Silence of Reason

Synopsis

Forensic video essay built as a performative research into the first international criminal tribunal case to enter convictions for rape as a form of torture and for sexual enslavement as crime against humanity. While working solely with visual archive and testimonies, The Silence of Reason acts as a memory itself: elusive, fluid, it rejects framing, moving in all directions, spatial and temporal. The singular experiences of violence and torture by women from the Foča rape camps during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina become our collective memories, surpassing time and space.

Director Biography

Kumjana Novakova, originally born in Yugoslavia, has worked in the field of film and arts since 2006. In 2006 she co-founded the Pravo Ljudski Film Festival in Sarajevo, and acts as its chief curator and director. She was leading the Film Department of the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Skopje as a Film Curator for 3 years. Currently she is an associated professor at Master of Film of the Netherlands Film Academy, while pursuing her PhD in Contemporary Arts and Media in Belgrade.