Room Without a View

In this poetic short film, filmmaker Rada Šešić depicts what it feels like to leave your home behind and start your life over in a distant land. Šešić was born in Croatia, worked in Sarajevo as a film journalist, and fled to the Netherlands after the start of the Bosnian War.

Room Without a View consists of two parts, creating an impressionistic collage that lays bare what it means to have to pick up the tatters of your life again. The first part, shot in Šešić’s own apartment, depicts the isolation of the new arrival and the tedium of daily life. In the more lyrical second part, Šešić presents idyllic memories of her old life, as well as the voices of those she left behind. She wonders whether those who have fled a war can ever really be happy, however well they try to adapt to their new lives.