Video & On Demand - An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker (Online and DVD)
A Roma family lives far from the urban centres of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The father Nazif salvages metal from old cars and sells it to a scrap-dealer. The mother Senada keeps the house tidy, cooks, bakes and cares for their two small daughters. One day, she feels a sharp pain in her abdomen. At the hospital she is told there is something wrong with the baby she is carrying: "They say it’s dead." She is at risk of septicaemia and they must operate immediately. But Senada has no medical insurance; since the operation will cost much more than the family can afford the hospital’s head refuses to treat her. A race against time together with a mounting sense of hopelessness played by a cast of non-professional actors re-enacting an episode from their own lives.
Silver Bear, Jury Grand Prix, Berlin Film Festival 2013
Silver Bear, Best Actor, Berlin Film Festival 2013
Silver Bear, Best Actor, Berlin Film Festival 2013
London Film Festival 2013
Silver Bear, Best Actor, Berlin Film Festival 2013
London Film Festival 2013
Danis Tanović was born in Zenica , (Bosnia & Herzegovina), in 1969. After qualifying as a civil engineer and a musician, he began studying film-directing at the Sarajevo Academy of Performing Arts. His studies were interrupted, however, by the outbreak of the Bosnian War. He accompanied the Bosnian army with his camera – the material that he and his colleagues produced has been seen in many films and news items about the Bosnian war. In 1994 he moved to Brussels to resume his film studies.
His feature debut, No Man‘s Land (2001), won over 40 awards, including Best Script at Cannes in 2001, and an Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.He made two more films about war and its consequences: Cirkus Columbia (2010) is set in the period just before the conflict reaches his native Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the English-language Triage (2009), starring Colin Farrell, deals with post-war trauma. In 2005, Tanović made the French-language film Hell (L´Enfer, 2005), from a script written by Krzysztof Piesiewicz and Krzysztof Kieślowski.
An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker is his latest film. It won the Jury Grand Prix Silver Bear at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival, where Nazif Mujić was also awarded a Silver Bear as Best Actor.
anis Tanović was born in Zenica , (Bosnia & Herzegovina), in 1969. After qualifying as a civil engineer and a musician, he began studying film-directing at the Sarajevo Academy of Performing Arts. His studies were interrupted, however, by the outbreak of the Bosnian War. He accompanied the Bosnian army with his camera – the material that he and his colleagues produced has been seen in many films and news items about the Bosnian war. In 1994 he moved to Brussels to resume his film studies.
His feature debut, No Man‘s Land (2001), won over 40 awards, including Best Script at Cannes in 2001, and an Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.
He made two more films about war and its consequences: Cirkus Columbia (2010) is set in the period just before the conflict reaches his native Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the English-language Triage (2009), starring Colin Farrell, deals with post-war trauma. In 2005, Tanović made the French-language film Hell (L´Enfer, 2005), from a script written by Krzysztof Piesiewicz and Krzysztof Kieślowski.
An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker is his latest film. It won the Jury Grand Prix Silver Bear at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival, where Nazif Mujić was also awarded a Silver Bear as Best Actor.
- See more at: http://newwavefilms.co.uk/films/98#sthash.0qd91SOF.dpuf| 2013 An Episode In The Life of An Iron Picker (Epizoda u Život u Berača Željeza) |
| 2011 Prtljag (short) |
| 2010 Cirkus Columbia |
| 2009 Triage |
| 2005 L'enfer (Hell) |
| 2002 11 09 01 September 11, Segment Bosnia-Herzegovina |
| 2001 No Man's Land |
| 1999 Buđenje |
| 1996 L’Aube (short) |
| Written and directed by | Danis Tanović |
| Director of Photography | Erol Zubčević |
| Editor | Timur Makarević |
| Sound Designer and Mixer | Samir Fočo |
| Sound Recordist | Tarik Bešlija |
| Unit Manager | Emir Džino |
| Production Coordinator | Malka Alić |
| Assistant Editor | Redžinald Šimek |
| Producers | Amra Bakšić Čamo, Čedomir Kolar |
| Co-producer | Danijel Hočevar |
| Line Producers | Adis Đapo, Adnan Beširović |
| Format: DCP / HD / 16:9 / 5.1 audio mix | |
| Length: 74 min | |
| Original Language: Bosnian | |
| CAST | |
| Senada | Senada Alimanović |
| Nazif | Nazif Mujić |
| Sandra | Sandra Mujić |
| Šemsa | Šemsa Mujić |
★★★★
"Unexpectedly affecting...it is finally very moving"
Peter Bradshaw The Guardian
"Danis Tanovic's heart-rending drama re-creates the plight of an impoverished Roma family"
Geoffrey Macnab The Independent
★★★★★
"This is not just social realism writ large - it's a political parable about a society destroyed where the people pay the price of capitalist 'freedom' "
Jeff Sawtell The Morning Star
★★★★
‘The title of this docudrama… laced with bitter irony: that understated ‘episode’ describes a real-life national scandal’
‘A compelling and compassionate affair. (It also makes you terribly grateful for the NHS.)’
