Bojan Bodružić
MONUMENT
A music professor returns to Istria to bury his grandfather, sparking a reunion with wartime friends and a confrontation with buried traumas, love lost, and family ties to WWII.
SYNOPSIS
David, a music professor from Vancouver who fled war-torn Sarajevo as a teenager in the 1990s, returns to a coastal town in Istria to bury his grandfather. At the funeral, David unexpectedly reunites with old friends from Sarajevo—Grego, Sabina, and his childhood love, Larisa, who now lives in Germany with her husband and son. Among the attendees is her husband Thomas, who turns out to be connected to David in a surprising way, through the roles their families played during World War II. This gathering sets off a series of unexpected events that reveal deep, unhealed traumas they have all carried since their war-torn childhood.
DIRECTOR
Bojan Bodružić
PRODUCER
Adis Đapo, Bojan Bodružić, Igor Drljača, Amra Bakšić-Čamo
PRODUCTION COMPANY
SCCA\pro.ba
COUNTRY
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada
CO-PRODUCTION COMPANY
Japanese Polka Dancing Films
GENRE
Fiction
Bojan Bodružić
BOJAN BODRUŽIĆ was born in 1980 in Sarajevo and now lives in Vancouver. He holds a dual MFA in Creative Writing and Film Production from the University of British Columbia. For several years, he taught directing and screenwriting, first at the University of British Columbia and Langara College, and later at Simon Fraser University. His films have been screened at numerous international film festivals, as well as at New York’s MoMA. His documentary The Museum of Forgotten Triumphs won the award for Best Canadian Documentary at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 2018, as well as Best Documentary at the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival (BHFF) in New York in 2019.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
I was twelve when the war in Bosnia began—old enough to remember the world before it, yet too young to anchor my identity in it. I’ve often wondered which age group war affects most deeply. For me, it’s the teenagers: too old to forget, too young to process. Especially those who fled and rebuilt lives elsewhere, often left feeling suspended between two worlds. This idea shapes Monuments, a film centered on David and Larisa—friends who survived Sarajevo’s siege and reunite decades later. Now in their forties, they carry unresolved traumas, strained ties, and the weight of a disrupted adolescence. David, a Bosnian-Canadian composer of avant-garde music, returns to bury his grandfather, triggering a confrontation with his past, identity, and lost connections. The film explores the legacy of a lost generation—those whose youth was consumed by war, and whose adulthood is shaped by the search for meaning, healing, and home
Adis Đapo
ADIS ĐAPO is a film producer and consultant with 20+ years of experience in creative film production, development, financing, and independent film business. Since 2000 Adis has been a part of Sarajevo Center for Contemporay Arts / pro.ba, a visual arts and film production company that focuses on projects with a strong artistic approach and international commercial viability. Some of his producing credits include AN EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF AN IRON PICKER and DEATH IN SARAJEVO directed by Danis Tanović, both winners of Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival as well as FULL MOON directed by Nermin Hamzagić nominated for European Discovery at the European Film Awards, and most recently EXCURSION directed by Una Gunjak which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival 2023 and is the Bosnia and Herzegovina candidate for the Oscars 2023. Adis is a member of the European Film Academy, ACE Producers as well as EAVE Producers Network and is a Berlinale Talent Campus Alumni.
Production company profile
SCCA/pro.ba is a production company with 25 years of experience developing original film projects by Bosnian directors. Our work includes European and international co-productions, regional partnerships, and low-budget films funded by limited domestic support, earning awards and notable successes. Recently, SCCA/pro.ba expanded to producing drama series for domestic and international audiences.
Where are we at?
TOTAL ESTIMATED BUDGET
300.000 €
NEEDED FOR COMPLETION
50.000 €
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