Film

Gusul (Washing) captures the final moment of intimacy between two Bosnian Muslim women in Sweden.

It focuses on the mundane, intimate and unspectacular lives of Muslim refugees. It refuses to engage with controversial but vapid issues typical to debates about Muslims, instead trying to capture the everydayness of life.

Emina Begović (played by Aida Gordon) lives alone with her sick mother in a small Swedish community. She is well integrated, but the past is heavy on her shoulders. Her mother’s silence constantly reminds her of the war and her dead father. Then, suddenly her mother starts speaking again, and she has a wish. She desires some traditional Bosnian plum pie. While Emina makes the pie and talks about a Swedish boy she works with, the mother dies. Emina decides to give her mother ritual washing, as the last gift.

Listen to the music from the film, “Što Te Nema” (Why are you not here) written by Aleksa Šantić and performed by Mavi Kan.

Read Mahmutović’s account of the filming experience, and the fact that his own grandmother Sena plays the dying mother character. Visit Under the Midnight Sun blog.