BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

shannonclare This film was extremely difficult to watch, but to be any less than horrific would be an injustice to the victims and survivors of concentration camps during the Bosnian War. As If I Am Not There succeeds in depicting a representative camp experience for a young woman during the time of the war. The film explores the intricate complexities of relationships between abusers and victims, as well as between internees themselves. Samira, the main character, after being repeatedly raped by soldiers, is forced into a subordinate relationship with the captain of the camp in order to reap certain benefits to stay alive. Although Samira's choices are morally questionable, the film does well to address the fact that victims were willing to do nearly anything in order to survive. The film depicts the captain as a "non-monster," but his seemingly gentle nature is abusive nonetheless and he is no less of a rapist than the soldiers that brutally gang raped Samira throughout her time in the camp. For a brief moment towards the end of the film, the audience feels triumphant as the women escape the camp and appear atop a mountain. Although a fleeting moment before the audience is brought back to reality, it is extremely important in the depiction of female survivors of the war. After having spoken with survivors, they all emphasized a desire to be depicted as strong female survivors. Then, the audience is taken back to the reality that victims faced after their internment. The war did not end in 1995 for any survivors, but actually follows them everyday of their lives. In the film, the ongoing traumas of war are represented physically by Samira's baby, the product of rape, that will be a lifelong reminder of the torture she suffered. The audience is brought into Samira's mindset as she contemplates killing, leaving, or keeping the baby. The last scene shows Samira making the decision to keep the child as she breastfeeds it, and finally allows herself to cry and feel the emotions that she was forced to suppress during her time in the camp. The scene is made so powerful by Samira's lack of emotion throughout the rest of the film. She is continually dehumanized by her rapists, literally feeling as if she's nothing in the scene where she is looking on her own experience of rape and abuse from above. The poignant absence of dialogue throughout the film, except for a few conversations, strips Samira of her individuality and ability to be herself. She partially reclaims this through her relationship with the captain, but once again, this is a forced and false sense of self. Samira is truly able to be her own person at the end of the film, but she is forever changed by her experiences as a survivor of the camp.

Amelia Earhart "As If I'm Not There" realistically portrays the female-in-combat/camp narrative and the themes that come with it, including enduring the camp experience past its physical confines and a realistic victim who makes questionable choices. Juanita Wilson makes a smart choice to not end the movie when the camp is liberated, instead tracing just the beginning of Samira's hard journey of enduring and "recovering". The journey from camp to liberation in some ways replicates the camp life as it still makes people feel powerless and somewhat like animals. When Samira and the other women have to cross the river and hill to transfer to another set of busses, there is the real possibility that the women could've been shot and killed since they were still at the power of the army men with the guns. When Samira learns that she is pregnant and cannot abort the baby, the infant becomes a physical reminder of the sexual violence she experienced, and we see her struggle to decide whether or not she wants to deal with the pain of the memories of the camp or the pain of the camp plus giving up a baby. Not only that, but the idea of a "perfect victim" is squashed as we realize there may not be just good or just bad people in the world. Samira starts out as the innocent school teacher who moves from the big city to a small village who is then captured by the Serbian army and taken to a rape camp, but we see her egoism when she takes back her sexuality to attract the Captain, one of her captors. The captain himself is portrayed as not necessarily all bad, as he's still a man with a family, even if he may also be a monster. Overall, the main pull of this movie is that the audience gets to experience the realness of how a camp can function as a form of social engineering. While there is little dialogue, we feel every emotion Samira feels through her body language and facial expressions as she is thrown into the worst of situations and must endure, not necessarily overcome. Especially for people who know little about the Balkans in the 1990s or about camps in general, this is a great introduction to the harsh realities people faced and continue to face today. Especially since the lives of women during and post-war are rarely mentioned, this is a powerful piece that deserves more recognition for what it successfully portrays.

Sophia SkÃÂ¥ne As someone else here already said, this is not entertainment cinema. In my opinion it's not even a film in the usual way. Samira a young, well protected and maybe a little naive teacher from Sarajevo leaves her loving family to work in rural village. Shortly after she arrived, war starts and soldiers take her and all the other women captive. As in many wars, the younger women are picked out, locked up separately and are raped, tortured and humiliated. Men are killed, children die, Samira is in constant shock and unable to react.The director is able to give you the feeling of being part of the movie, of nearly being part of the group of women with their fears. There is not much music and also spoken dialog is rare. This movie lives completely from the realistic atmosphere, so much that I had times I was totally frozen and could't breathe. Some scenes are nearly unbearable and I started crying without even noticing it.Yes, we have all heard that it is common in war situations that women are raped from enemy soldiers but this movie showed me that I never gave a real thought about what that actually means. This movie transports the feeling to you one-to-one and it's really hard to stomach. Natasha Petrovic transports her emotions directly to you, without words, mostly with her eyes and her face is really haunting you. If you dare to open yourself emotionally to her character you can feel the fear yourself. Also the end, when Samira comes to Sweden as a refugee, pregnant from rape, all her family dead, completely alone into a country which language she can't speak made me think a lot about how many women must have felt and feel in such situations. I how and if i would cope.This movie is important, because it shows how quickly things can change in war situations, how happy those of us must be who live in peaceful countries and how extremely important it is to keep the peace by all possible means. Absolute recommendation - if you dare!

davideo-2 STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday MorningSamira (Natasa Petrovic) is a young teacher from Sarajevo who takes a teaching job in a small village as the Bosnian war hots up. One day, as she is taking her class, she finds everyone being rounded up by Serbian soldiers and, while she protests she is merely there to work, she nevertheless finds herself rounded up with the women. From this point on, she finds her dignity and human rights ripped to shreds, as she is subjected to the most degrading treatment imaginable as a sex object, but, to save herself and the other women, she finds the inner strength and resilience inside to rise up and be counted as a person.It's a sad fact that sometimes the most affecting, heart wrenching stories involve being told the most unpleasant, disturbing ones, in order to feel their full impact. This is certainly the case with As If I Am Not There, which delves into the terrain of the Bosnian war in the early 90s. It's perversely fitting that it was not a widely seen film, because it holds little in the way of actual entertainment value...in fact, it's probably the furthest thing from entertaining you can imagine. In fact, sometimes you just feel like a sick person for watching it. But, as unflinching and terrible as some of the treatment is to watch, you have to see it in order to appreciate just what sort of hell went on.But the strong acting and writing make it into a worth seeing film, even if it is one of the more disturbing ones you'll watch. ****