special Award, Bavarian Film Festival; Best Screenplay, Montreal Film Festival

Sunday, 9 November 2008, at 7:00 p.m

Innis Town Hall

Sarajevo 2005, the war has been over for years, but it still holds thirty-year-old Senada hostage. Her daughter, Aida, has been listed as missing for nine years, but Senada has not yet forsaken the hope that she is alive. When she finds evidence that the Red Cross flew children out to Germany during the war, she follows the trail immediately. She finds out that Aida had actually been brought to Germany and was given up for adoption, under the assumption that her parents were dead.

The life of the German family, Heinle, and their eleven- year-old daughter, Kristina, is suddenly shaken by its roots when they learn that the mother they thought was dead is alive and wants her daughter back. Senada is reunited with her daughter, who is happy, firmly rooted in her new life, and no longer even able to speak the native language of her natural mother. Senada is confronted with a difficult decision: should she insist on the return of her daughter, or return alone to Bosnia in the knowledge that her daughter is alive and doing well?

Watch trailer: http://www.wagnerfilm.de/en/projekte/warchild/trailer.htm (trailer in German and Serbian)

Christian Wagner

Born in Immenstadt, Germany in 1959, Christian Wagner has studied German literature, Theater and Psychology in Munich. He made his first short when in high school followed by BORN TO BE FREE IN CAPTIVITY (1984) which received a number of prizes. His breakthrough came with his first feature film WALLERS LAST TRIP (1988) wining the German Federal Film Prize and the Bavarian Film Prize. His second major feature film TRANSATLANTIS (1994) was the official German entry for the International Film Festival in Berlin. Other films include: ZUG (1990), ZITA - BALKAN BLUES TRILOGY I (1998), ZEHN WAHNSINNIGE TAGE - COURAGE (2000) and GHETTOKIDS (2002).