木瓜的芳香

Moscow International Film Festival 　　1983 Nominated Golden Prize 　　This story is set in Sarajevo in 1941 when the Germans occupied the city, and when Muslims, Christians, and Jews supported each other (for the most part) against the foreign military presence. A Muslim patriarch is hiding a Jewish woman in his house to protect her from the German round-ups. The Christians who live nearby are also hiding weapons and resistance fighters, dissimulating when the Germans come to the door to search their houses. Ibrahim, one of the patriarch's sons, sympathizes with the resistance, but another son, Mustafa, has joined up with the occupying forces because he wants some of the loot that is bound to come his way. It does not take long for the turncoat son to meet the Jewish woman at his home -- and want her for himself. His family is so outraged at his behavior when he tries to force himself on her, that he is almost disinherited. Meanwhile the German forces come back to the patriarch's home to look for the Jewish woman, the father fights back, killing a soldier and then he, in turn, is killed. Mustafa and some German officers show up in the morning, and at the cemetery (Muslim custom is to inter the dead as soon as possible), Mustafa sees that his father has already been buried. This is the shock that creates his first realization of what the Nazi presence means, and all of a sudden, his actions take an unexpected and permanent new direction. This film was awarded "Best Screenplay" at the 1982 Pula Film Festival. 　　Mirza Idrizovic's wonderful take on the early days of WW2 in Sarajevo presented in his masterpiece "Miris Dunja" (The Scent of Quinces) revealed him to be one of Bosnia's most important film directors of the older generation.