Nenad

The Bosnia and Herzegovina of the past is fading. Residents are leaving and once-modern buildings are now abandoned and overgrown. Nevertheless, Mladen Bundalo still feels drawn to his native country.

Thirteen years after moving to Belgium, the filmmaker travels back to follow the life of Nenad, who is also about to emigrate. Nenad is single, still lives with his mother, and can hardly find work. Bundalo films him shortly before his departure and again a year later, when Nenad is back in Bosnia to sort out his paperwork.

Nenad is first and foremost a deeply personal film. Video footage and photos are accompanied by a commentary in which Bundalo describes with poetic precision how as an immigrant he has always felt displaced. But in filming Nenad and sketching a portrait of a generation, he also reveals a bigger picture. It’s a story about finding your home country and the nagging dilemmas that come with it.