The Lost City (2008)

Directed by: Britta Hosman | 55 minutes | documentary

Why would you want to continue living in a village where there is nothing? With this question, documentary maker Britta Hosman set out for Bosnia to the town of Bosanska Grahavo. The voice-over immediately starts telling you where that place is; far behind the hills, past the last mountain, behind the fog, at the end of the road. In short; if there’s nothing left at all and if you think you’ve reached the end of the world, then you’re in Grahavo.

Grahavo has a supermarket and ten pubs. Daily life takes place in these bars. Everyone sits there, having a drink and talking. Nothing more happens. Yet people continue to live there, and do not go looking for more excitement. It’s fine as it is, even if they all have something to complain about and are basically bored to death all day. It’s their home and that’s the only place they want to be.

Britta Hosman thought this was an interesting fact and went out with her camera to portray the people of this village and give viewers an idea of ​​life in this lost city. We get a picture of two young men, who also experienced the war and are now back in their old place in their familiar village. They have been through a lot in their lives and now lead a quiet life. They both have their own pub and that’s where they spend their time.

We also follow Petra, an old woman who lives lonely in a hut, her husband died in the war and her house was destroyed. She still hasn’t got a new home, but she doesn’t seem to be really looking forward to it either. She sleeps and eats and waits for night to fall again and so her life creeps by. The voiceover makes this drama even worse than it is. The too dramatic way of telling sometimes makes it rather comical. Perhaps that was done consciously, but it is in any case disturbing if you try to empathize with the people in the village and are then pointed out by a depressed voice how bad it all is, while you you can see with your own eyes from the images. The viewer does not get a chance to form their own opinion about it.

‘The Lost City’ is a special film that shows how people live in this sad town. The question why these people still want to live here has not yet been answered after seeing this documentary, this question has only become stronger. Why call something your home if you’re not happy there? That this question persists is perhaps the strong point of this film. In any case, you keep thinking about it and that must have been Hosman’s intention.