If I Were a Bird

Nikolina Bogdanović CREATIVE TEAM Director: Arija Rizvić Text: Nikolina Bogdanović CAST Daria Lorenci Flatz Tarik Filipović Production: FIJI Grupa A theatrical treat with Daria Lorenci Flatz and Tarik Filipović, directed by theatre director Arija Rizvić, tells the story of a young married couple who, together with their daughter, flee besieged Sarajevo in the late 1990s. With just two bags in hand, they arrive in Vienna, where, amid the ruins of war, they must invent and rebuild a life from scratch and find happiness. Their fate is only one of many similar ones from our region, where displacement or (still relevant today) economically motivated emigration has, in one way or another, marked almost every family. This is precisely why this is a play of wide reach, capable of touching a broad and diverse audience who will easily recognise themselves and people from their own lives in the characters and fate of Mirna and Amir. The play speaks of two loves: the love of a couple that changes and erodes under the influence of circumstance and time, and a person's love for their homeland — the place they came from, where they know every "corner and doorway". What makes a place ours, and what, over time, disappears from it, from us and from our lives abroad — and what new things take root and grow? The play's text was written by dramaturge Nikolina Bogdanović. It is based on the personal experiences of Bosnian refugees gathered through interviews, and further expanded and enriched with the personal experiences of the creative team, whose own life stories are closely tied to the play's themes and motifs. The play approaches this serious subject with appropriate weight, but also with the typically Bosnian humour that finds room for laughter even in difficult life situations. "If I Were a Bird" is a play that will make audiences laugh and cry, taking them on an intimate journey through Bosnia and through one personal love story between two people.