ANA OPALIĆ
Home
2010 - 2013
From early 2010 to the end of 2013 I worked as a cinematographer on the project "Unveiling Personal Memories On War And Detention" for Documenta, an NGO from Zagreb. The aim of the project was to collect five hundred video testimonies of people who had direct experience of war. A large number of them are civilian victims of war, former soldiers, political prisoners, parents, spouses, or children of dead and missing. Traveling all over the country, I had the privilege of meeting people who were willing to share with us their moving stories and an opportunity to visit their homes and gain their confidence so they would let me photograph them.
Their homes were what really touched me, like sceneries of safe havens and a sense of belonging. Very often modestly or austerely decorated, they spoke to me of different times and difficult circumstances. Too many people in Croatia today still live with the cruel consequences of war and many simply failed to move on, remaining trapped in the time of their loss.
In wartime, home as a place of safety and belonging frequently becomes a source of suffering because people do not want toleave their land, they cannot accept that they have to leave behind what is theirs, or simply have no other place to go. Those seemingly unimportant and worn out objects become important props of one's destiny.
Ana Opalić