Sabina Vajrača’s winning pitch for the 2021 Claims Conference Grant became her highly acclaimed short film SEVAP/MITZVAH. We caught up with the filmmaker to find out more about what the process of making such a personal film was like.
We are proud to be partnering with the Claims Conference to help spread the word about their 2024 Emerging Filmmaker Contest.
Applications are now open! The Claims Conference is inviting emerging filmmakers worldwide to make short films about the Holocaust and the selected project will receive $60,000 toward their project. The deadline for submissions is June 17th, 2024. Visit their website to find out more.
Hi Sabina, tell us about yourself
Originally from Bosnia, my family and I landed in Florida, USA as war refugees in the 1990s.
After getting a BFA in Theatre Directing from the University of Central Florida, I promptly moved to NYC and spent the next handful of years immersed in the movement/experimental Off-Broadway theatre world. My switch to film came gradually, with me directing and producing a feature documentary BACK TO BOSNIA about my family’s return to our hometown 10 years after the war, followed by numerous short films, commercials, and music videos. I eventually got my MFA in Film and TV Production from USC School of Cinematic Arts and now live in LA.
My team and I are currently in the development/financing phase for two of my features – FOR BURAZ – a Neo-Noir Crime Drama set in the Bosnian-American immigrant community in Florida. And SUMMER ABROAD – a Supernatural Thriller/Horror about two American girls who end up in a haunted hotel in eastern Bosnia. In addition to turning SEVAP/MITZVAH into a feature.
Tell us about your Claims Conference grant winning film
SEVAP/MITZVAH is a period drama inspired by a true story of a Muslim woman who risks everything in order to save her Jewish friends during the Nazi occupation of Bosnia in 1941, only to find herself in another war, 50 years later, needing their help in turn.
Where were you when you found out you’d won? What was your reaction?
I was visiting my parents in Croatia and with the time difference, it was almost midnight when I received the email from Barbara informing me that I won. I was so excited, I woke up my parents and we all jumped around and clapped, celebrating for a few minutes, after which they said “OK, Sabina, that’s enough, we’re going back to bed now” (gotta love Bosnian parents) and I was left on my own, trying to calm down enough to go to sleep. Which proved to be impossible so instead I started planning out the shoot.
I was abuzz with excitement for weeks after.
Where did the initial idea for your film come from?
The very first germ of the idea came to me in response to the 2021 Israel-Palestine Crisis. I was watching yet another news cycle in which we were being told that Jews and Muslims have hated each other for as long as anyone can remember, and that this conflict was inevitable. It was very triggering to me since when we came to the US as war refugees from Bosnia, the same narrative was being propagated about Muslims and Serbs, and yet in my own experience all of us lived peacefully together, and I had many friends and family of all different ethnic and religious backgrounds, so that narrative was completely untrue.
I imagined that the same was probably the case in other parts of the world, and decided to tell a story that aligned with my viewpoint, so we could have something to counter those falsities.
I knew Muslims helped Jews escape the Nazis in Bosnia during WWII, so I set out to find a true story of that (lest I be dismissed as naive), and lo and behold I found one that was even better at proving my point than I could have ever dreamed of.
What were the biggest challenges you encountered during making your film? How do you view them now?
The biggest challenge for me personally was making this film in Bosnia, because I didn’t know anyone in the film industry there before setting out on this adventure.
I’m someone who loves to work with the same people, with whom I share a shorthand. It’s a leftover from my theatre days, when I would work with an ensemble of actors, and with the same creative team on every project. So jumping into my biggest film yet, with none of those people around me, was, frankly, terrifying.
But then I met Kerim Masovic, a young Bosnian producer a friend introduced me to, and once he and I clicked, I knew all would be well. He brought the rest of the team together, and Vanja Nikolic helped me assemble the incredible cast I ended up with, and by the time we were on set, filming this, it was as if I’d known them all my life.
So in retrospect, I learned to trust the Universe will put the right people in my path when I need them, and to bravely step into the unknown, knowing that all will be more than well in the end.
How did you use your winnings?
It was important to me to spend the money in Bosnia, in the city where the actual story took place, and with the Bosnian cast and crew, so the money all went into the Bosnian economy in a way. 🙂
Once the film was ready for festival submissions, the Claims Conference stepped up and helped with covering festival submission fees too, which made it possible for us to submit it to a great number of festivals, increasing its chances of being seen and acknowledged exponentially. I cannot thank them enough!
Tell us three things you learned from the process of making your film
- Even if you were with it from the very beginning, you’re just a conduit through which the story comes to life. Relinquish control as much as you can, and let the story tell itself.
- Whatever money the movie is supposed to cost, it will cost. Pinching pennies on small things will only cause a big thing to happen that will wipe off those pennies and then some. Make smart decisions, but let go of needing to be frugal to the point of stress. My producer Kerim taught me that, and it proved not only to be 100% true, but also to be one of those life lessons I now try to live by even in my daily life.
- Trust that everything will work out in your favour in the end, especially when it seems it’s all falling apart.
What do you love most about your finished film?
I love how moved the audiences are by it, and how it stirs deep conversations.
What is your advice to filmmakers who are behind you in the process of making and distributing their films? What do you wish someone had told you?
The most important advice I can share is to believe in the ability of your film to find its audience, and to not let rejection sway you or make you think there’s anything wrong with your film, or you as a filmmaker.
It’s hard seeing other films get into festivals and win accolades that you want, while all you have to show for your hard work is a pile of rejections. Trust me, I get it. SEVAP/MITZVAH was rejected by most of the festivals we submitted to. Some that seemed like total shoe-ins, too. But in the end, we screened all over the world, won major awards, and, most importantly, found that audiences absolutely love it.
Everything in this industry is subjective. And no one knows anything. So stop looking for validation from the outside, and trust that your voice has a place, even if it’s not the one you originally wanted it to be.
What are you going to do after this and what are your dreams for the future of the film industry?
My biggest wish for our industry is that it finds its way back to the types of films and stories that inspired me to become a filmmaker. I feel that these days it’s all about Marvelization of content, which can be fun to watch, sure, but misses the point of storytelling, which is to help us navigate the craziness that is life.
Stories are how we learn about the world. From our ancestors sharing tales around the fire, to us making films that share our views and intimate experiences of the world, we as a society have relied on storytelling to help us grow and evolve. I fear that with the studios salivating at the idea of AI taking over, we’ll soon be left with shallow copies of copies instead of true, life-lived storytelling.
My dream is that those who have the power (read: money) to greenlight movies start to choose humanity over profit again so that we as an industry can have a future at all.
Find out more about Sabina and her work on her website, Instagram, or Facebook.
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