Sabina K. (2015)

Sabina K. is inspired by a true story set in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The "Sabina" of the title plans to marry Sasa (with whom she served during the Bosnian War), but there is a problem. Sabina is Muslim and Sasa a Catholic, and their respective families disapprove of the marriage. Their only ally is an older woman, Ankica, whose son - killed in the war - had been their close friend. "Aunt" Ankica thinks of Sabina and Sasa as her own children and invites them to her home on the island of Korcula to get married. Springtime comes and Sabina travels to Korcula where she is reunited with Ankica and where the two women wait for Sasa to join them from Zagreb. The days pass... Sasa never arrives... and with a heavy and troubled heart, Sabina returns to Sarajevo. She discovers that Sasa has taken all his things from her apartment and moved out. There is no note; no explanation. Sabina goes to Sasa's mother for answers, but the deeply embittered woman treats her harshly and calls the police. Mysteriously, inexplicably, the love of Sabina's life is gone and she doesn't know where or why. A few weeks later, Sabina passes out on the job. She goes to the doctor and learns that she is pregnant. Her parents and friends counsel her to have an abortion and put the past behind her, but she refuses. As her pregnancy advances and winter approaches, Sabina loses her job and when her ex-husband tries to shake her down for money by threatening to take the children away permanently, she comes to a breaking point. Love has failed her, and she decides to take her life. The suicide attempt is unsuccessful and Sabina spends several days in the hospital. While there, she is visited by her landlady, who informs her that since her lease will end in another week, she has decided to rent out Sabina's apartment to another family. Feeling abandoned by family and friends, and with no help from social services, Sabina wanders the streets of Sarajevo in the bitter cold of winter. There are no solutions... there is no refuge... and Sabina again makes plans to take her life. She sells the last of her jewelry and surreptitiously buys three times the amount of sleeping pills used in her previous suicide attempt. She checks into a room at a motel and begins swallowing the pills, slipping into unconsciousness. What happens next is subject to opinion... But one thing becomes clear. Sabina will never be the same.