Ali Catterall, TOTAL FILM
★★★★
”Tanovic at his best: sheer, concentrated film-making”
Tom Birchenough, The Arts Desk
★★★★
‘Scorches the conscience’ ★★★★
David Parkinson, EMPIRE (online)
"A raw and stirring piece of social realism that challenges dramatic conventions"
Christo Hall, LITRO
“The latest drama from award-winning Bosnian director Danis Tanović’s …exposing the institutional discrimination faced by Bosnia-Herzegovina's Roma minority…a harrowing personal ordeal that became a national scandal.”
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH FESTIVAL
'Awarded the Grand Jury Prize at Berlin, An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker is a story of courage in the face of hardship and injustice.'
“Tanović fashions an unflinching exposé of the institutional discrimination faced by Bosnia- Herzegovina's Roma minority…his non-professional performers, meanwhile, lend the project a compelling authenticity…the knowledge that they are reliving their own nightmarish memories only bolsters the emotional potency of Tanović's pointed social critique.”
Dimitri Eipides, TIFF 2013
"Drawing from real life events, Tanović docudrama gains its power from the emotionally stirring scenario and all-round naturalistic performances“An unashamedly angry picture, yet one that also celebrates the solidarity and courage of a oppressed minority in the face adversity”
‘This astonishing and disturbing feature-length film, with it implacable dramatic arc, (…) is reminiscent of the best moments of neorealism, without the pathos’.
Marc Semo, Libération
'Winner of two major prizes at this year’s Berlinale, this is no less powerful than Tanović’s acclaimed (if very different) No Man’s Land.' A shocking, admirably unsentimental indictment of how the poor – and, specifically, the Roma – are treated in today’s Europe...shot in a raw, documentary style.'
Geoff Andrew, London Film Festival 2013 Programme
‘Breathtaking like a thriller, heartbraking without any pathos... his film is a jewel’.
Marie-Elisabeth Rouchy, Le Nouvel Observateur
‘A true story filmed like a fit of anger by the Bosnian director Danis Tanovic. An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker is an act of citizenship and the work of a filmmaker’.
Eric Libiot, L’Express“The fifth feature from Academy Award-winning director Danis Tanović. A darkly naturalistic piece of social realism.”
Patrick Gamble, CINE-VUE
'Bosnian Oscar-winner Danis Tanović adapts a notorious news story into a starkly compelling docu-drama... a universal human story at heart with a coldly furious edge of political protest.'
Stephen Dalton, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
'A cry for help from the Bosnian lower class...steadily illustrates a negligent health care system to engrossing ends...an exposé clothed as story.'Eric Kohn, Indiewire
'Rejecting any temptation to over-dramatize...Tanovic paints a desolate but sadly authentic portrait of stagnant poverty that doesn't even consider the option of rising up in protest.'
Dan Fainaru, Screen
‘An affecting tale’Geoff Andrew, Sight and Sound
For photos please go to the press section of our website
Download Poster
Watch the Press Conference during the Berlin Film Festival
Short interview with Danis Tanović from SBS Australia
Read an interview with Danis Tanovic (in French)
Trailer on vimeo - can be downloaded
Trailer on Youtube