PERSONAL IMAGES : PERSONAL SEMIOTICS OF WAR_ Masa Hilcisin Dervisevic

2013 | Documentaire |10‘ | BOS/CZE | vo Bos st Fr Eng

“Personal Images: Personal Semiotics of War’ deals with my personal experience and memory of the war. It is an experimental video with documentary elements that presents parts of my collection of articles, diaries, letters, and photographs I was collecting during the war in Bosnia, from 1992 to 1995. The diaries cover different periods including the beginning of the war, police interrogations of my father, hiding in the basements, living without electricity and water, falling in love, separations, and wish to escape… The whole video also contains video footage of an intimate talk with my family discussing the dilemma and decision to remain in Bosnia during the war, as well as their emotional experiences of that period. The music used in the video was composed by my sister. I named the video ‘Personal Images: Personal Semiotics of War’ because it deals with the meaning of signs and language I was subconsciously creating as teenager during the war. It also deals with the language as such,broken communication, and letters as the only possible communication during the war, without phones or any other way of communication with the outside world.”