Synopsis
In October 2013, the Yugoslav monument Woman Fighter in Sarajevo was forced to the ground and her right arm sawn off. The few who heard about it shook their heads and shrugged - just another case of vandals picking apart forgotten places for the fast cash of scrap metal. But then, three years later, the missing arm unexpectedly shows up on the steps of the Historic Museum. This documentary film brings viewers along for one woman’s personal search to discover what about that arm is worth more than its weight in bronze. Entering Sarajevo from Vraca Memorial Park, viewers will walk hand-in-hand through history along with the thousands of souls who entered, and departed, the city through that ‘little door’ on the hill. As they learn why the statue was built there, how it was vandalized, and how the limb reappeared years later, they’ll gain a unique perspective on over a hundred years of regional history and be forced to assess the value of that symbol in modern times. By following the director herself on a search for meaning, they will uncover that the truth has often become the most elusive of the narratives preserved as the statue became a visible victim of each era’s changing ideologies. Through performative reenactment on a theater stage, the woman fighter will come out of her frozen silence to embody each diverse interpretation of her symbolism and allow viewers to analyze the arm amputation anew. As the pieces come together in this feature length film, viewers will find themselves falling together with the director down a rabbit hole of uncanny coincidence, absurd-but-true connections, and strangely confluent moments from the past and present. Touching on women’s roles, symbolism in art, and the modern merit of the anti-fascist values the statue was forged to represent, viewers could experience the pain in that phantom limb first hand, discovering that our own mirrored reflection in that gaping hole may serve as the therapy that a whole nation needs.
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